Lake Geneva regional specialty: Filets de perche

Aside from its traditional specialities of cheese, chocolate, and wine, Switzerland continues to surprise us with some lesser-known, regional specialty foods.  Filets de perche or "perch filets" is one of specialities of the Lake Geneva region of Switzerland.  Perch is plentiful in Lake Geneva and fishermen pull fresh catches out each day and sell them to local restaurants.  Not being a huge fan of dining on lake-fish (generally they taste too fishy for my liking), I haven't been terribly excited to try this local specialty.

A few weeks ago, after a Sunday morning at the driving range with friends, we drove to a restaurant called Au Vieux Navire in a little village on the shores of Lake Geneva that is known for its filets de perche dishes. In formal Swiss dining fashion, we started the meal off with an "aperitif", which is essentially a fancy cocktail drink.  We then all opted for the variety dish of filets de perche.  It consisted of filets de perche cooked three ways: (1) with lemon and parsley, (2) with tomatoes and basil, and (3) the "piece de resistance"... with champagne FOAM and lobster sauce -- really?! To call this fish delicious would be an understatement, it was amazing. Needless to say my opinion on filets de perche has changed...

We finished the meal with the "crepes suzette" desert, which is essentially crepes flavored with an orange caramel sauce. The fun part was that they made the dish in front of us.  Lunch and a show! We will definitely go back to this restaurant soon -- I'm going to try to convince my dad in a few weeks that this place gives George's weekly fish fry in Meredith, NH a run for its money ;)