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Gift ideas from an expat in Switzerland

Lifestyle

16/12/2010Gift ideas from an expat in Switzerland

Writer Chantal Panozzo lists her top four holiday gift suggestions from Switzerland.

Expat Voices: Chantal Panozzo on living in Zurich

Zurich guide, part 2: shopping

Every year when I go home to visit family over the holidays, my gifts of Swiss chocolate feel more and more pathetic. Because even though I’ve carefully chosen them and dragged them 5,000 miles across the ocean in my suitcase, I’ll find the same chocolate on the shelves of my local grocery store in Chicago. So now, for subsequent visits, to actually surprise the people in my family, I have to be a little more creative with my gift ideas. Here’s what I’ve come up with (no peeking, Mom):

Hiltl cookbook. Hiltl is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Zurich, and I’m their newest addict. I bought the original cookbook (Virtuoso Vegetarian) a few months ago and have been cooking things like apple and pepper goulash, carrot and ginger soup, and sweet and sour pumpkin ever since. And now, I want my mom to be able to cook these things for me too.
Freitag messenger bag. You’re just not cool on the streets in Switzerland if you don’t carry one of these original Freitag bags, made of recycled materials. Since I don’t have one, I guess I’m not cool. But that won’t stop me from giving the gift of Swiss cool to my sister.

The Freitag brothers design bags made from recycled truck tarpaulins

Ovomaltine gift basket. Ovomaltine is to Switzerland what Coke is to America. The malt drink mix was developed in 1904 in Bern and has recently exploded into a variety of other products. So it’s easy to create your own gift basket with the new plethora of Ovomaltine stuff now available in Switzerland.

Think Ovomaltine drink mix, Ovomaltine muesli, Ovomaltine cookies, and Ovomaltine candy bars.

Reusable shopping bags. This year, I’ve gone out of my way to collect the best in shopping bags from various Swiss stores.

These reusable bags are a great gift for both the environment and for your friends back home that still might be “paper or plastic” people.

Plus, it’s just cool to be in Topeka, Kansas, shopping with a grocery bag from Switzerland. As they say, there’s no place like home. Especially when you have something you can show off from somewhere else.

Chantal Panozzo is a writer and blogger. She’s the author of One Big Yodel and Writer Abroad. She also blogs for a new expat community blog. This blog offers affordable calling cards in Switzerland as well as information about living abroad in Switzerland and in many other countries.

This article first published on Expatica on 18/12/2009.