The Last Fondue

Today is Partner’s birthday.

Remote control and corkscrew. We are sophisticates

So he gets a treat. I have let him have a cake from a shop. Partner and I clash slightly on matters culinary, I am the type of person who makes my own yoghurt, Partner is the type of person who laughs at people who make their own yoghurt. We have also had his other favourite food from a shop this week.

I think that's my hand in the corner, I'm frankly puzzled to think what other body part it could be

Fondue. When Partner was with his ex-girlfriend, a fine woman who had a proper job and didn’t crochet mad things as far as I know (nearly finished that shrug! It’s a killer!), he used to live for half of the year in Switzerland. He has retained two significant emotional impressions from this period. The first is the memory of a big fat white cat he used to watch from the window of the third-floor flat they lived in. This cat lived in the block of flats opposite, and every day it used to climb carefully out of its window and walk all around the block of flats, three floors up, on a very, very narrow ledge, while Partner watched in anxious horror to make sure it got back in its window again. He says he can only theorise that the big fat cat had discovered the very narrow ledge when it was a small thin kitten and they were a better fit, and as it got older and wider it refused to accept that the whole thing was no longer practical, and because it couldn’t turn round on the ledge once it had started it had to keep going. He used to suffer agonies expecting to see it one day plummet to its doom. All this says to me is that even when capricious Fate scoops Partner up and sets him temporarily down in a penthouse overlooking Lake Geneva, he will find something completely bizarre to obsess about. The other thing he retained was a love of fondue.

Aspirational couple + melted cheese

Fondue is pretty much my favourite thing you can buy in a packet (although if anyone Swiss is reading this and wants to tell me it would be much better made from scratch, I will go out and stock up on Kirsch and have a go). We have it quite often (indeed I am possibly the only person alive who has ever worn out a fondue set) and the best one is the one from Waitrose, ^^^. It is expensive (about £4.50) but it is a complete meal for 2-4 people (do I sound like a fondue advert copywriter?). We just dip bread in it, or bread and potatoes and it is a good way of using up bread that is a bit stale. If the beginning of the asparagus season is cold enough to have fondue (which sadly it sometimes is), I sometimes have a bit of asparagus with mine as well. We love fondue because it is cheerful and warming, although sometimes it is a bit of a challenge buying the fuel for the burner. I once went into every shop in Ely and no-one had any, I was quite indignant until I thought, Susie, get you with your middle-class non-problems, so I went home and ordered some on Amazon. Anyway, now they have them in Divertimenti in town so all is well, I try not to look at all the cake decorating things when I go in as I have always had a bit of a yen for cake decorating and the very last thing I need is another hobby.

Anyway sadly I think that will be the last fondue this year as the weather is getting warmer. Obviously I love summer food as well, but there is something special about fondue, being able to poke things with your little fork and the smell of the burning fuel etc, so I will be pleased to see it roll round again come Autumn.