Seeking delicious takeaway or delivery food options during the lockdown in Zurich and ideas on how to spend valuable time at home?

Find inspiration & creativity in this blog post for food, sports or love! We will be affected by this situation for several months, it is important to be well prepared!

Now that all restaurants in Zurich are closed due to the coronavirus, it is essential to support Zurich Gastronomy and order delicious meals for home. From street food to gourmet restaurants, there is a variety of options for vegan, vegetarian and meat lovers.

Discover here my lockdown food suggestions, most of them available through uber eats

• Try the website lockdown-gourmet with plenty of international food such as Asian, Italian, Local Swiss or Mexican for example. Some of the food is delivered by UberEats, some directly through the restaurant.
• My top Asian so far for Sushi: Hato Restaurant, get your order directly on UberEats or Smood.ch and for traditional Japanese dishes absolutely try Gaijin Izakaya. For super healthy fresh bowls or more sushi try: Barfuesser! Find more on the restaurant in my food guide, here!
• A light and healthy poke bowl? Kaisin was my choice for a light dinner! Get them on uber eats, too!
• Greek Food lovers, go for Oh My Greek,
• In the mood for some sweets for your romantic dinner or brunch family? Sweet pastry creations from Dolder Hotel, Star Patissier Christian Hümbs wait for you. They deliver for free if you live in Zurich Kreis 7! Otherwise, you can go for a pick up at the hotel.
• Pizza lovers know: Ristorante Luigia is one of the best addresses for Neapolitan Pizza, so don’t miss that one, too.
• Pizza al Taglio if you are around the Old City in Niederdorf! Ritù Pizza makes the best Pizza slices in town! Natural ingredients and seasonal toppings such as artichokes, salame calabrese bit spicy and much more!

Fresh Bread and chocolate croissants!

A bike ride in the fresh air will be good for your brain cells! Visit John Baker at Helvetia Platz or Stadelhofen for your fresh bread or croissant early in the morning. There are allowed only 2 people at a time in the shop, so no worries about nervous customers standing around you. Read my detailed blog post on their tasty chocolate croissant, here!

Specialty Coffee for takeaway or a Gelato to go!

• My favourite coffee shop Grande close to Central offers Coffee & Negroni’s to take away! Open Monday – Friday!
• Just Coffee is my new entry! Coffee is good, their Vegan Donuts are awesome! Try it out! Open Monday – Sunday!
• Don’t forget to stop by Gelateria di Berna for your ice cream! Be aware of the long line, so go early!

In the mood of a Negroni during lockdown made by your local Barkeeper?

The company Mikks supports Zurich bars and makes it possible to continue enjoying cocktails during the lockdown. Visit the site cheerstosupport and find the drink of your choice from your dearest Cocktail Bar in Zurich!

Among the bars that deliver from now on are, for example, the “Bar Sacchi“, which offers various Negronis, and the “Acid Bar“, which among other things mixes a Ginger Lemon Kick. The “Barista Corado” offers espresso martini and the “Kasheme” bar offers light my fire and purple haze. We love this initiative very much!

Cooking at home during quarantine or mixing your own cocktail

I’ve always been a fan of easy recipes, especially now when I don’t go out shopping every day I try to plan my shopping list as accurate as possible and go for recipes that are easy to prepare. There are plenty of recipes such as risotto or oven recipes, where few ingredients are needed. I try to vary with veggies and fruits! Bake your own bread, pancakes or nutrition bars with nuts and honey.

And if you like to mix your own very simple drink at home, absolutely recommend checking the online shop of agoimports for some artisan fruity soda drinks in from the brand Three Cents. They come in different flavours and taste supernatural! They are created with natural spring water from Rododafni (Greece). You can find also a selection of spirits such as Gin, Vermouth or Tequila. My choice is the 100% handmade pink grapefruit soda mixed with some vermouth!

Online shopping is still possible so if you love fresh juices I absolutely recommend a cold press where you can create fast and easy vitamin bombs to start your day! The drink I love most is carrots, ginger & apples!

Follow Laz uns Kochen for Mediterranean inspiration in your kitchen, anaundnina for fresh and creative recipes or my friend Alma for some yummy baking ideas!

How to emotionally survive quarantine if you are single or a family!

These apps are much more fun and allow you to interact with the people you know or B with random people around the globe!

• Houseparty
  As the name suggests, it offers a way to hang out and party with friends while couped up at home.
• Words With Friends 2
  Essentially a Scrabble clone built for phones, it comes with an interface designed for interacting online.
• comehome
  Meet new friends, participating in house events organized in your city. It’s focused on Italy, Spain & UK – Check it out 🙂
• Smule App to get your karaoke career started!

Zero cost travelling for mind and soul to Europe, Africa or Asia?

We all know, that one day we will travel again, get some virtual travel suggestions for Europe, Africa or Asia on my travel blog section!

In the mood for some virtual Museum visits around the globe?

Are you bored of Netflix and the endless browsing on the internet? Here comes your virtual museum visit without leaving your couch!

• British Museum, London
  This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies.
• Guggenheim Museum, New York
  Get ready with Google’s Street View for a tour through the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase. Discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras!
• Musée d’Orsay, Paris
  Walk virtually through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  Are you a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter then see his works up close by virtually visiting this museum – the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh?
• Uffizi Gallery, Florence
  This less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence, Italy’s most famous families, the de Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de Medici.

To see more of Google Arts & Culture’s collection of museums, visit the collection’s website. There are thousands of museum Street Views on Google as well. Google Arts & Culture also has an online experience for exploring famous historic and cultural heritage sites.

Single and in the mood to flirt online –  Spread  Love not Corona!

In Zurich, a group of single boys & girls launched a flirting platform called: be-my-quarantine. The website is in German but once you’re logged in you can chat in any language! Get more directly on their site!

Why not have a coffee talk with Swiss celebrities or random people living in Switzerland?

The platform that makes this possible is called “binenand“. The platform connects generations in Switzerland, makes projects visible and networks actors and interested parties. Get a better picture on Instagram. The website seems to be in maintenance right now.

Ever tried Breakletics ? Looking for some fun and creative online sports instructors?

I personally was attending some classes in the studio Balboa in Zurich before lockdown, this is where I discovered the workout “Breakletics” and Leo. Check his classes to sweat and have fun! On Instagram, he goes live daily!

Yoga & fitness go perfectly along together!
My preferred online yoga studio is called: Alo Yoga Give it a try and let me know how you like it! There is a wide mix of instructors you can choose of. They are running a 14 day free trial right now!

In the best case, we can even integrate some of these new habits into our routine and make them last also after this covid-19 pandemic.

Stay safe and healthy!

Marina

My personal highlight: observing my friend getting attacked by the feeling of pure delight while swallowing a piece of tender meat

As a foodie apparently my job is to search new places for a great food experience. This time we stopped by at Fork & Bottle. Andreas, a friend of mine, had the pleasure to join me. He finally understands why a foodie never touches the food before taking at least 5 pictures. All the dishes were looking amazing. The labels of all the craft beer bottles were exciting to shoot.

Our dishes obviously did not only look good, the taste of every bite was an unforgettable food experience. Every course came paired with a delicious craft beer. At F&B you find over 80 different craft beers sourced by the owner, Mike Goguen, some of them are local, too. What made me very happy was the attention we got from Rena (events and marketing manager) and the staff.

Being a food blogger is contagious, too. My friend Andreas started to describe his food experience after every single bite! This flatters me and gives me the chance to exchange my impressions, too. Thank you, Andreas!

Let’s get a bit into the courses served

The Starter

I recommend to share the starters, if you choose a menu with more courses.
The first starter is a Warm Winter Root Vegetable Salad. It comes with fresh salad greens topped with grilled Halloumi cheese, roasted root vegetables, mango & chilli salsa and a Balsamic Dressing. Fingerlick’n good and really fresh.

The craft beer paired with this course was Gamma Ray by Beavertown from London. A killer American Pale Ale rammed with juicy malts and huge tropical aromas.  The can is cool and exciting to boot! A great picture for your instagram account!

After the first starter the show went on with some Asian Wings battered in a medley of Asian flours and spices and deep fried in duck fat. Drizzled with sweet chili reduction and topped with sesame seeds and mango and chili salsa. The duck fat gives that amazing tasty flavor.

The craft beer paired was the local beer “Corporate Monkey Lager” by Bier Factory, Jona. It’s a lightly hopped lager beer.

The Mains

This a 10 hour House Smoked BBQ Pork Ribs accompanied by hand cut fries and a cute pot of smoked beans. The fries were outstanding. They get fried 3 times and are really fingerlick’n, too. The best fries found in Zurich so far. The pork ribs are so juicy that they melt on your tongue.

This main course was paired with Gin Inspired Gose, made in collaboration with Pohjala from Estonia and To 0L from Denmark. The taste is mildly sour has a gose with pink Himalayan rock salt, coriander, juniper berries, spruce tips, rosemary, ginger, and rose petals. It’s an explosion of flavors. It was bit too much of flavors for me but a good choice for a summer beer I think.

The F&B Classic Burger was waiting on the second plate for us. It’s a 200 gram Swiss Premium Beef with cheddar, house corn relish, tomato, gherkin and lettuce.

This course was paired with a Tipopils by Birrificio Italiano from Northern Italy. It’s my absolute favorite beer here. The taste is fresh. It’s a crisp hoppy pilsner with a hint of sweetness.

The dessert

As you can imagine our bellies felt quite satisfied after, but it’s a duty of a foodie to go through the dessert menu. Rena suggested a traditional desert of the house: the Chocolate Brownie Sundae. It’s a crumbled brownie with homemade Daim ice cream, chocolate ganache and a marshmallow fluff. The pistachio in the chocolate brownie was an exotic and excellent combination.

Rena and her staff spoiled us with super delicious food and drinks. The atmosphere at F&B is very cozy and invites you to stay for a few hours and forget home.

I like their farm to table concept that will be expanded in future to more local products. F&B works with local farmers. I like the idea of supporting local suppliers. And we will definitively hear more about this farm to table concept in Switzerland, too.