Never Again

Chapter 23: Food

They were sitting at a small table in the corner of the restaurant. The other tables were packed and it was clear that the place was very popular by the locals. The smell of cheese was making her mouth water and she could see the impatient look in Seb's eyes. He clearly was also very hungry and was staring hopefully at all the plates that were coming out of the kitchen.

'So, what exactly are we going to eat?' she asked him. He had ordered for her because he wanted her to experience the traditional Raclette, whatever that was supposed to be.

'Just wait. It's cheese, what can go wrong?' he grinned and took a sip of his wine.

'You're right, but why was I only allowed to order white wine? I'm thirsty.'

'Well, the tradition is to drink white wine when you eat raclette. The story is that when you eat cheese and you drink water, the cheese will harden inside your stomach and therefore cause you a lot of pain.'

She raised an eyebrow and looked at her wine. 'That sounds like bullshit,' she admitted.

'I don't know. It's just how the Swiss see it and you know, they're very traditional,' he gave her a serious look.

'I've noticed,' she grinned. The restaurant was also decorated in the traditional Swiss style and the staff were wearing clothes that would have been in fashion a decade ago.

'But this place is already very modern,' he gestured towards the grill that was standing on the table.

'In what way?' she sounded surprised. She couldn't think of anything that would classify as modern in this room.

He tried not to laugh and his eyes glimmered in delight. 'I can see you confusion, but believe me. Here we can melt our own cheese using this grill, instead of shoving a wheel of cheese inside the fire and scraping off the melted cheese.'

'Groundbreaking stuff.'

'Well, progress needs to start somewhere,' he admitted and he gave her a lopsided grin.

'I agree, you can't rush things. For example, it was only in 1991 that all the Swiss women were allowed to vote,' she rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together. It was incredulous to think she had already been born before this country entered the 20th century, when the others were approaching the 21st.

'You're joking, right?' he sounded unconvinced.

'Nope, not at all. Look up Apperzell Innerrhoden and you'll find that a bunch of white privileged men were being idiots,' she said.

'Aren't we still?' he grinned and the corners of his eyes crinkled.

'Oh look, food!' she exclaimed when she spotted the waiter coming over to their table.

Their table was being loaded with cheese, boiled potatoes, pickled onions, Gherkins and dried meat. It smelled heavenly and they couldn't wait to tuck in. Seb showed Keira how to use the grill and how to smother the potatoes in cheese. When the cheese was browned they could finally start eating and a silence fell over their table as they were both too busy stuffing their faces. The walk had left them hungry and the food was too good to slow down.

'It's really good,' she said when she had finished her first portion.

He swallowed his last piece of potato and put his fork down. 'I told you so, I would never take you somewhere were the food isn't excellent,' he said happily.

'I could eat this every day.'

'You'll get fat in a week,' he chuckled and he pushed out his stomach to show how that would look like.