Today’s raclette lunch with our dear friends Rafa and Esther was nearly a miss. For the simple reason that my raclette machine, being from Switzerland, is built for 240 volts, whereas the voltage here in Canada is only 110… Our cheese melted veeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooowly… Soooooo slowly that we pretty much polished off the potatoes, viande séchée, broccoli and pickles before even the first tray was ready.
Eventually, though, the cheese melted just enough for us to be able to spread it over our potatoes (no pouring action involved, we were too impatient to let it get that liquid). The result was a fine raclette. Chico and I had bought two types of cheese: one imported Swiss raclette cheese which had the wonderful tang that we associate with the dish. The other was a locally made cheese from Oka which was much greasier (the grease dripped off the trays as we poured it) and sweeter. While nice, it didn’t have the same zip to it as our beloved Swiss raclette.
Obviously, that didn’t stop us from devouring it all. Now it’s time for a cheese coma. Zzzzzzz…
