Secrets Of Swiss German language, restaurant words, raclette, and cooking spaezli

Can you recognize the words for bread and butter and breakfast in German?

Learning German

I have been learning German on Duolingo. I can recognize bread, butter and breakfast. But now I am planning to go to German speaking Switzerland.

Swiss German

What's different about Swiss German? In some ways, from an English speaker's point of view, Swiss German is German made easy. Let's start with the easy bits. 

Firstly, Swiss German is easier for English speakers to read because it uses the double s instead of the vertical squiggly s which most English speakers don't have on their laptop keyboard.

Swiss German speakers are likely to understand standard German, so learning German will help you to be understood when speaking, as well as helping you to read signs and menus. In fact there's a hybrid language, Swiss standard German, which is used for writing and formal situations, which is closer to standard German spoken in Germany. 

Swiss German is also spoken in Liechtenstein, which is sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria.

French in German Speaking Switzerland

You will probably recognize 

fondue (literally melted, usually melted cheese in a large pot for dipping meat and/or vegetables)

and chocolate for dipping fruit

raclette - melted cheese (often raclette cheese) served on boiled potatoes, or on bread as a snack, with black tea or white wine

They use the French word merci for thank you. 

The word for little is li added on the end of a word, notably for bun (little bread), kitten (little cat), hundli for puppy (little dog), like the English doggy and dolly.

Swiss-German - English

Brot - bread / loaf  

Brötli -  little bread (bun?) or roll

Hend Si  ... ? - Do you have ...?

merci - thank you

merci vilmal - thank you very much (literally thanks many times)

rösti - (Same as standard German) grated, fried potato, like American hash bowns

Hash browns, also spelled hashed browns and hashbrowns, are a popular American breakfast food consisting of finely julienned potatoes that have been fried until golden brown. Hash browns are a staple breakfast item at diners in North America, where they are often fried on a large, common cooktop or grill. Wikipedia. Julienned means cutting into long thin strips.

Spätzli  In Switzerland they are called Spätzli or Chnöpfli, in Germany Spätzle - is an egg noodle dish, with pieces of a lumpy shape.

According to wiki, it is the Swabian and Alsacian diminutive of Spatz, thus literally 'little sparrow'.^[3] Some linguists derive it from the word “clump”, meaning dough which tends to form clots.^[4]

Swiss egg noodles. From Wikipedia. Photo taken by Kobako.

Znüni - elevenses (snack in a mid-morning break)

English - Swiss-German

Do you have ...? - Hend Si ...?

bread - Brot )

bun / roll -  brötli (Swiss-German)

croissant (French and English and German) - gipfil (Swiss-German)

chocolate - schoggi (German Schokolade)

I am - ich bi (Standard German is ich bin)

thank you - merci (French and Swiss-German) - (German danke)

German uses capital initial letters for nouns. English and French use capital initials only for proper names (Places and people, personal names).

Useful Websites on Swiss German and German

https://www.swiss-german-online.com/at-the-restaurant.html

Simple and comprehensive

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Swiss-German_phrasebook

Detailed and technical

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German

Clear, amusing, but fewer words

https://studyinginswitzerland.com/swiss-german-vs-german-differences/

For Standard German

Duolingo.com

Translate Google

https://translate.google.co.uk/

Food Terms in German

https://www.switzerlandisyours.com/E/guide/basics/food-terms-german.html

You can find Swiss delis in the Finchley Road in Dublin, Eire; London 0 though that might just take its name from Swiss Cottage; and  New Zealand.

Food articles

https://www.mashed.com/289205/what-is-spaetzle-and-what-does-it-taste-like/

Entertaining article with recipe and picture of a device for making spaezli:

https://www.helvetickitchen.com/recipes/2015/10/15/spaztli

Spazli maker on Amazon £7.99 plus £4.99 postage to a UK address.

Websites updated Wed July 1st 2026.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

1989 Classic from Swee Heng - Singapore's best pastry and buns?

I went to Frontier Toastmasters in Frontier Community Club, which contains the public library opposite the Boon Lay Bus Exchange, by the MRT station.

At the meeting break time I looked at the buns and thought, what's this, all pastry, refined flour and sugar and no protein? I selected what looked like a bun with some kind of filling on top.

Recommended - excellent
I can only describe it as a breakfast bun. It seemed to have a mixture of a slice or two of boiled egg hidden inside cream or mayonnaise with folded bits of ham, but so no salty I was not sure if it was vegetarian with the look of ham. I took another bite and another.

Choc - ok
I went back for a second, but they were all gone. I had probably had my share anyway. I tried a sponge cake with tiny spots of chocolate. Acceptable. What was left? Some green sponge cake, I presumed pandan.

Green pandan cake. Wiki.

I needed instant energy, sugar. I was about to give a ten minute presentation on vocal variety and English language. Everybody had finished. I felt I could take another piece from the leftovers. I settled for a piece of yellow dough.

Dough - oh yes!
Oh - it was delicious! More-ish. Wonderful. Who was the supplier? The see-through plastic bag had the words Swee Heng 1989 Classic.

Where? Everywhere!
I looked at the website and found they are all over Singapore including Bukit Panjang and other big shopping hubs next to the MRT stations and bus exchanges.

You are not allowed to eat nor drink on the MRT (mass rapid transit train service), but the food is great to eat before travelling or when you get off or as I did at a meeting break.

On their website I saw similar products. But they also sell seasonal foods.

Elsewhere I spotted the word halal and if you see halal it confirms what I suspected, that what looked like ham was not ham, but 'chicken ham'.

In case you were wondering, halal and kosher food ban pork or pork products such a park fat (lard). Kosher follows even more of the rules in the Bible (Levicitcus being the word for laws) and also do not have milk and meat in the same food or meal and also ban shellfish.

Fish Spice
As I am allergic to crustaceans, mollusks, although I am OK with normal fish which swim with fins such as salmon and trout. I am wary of fish paste. I have to watch out for shellfish. One of the buns I tried that evening was a very spicy shellfish.

Fortunately, I had pulled a tiny piece off each bun using my fingertips to pinch a corner though the bag, before I tried to eat the whole of it. So I was able to leave the fish bun for somebody else, without having touched it with either my teeth or fingertips.

If you are buying or eating and have an allergy to shellfish or spicy food, enquire when buying or before eating.

Yes, I approve of Swee Heng. First choice, the plain sweet bun, second choice the bun with cheese.

Would you believe, I get cream cheese out of the fridge and find the lid had an offer of a free bun from Bee Heng, a garlic bun.

Useful Websites
https://www.sweeheng.com.sg/

Travel
For deals flying into or out of Singapore
singaporeair.com
https://holidays.singaporeair.com/en-uk/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.. 

Dinner Etiquette Rules for Cutlery, Bread, Poultry, Fish

In Singapore eating out is the national hobby. The whole island is like one big island restaurant mall, with Chinese restaurants, not just in Chinatown, Indian restaurants, not just in Little India, Malay restaurants, not just across the bridge into Malaysia, all kinds of Asian food, Japanese, Lorean, Thai. Whilst I have mastered the art of eating with chopsticks, and eating Indian food with my hands, the British cutlery conundrums still perplex many Asians. As I am British, they see me as an expert, which I am, because I wrote a book called Etiquette For Every Occasion, plus The Wedding Planner, and I keep researching the latest trends.

I thought I had taught everything I knew about dinner table etiquette and cutlery at my workshop Dinner Etiquette delivered to Braddell Heights toastmasters club in Singapore on the afternoon of Wednesday April 3rd. However, I told everybody if they had any more questions to email me. I am still getting queries. How do you use a fork, a knife, and a spoon. So here goes.

Dinner or Meat Knife

Just to recap. the knives are to the right of your plate with the blades pointing in. You start on the outside with your soup spoon or fish knife, then the dinner knife.

 How do you hold your dinner knife? You hold from above in order to grip it securely to slice the meat. You do not hold it like a pen.

A steak knife has a serrated blade for better slicing.

Bread / butter knife
On the left of your large dinner plates is a small side plate for your bread. You might have a small knife for buttering your bread, conveniently with either the knife 9or the bread) already on the little bread plate.

You might even have a plate of butter in the middle of the table with another knife for serving the butter.
A master butter knife has a point and is used for lifting rolled pats of butter onto other diners' butter plates.

Individual diners might each have a butter knife with a rounded end for spreading butter on their bread.
You put butter onto the side of the plate with the butter knife, then spread it onto the bread with your own butter knife. That prevents crumbs from your bread going back into the butter.



I had never heard of a master butter knife, and I would have thought the two pointed silver knives were fish knives, especially as they often appear in sets of 6 or 12, sometimes in a box. If you go to the Silver vaults in London, or any antique shop in London, England, or other cities and towns and villages in the UK, you can look at cutlery in antique shops and ask about them.

Photo supplied to Wikipedia by killerchihuahua under butter knife.

A Chinese friend from Singapore asked:

'I'm still not very sure how to eat bread with butter.  For example, is there a difference between the way to eat slices of bread (from a loaf), and the way to eat buns with soft or crumbly skin?  How about a croissant, or a bagel?'

Eating Sliced Bread
At breakfast in Britain, whether in a hotel, restaurant, pub or home, you often get served toast. Toast should be hot and you can use a small knife to spread the butter all over it so the butter melts.

At home, at a family meal, you can do what you like, except that you might want to practise what to do in a restaurant so you are prepared and don't forget.

Apart from toast, on formal occasions, all other breads and buns, cut the bread or bun in half and break off a piece and spread butter on that. 

What is the point of etiquette?

1 To do the same as everybody else

2 Not to spill your food. (That is why you tilt your soup bowl towards the table and not into your lap.)

3 Not to eat so much that you cannot talk.

4 Not to make a mess.

5 Not to cause others trouble.

6 Not to make others watch you eating or drinking when they have no food.

7 Ensure that others eat their food whilst it is hot or cold without waiting.

9 If something is too big, cut it in half.

Bread from a loaf

Traditionally, you don't cut or fold your slice of bread to make a sandwich but you eat an 'open-topped sandwich'
. 

You spread a little butter on the side of your plate so as not to keep others waiting whilst you butter the whole slice, and then pass on the butter.

Be logical

Don't take large pieces you cannot handle or eat. Don't take more than your share.

Bagels

The bagel is often eaten hot. It is hard to hold and cut when it is hot. What if you take it out of the freezer to cook it on a rack on top of a toaster or under a grill?


You can buy pre-sliced bagels.
A bagel is Impossible to slice when frozen. So slice it horizontally before freezing. 

When serving bagels, ensure that one person does not get all the top with the sprinkled seeds, whilst another person gets none. When serving, I would cut the bagels horizontally, spread with butter then cream cheese and smoked salmon, place the lid on. Cut  vertically into halves or quarters.

Advantages

No guest had to handle anything too large.

More to go around your group.

People don't take a whole filling bagel and either eat to much or leave some to waste on the plate uneaten.

Eat with your hands. Use a paper napkin to hold it so your hands don't get messy in case you need to shake hands with somebody.

Meat and Fish

How do you eat trouble-some food, such as whole spring chicken, a steak, whole lobster, spaghetti (& other pasta)?   

You could get a whole bird such as a small quail.

Quail /Spring Chicken

Start by pulling off the two legs, one at a time, and eating with your fingers.
Slice the quail breast down the middle from the neck. No rib cage will obstruct you.
The wings are too tiny to have any meat on them, just bone and skin. Don't waste your time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGNYsQXE9Wo

Lobster
Ask the waiter / server. I am allergic to shellfish so never go near it. But see the hendy websites below.

Pasta

Spaghetti

With your fork in your left hand and your spoon in your right hand.

Photo of Spaghetti by the Culinary Greek in wikipedia under spaghetti

Without a spoon, you could twirl the fork in your right hand to wind the spaghetti around the tines.
Or put a spoon in your left hand like a miniature bowl - the only time you use a spoon in your left hand.

I would lean forward slightly to avoid the risk of getting sauce on my front.

You can also twirl the spaghetti with your fork inside the soup spoon which anchors the end of the for, and helps guide the spaghetti with small meatballs, you may have to eat the meatballs from the fork.

You often keep your knife and fork from the starter for eating the main course.

Useful Websites
TRAVEL TO LONDON
singaporeair.com
visitlondon.com
http://silvervaultslondon.com/
visitbritain.com

ITALY
alitalia.com


BRITISH DINNER ETIQUETTE
https://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Spaghetti
https://www.etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/table_manners/dinner_etiquette/seafood.html
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/cooking/how-eat-lobster

ITALIAN DINNER ETIQUETTE
https://www.thelocal.it/galleries/lifestyle/10-tips-for-italian-dining-etiquette/10

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/international-dinner-etiquette-your.html

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Danish pastries with cream cheese? Buy them In London or Singapore.

In London you can buy Danish pastries with cream cheese. Often you buy assorted Danish pastries. Some have just sultanas and an apricot jam top. Others contain nuts or almond paste (soft marzipan). My favourite are the ones with cream cheese. To buy pastries with only cream cheese usually costs extra.

The strange thing is that the so-called Danish pastries do not appear to be made in Denmark or to come from Denmark and when I went to Denmark I could not find them. At least not by that name. The Danes call them Viennese pastries.

The origin of the story of the name becomes clear on consulting Wikipedia. The Danes had a bakers' strike, years ago in the 1800s, when to supply the unfilled demand, food was baked by Austrian pastry chefs. The Danish public liked the Austrian or Viennese pastries, and adapted them, keeping the name, Viennese pastries.

London's Delicatessens
Danish pastries are to be found in London, England, sometimes in large supermarkets or party food catalogues, more often in bakeries. A good place to look is in North West London, especially continental patisseries, and the kosher delicatessens. All the way from the city centre out to the suburbs: Hampstead, Golders Green, Edgware, and so on.  If you can't spot what you want in the window, uue up and ask. You might find they are made for the weekend, .

Delicatessen is a German word, for delicate eating or delicious, delicate foods. You can see the roots of the double word, delicat, plus essen meaning to eat.

Singapore's Cream Cheese Buns
When I went to Singapore, I did not find any such item, although many British foods although fish and chips are well known. At tea time or on bakery counters, scones with jam and cream are very popular.

The packaging tells you nothing about the contents. It simply says: Assorted cakes and buns.

Imagine my surprise when I bit into a sweet bun and found it contained sweetened cream cheese! So more-ish. They were bought in a set of four, for only 2SG (two singapore dollars) and forty cents. The supplier is on the 3rd floor of the Nex shopping centre. Nex is beside Serangoon MRT which is at the junction of two MRT lines, the yellow circle line and the purple North East line.

If you are looking for a baked New York cheesecake, or a cheese Danish, you might want to phone in advance and ask if the shop has any in stock, and what time you should arrive, or if you can place an order.

I asked another friend in Singapore: 'Where can I buy buns filled with sweet cream cheese?'
He replied, 'Any bakery'.

Vegan and Kosher Cheese Worldwide
Many Asians who cannot take milk are able to eat cream cheese. However, if you have vegan friends you might be interested in vegan cream cheese from a company called Bute Island in Scotland. they have kosher cheese, too, and export around the world, Europe, and Asia.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_pastry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patisserie_Valerie
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017898-cheese-danish
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-cheese-danish-for-a-crowd-238398
https://www.starbucks.com/menu/food/bakery/cheese-danish
https://www.buteisland.com/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

In the packet - three buns with sesame seeds, and three green buns - what a picture! A poem praising buns

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Now, with the lid off, we can see clearer. What shall I choose, the ones with the sesame topping, or the green ones? 

Singaporeans like green. They think it suggests fresh green plants or fruit.

Looking at the picture, savouring it, is like eating twice.

Three green buns. Sounds like the nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice. 

The Story Of Six green Buns

Six green buns

Six green buns

We're all so happy when breaktime comes

Six big buns.

The order of eating is all rhearsed

We let the visitors go first

We want them all to share the fun

Five green buns.

I'm watching the numbers carefully

To be sure there's one left for me

Four green buns.

I think I ought to hand them round

I need some food so I survive

We all need food to stay alive

Three green buns

Good, someone says, Already had

I smile because I'm very glad

If they'd all gone I would be mad

Three green buns.

Three big buns.

Three big buns.

The green one is my favourite one

I ate the green one, now it's gone

Two big buns

One of them has sesame seeds

It looks delicious, it was indeed

One big bun.

No-one saw that I took too

But I must leave one for you

Hurry, friend you must be fast

Or otherwise I'll take the last ...

With two of us - I have to share

I'll share with you to show I care

No big buns.

No big buns.

But we have shared our memory

What we ate for last weekend's tea 

Green been paste, kaya, (and) sesame

Three big buns.

I'm looking forward to next weekend

Three dollars isn't a lot to spend

In Singapore eating never ends

I dream about them every day - six green buns.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.