A small note only on something that’s just plain great in this world.

I just came back from a short trip to Switzerland, the city of Basle, that is.

Whenever I go there - and this isn’t often these days - I bring back “Baseler Läckerli”. (Don’t ask me to translate that, please.)

While the English Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for these gorgeous small cakes, sort of, that are a long-standing tradition in the city, the German version has.

Besides bringing back a tiny little piece of my childhood when I was travelling to Switzerland once on a schooltrip of several days and discovered “läckerli”, they always remind me of Christmas, whereever I am. In that sense, they do serve as what the blog post’s title actually means: a “consolation” in Swiss German.

I’ll give it a try and bring them to Cairo this year, I guess.

It tells us that these small kind of “Lebkuchen” (gingerbread) were invented by Basle’s bakers in the early 15th century as more sophisticated variants to the classic gingerbread because they were to be served the clergy at the Council of Basle. You couldn’t just serve them simple candy, could you.

Whatever. In short, they’re terrific and you mustn’t miss getting them should you ever go to Switzerland.