Chicken, my cousin?

Before our baby was even a twinkle in our eyes Aisha and I used to go out for a weekend movie and dinner with a couple which also happens to be our best friends, oh...let's call them John and Jane, together they're Mr. and Mrs. Doe (ooohhh, how cute....NOT!).

One restaurant where we hung out quite often is called Chez ma cousine, which translated roughly to At my cousin's place. The decor deliberately matched the name of the restaurant. Old family photographs hanging on the walls, mismatched chairs and tables, and even the plates, glasses and silverwares are mismatched. Tacky you said, probably, but we're not talking haute cuisine here. It fits the name of the restaurant and it makes the atmosphere more homely somehow and more importantly, it works!

Chez ma cousine is known as a culinary landmark in Geneva, Switzerland. Although several other dishes are available, the chicken is what most people come for. At Chez ma cousine they specializes in spit roasted chicken. For a portion you'll get the 1/2 poulet à la broche (half of a spit roasted chicken) accompanied with pomme provençale (fried or tossed potatoes sprinkled with provençale herbs), a simple salad and a selection of ketchup, mayo, mustard, sweet and spicy, and hot sauce. If you place an order for two or more, most likely they'll be served on an oval metal serving dish either with the potato wedges on the same serving dish or separate depending on the number of roasted chicken that you ordered.

For our group we always order two chickens, but the way that they serve it creates a competition within our group which became a tradition. Whenever we eat there we would go through at least a couple of stages before everybody can eat.

The first stage would be the "If you want it, call it first" stage. When our waiter brought our orders, before the serving plate even landed on our table, one of us would call half of a chicken that he/she wanted, and of course someone else would want the same piece. Then comes the "If you let me keep this chicken, you can have some or all of the potato wedges from my portion" stage. For me personally it's not a bad tradeoff. In my humble opinion the pomme provençale is pretty tasty, crispy on the outside and soft inside and the herbs gives it that extra something that you don't find everyday. But nonetheless, I came for the chicken and not for the potato wedges. In the end, after the dust settled, each of us would somehow have half a chicken on our plates.

When everybody is digging in, I would eat my salad first, getting the roughage out of the way, then throwing my fork and knife aside I would use the best tools that God had given mankind to eat chicken. Now, I don't know about other people but for me personally, if a meal consists of a chicken especially roasted, fried or barbecued, be it whole, halfed or cut to pieces preserving the distinguishable shape of each body part, there is no other way to enjoy it to the fullest than going medieval on it with my bare hands, licking clean each and every finger at the end.

When there's nothing left but a pile of chicken carcass on each of our plates everybody would suddenly be more civilized. One of us would politely offered the last few potato wedges to the others saying "there's only a few pieces left, go ahead guys, finish it..." to which we would shake our heads refusing politely. To this day I am still waiting for that single, slim to none, chance that someone would say "there's a half a chicken left from my portion, go ahead guys, finish it..."

For dessert I always order the Fondant au chocolat with a scoop of vanila ice cream. The fondant is served warm, shaped almost like a hockey puck and has a cake like texture with melted chocolate inside. Having the first bite is always the best. A little bit of the fondant, melted chocolate included, and a little bit of the ice cream.....warm, spongy, chocolaty mixed with the coolness and the aroma from the vanilla ice cream...I'm salivating just from writing about it...that makes it one of my favorite dessert ever!

Chez ma Cousine

Web : http://www.chezmacousine.ch/index_en.html

Chez ma Cousine Vieille Ville (Old town Geneva)
place du Bourg-de-Four 6
1204 Geneva
SWITZERLAND
Phone: 022 310 96 96
Open 7 days a week non-stop from 11:00 AM to 23:30 PM
Take away available
No reservation

Chez ma Cousine Lissignol
rue Lissignol 5
1201 Geneva
SWITZERLAND
Phone: 022 731 98 98
Open Monday to Friday
11:30 AM - 14:30 PM and 18:00 PM - 23:30 PM
Take away available

Chez ma Cousine Petit-Saconnex
chemin du Petit-Saconnex 2
1209 Geneva
SWITZERLAND
Phone: 022 733 79 85
Open 7 days a week
Monday to Friday 11:30 AM - 14:30 PM and 18:00 PM - 23:30 PM
Saturday and Sunday Non-stop 11:30 AM - 22:30 PM
Take away available
Reservation possible