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Thatās interesting about your experience in Berlin. Frankfurt & Munich are likely pricier than Berlin, so perhaps I shouldnāt have generalized about Germany, and instead focused on my dining, living & food shopping experiences in Berlin.
Switzerland isnāt Germany, and Zurich is the most expensive city in Europe - so that comparison is rather moot.
I just went outside and was reminded that thatās only possible at the moment before 9am, because after that you will be cooked in 15-18 minutes, depending on how crispy you like being.
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Having lived in BC for a couple of years, I was stunned by not only the price of oyur dairy, but howā¦ anemic it isā¦ Getting ACTUAL ice cream (and not āfrozen dessertā. yuck) was a challenge, and mostly only existed in ice cream / gelato shops, and VERY pricey Ben and Jerryās pints. And I remember hearing bakers complaining on the news that it was always a struggle to get some of the very limited amount of imported butter each year to use for things like croissants, since the domestic stuff didnāt have enough fat.
I was under the impression that commodity dairy in Canada is much more nationalized than in the states, with govt. standards regulating price, fat content, etc. for milk, cream, butter, and the like.
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In my experience, Stockholm was more expensive than Zurich. I agree Zurich and Geneva are the most expensive big cities in Central Europe.
Munich is more expensive than Berlin. Maybe Berlin is cheaper partly because itās closer to Poland and Czech Republic, and partly because part of it is located in the fleet East Germany which was less prosperous when the wall came down.
I havenāt ever lived in BC, and have only visited for skiing in the past decade.
There are European-style butters made in Canada now, with higher butter fat, that cost a lot more.
Kerrygold still isnāt imported to Canada. I donāt know why.
French butter and Polish butter can be found in Toronto in a few places. I havenāt bought them since I donāt bake much and garden variety butter works for me when I do.
I havenāt been keeping up on the dairy cartel. I donāt know exactly why prices are set the way they are, but as a Canadian, Iām used to it.
Toronto has been having a croissant and fancy bakery explosion over the past 3 years. Fancy $7 CAD croissants everywhere. I have no idea which butter these bakers are using. You canāt throw a stick without hitting a bakery or coffee shop selling croissants lately.
https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/business/2022/2/5/1_5769857.amp.html
These were usually business trips with (particularly for Berlin) the meal sites chosen by the host company representatives, so itās entirely possible I got a skewed view of dining in Berlin.
I only related my thoughts on CH because upthread the topic had already been broached.
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What is CH?
ETA; nevermind. Found it.
āThe letters CH stand for the Latin name for Switzerland ā Confoederatio Helveticaā.
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Which then leads to a bit of financial trivia. The abbreviation for the Swiss Franc is CHF - Confoederatio Helvetica franc
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I would have guessed it was a font!
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This being Hungry Onion and knowing that many members here are also on other food boards, I automatically assumed āCHā was Chowhound! And, out of context or not, I have a sneaking suspicion that other people might have assumed the same thing!
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I thought of that, but no amount of mind bending (confirmation bias?) could make that make sense to me!
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At nearly 60 years of age, I have begrudgingly accepted the fact that many (most?) people see things differently, whether it involves mind bending or not. And as Iām from an English speaking country, the use of āCHā connoting Switzerland is not something Iām familiar with.
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My first thought was, āOuch! I hope it is delicious! $5.69CAN 100g/$27CAN per pound is some expensive cheese!ā
Now that I think of it though, (i.e. after reading the articles you posted), it is not outrageous. Especially since Canada uses a different dairy system.
I buy my cheeses from a local guy and his Smoked Goudas are around $12.49US a pound, and his NotAMozzarella Gouda is $13US. And no, it really doesnāt taste like a Mozzarella, not sure how it got the name. His smoked Gouda is really good and I like buying local, so it is a win-win.
Not sure my math is rightā¦
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I mostly know that CH means Switzerland because Swiss cars have a CH sticker on them.
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Sorry, also at @shrinkrap - Iām so used to designating countries by their 2 letter EU country designations because of work, and I sometimes donāt stop to think that these are unfamiliar to others.
My mistake, and sorry.
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It wasnāt as hard as the labels on frozen dumplings!
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While Iāve seen those stickers when I used to live in the US, I now live in Japan where such stickers are rare and because of that, I had forgotten them.
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Thereās absolutely ZERO need to apologize for anything because you didnāt make a mistake and even if you had, it wasnāt a big deal and it became a learning experience for me.
This caused me to remember a funny story from about 30 years ago. I was living in the Studio City area of LA at the time and a Japanese friend told me he had gone to āRodeo Doctorā that day. I had no idea what he meant until I realized that to him āDr.ā connoted ādoctorā and not ādriveā.
Even in my reply to you, I wrote that I lived in the āStudio City area of LAā. Yes, I meant Los Angeles, but those who arenāt familiar with Los Angeles neighborhoods might think I meant āLouisianaā because the 2 letter state code for Louisiana is āLAā. I guess none of us can always be sure how what we write will be conveyed to others.
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