Cheesy bites from the Alps

Silk’s Restaurant in the Mövenpick Hotel Bahrain is warming diners up this cold winter with a big pot of the stuff dreams are made of.

The Swiss hotel in Muharraq is reintroducing the art of dipping-and-eating with a hot cheese fondue and a sample of traditional fare straight from the Alps.

The fondue pots, one per table, created a food orgy last week at its launch event with diners piercing pieces of crusty bread and dipping it into the piping hot cheese freshly-made by Executive Chef Alfred Zuberbühler.

Swiss Chef Alfred, 41, has 25 years of experience under his belt and worked in many Mövenpick hotels around the world, including Tunisia, Qatar and Egypt, before coming to Bahrain 12 months ago.

He has enjoyed sharing a piece of his culture in Bahrain with the popular fondue experience.

“This is the third time the hotel has introduced fondue to its menu for winter. It is a Swiss national dish and because we’re a Swish hotel group, it’s only appropriate that we bring a bit of our culture over to Bahrain during the cold season. It’s the perfect time and I am happy to be sharing it with our guests.

“It is important which types of cheese you use to make a fondue. We use four different cheeses and then from then on it’s all manual work with your hands and mixing.

“Every Swiss chef knows how to make a fondue. In fact, most people back home make it during the winter time to keep them warm.”

And he wasn’t wrong. The fondue, which was made up of Gruyere, Tomme, Emmenthal and Appenzeller cheeses, was rich, thick and so warming I decided to take my coat off and dig in.

I had more fun than I should have re-dipping my pieces of bread to watch the melted cheese slowly fall back into the pot, stirring it slowly as if I was making my own potion and adjusting the flame to watch it bubble.

And the fun didn’t stop there … apparently sweet dreams are made of cheese. After I devoured a whole basket worth of cheddar-covered bread, drove home and went to sleep, I must have fallen under its spell. I woke up from a deep sleep dreaming of swimming in a bath full of cheese.

A study carried out by the British Cheese board found that out of 200 volunteers who took part in a week-long trial and ate 20g of cheese 30 minutes before bed, 75 per cent slept very well and 67 per cent remembered their dreams. Turns out Tryptophan, one of the amino acids found in cheese, has been shown to reduce stress and induce a deep sleep with a greater number, frequency and vividness of dreams.

However, if you’re not a cheese-lover there’s a buffet filled with flavourful food also on offer at the Mövenpick, including bamiya bil laham (okra with lamb stew), stuffed potatoes, grilled beef steak with virgin sauce, a selection of cold cuts and my favourite, the pan fried hammour with tomato virgin salsa, that fell apart when cut and melted in my mouth before I could even chew it.

Not to mention I was impressed with the DIY salad bar section. I’m usually not the biggest fan of anything leafy, but I threw some lettuce, tomatoes and beetroot together and topped it off with Italian dressing before I tucked into the cheese.

And, by the end, although I was full on fondue, I couldn’t give up on the opportunity to try the assortment of desserts including apple fritters, a variety of mousses, carrot cake and apple tart. I didn’t have room to try them all so went for the dark and white chocolate mousse. I was hesitant to take a bite and ruin the presentation, but once I had just one nibble ... I sunk my teeth into the rest of it and devoured it within seconds.

Different varieties of fondues are available as well such as Fondue Borguignon with the tender beef cubes dipped into hot oil and different type of sauces. Chinoise is also on offer which is the light option with beef, veal, chicken and fish dipped into a broth filled hot pot.

The fondues will be served every night until February 20, except Mondays and Thursdays, costing BD12.500++ per person.

For more information and booking, call 17460000 or e-mail hotel.bahrain.fb@moevenpick.com