Liechtenstein’s welcome guide recommended the Torkel Restaurant so emphatically that I spoiled myself with another multi-course affair.

This time, I booked ahead and arrived early enough that twilight had yet to darken the Alps. Floor to ceiling windows gifted me a front row seat to the majesty on display.

The venue hosting this fine establishment once pressed the wines for their prince, and his vines continue to flourish there. They certainly gave me the royal treatment.

I selected the three course menu (which, under haute cuisine rules means five), and in between dishes I feasted my imagination on a copy of Heidi.

If I hadn’t myself hiked the very hills that Heidi rhapsodizes in this delightful little novel from the 1880s, she would have left me green eyed with envy. Her blissful adventures in the Alps perfectly complemented a starstudded meal: smoked fish with a sprinkling of caviar, a sweet and sour salad topped with savory ice cream, beef fillet on a bed of ravioli. The bread basket-bearing waitress offered a mini-menu in and of itself: not just white or wheat, but bacon, olive, walnut…

For dessert, a fabulous confection splashed tropical flavors of passionfruit over a creamy cake topped with crisped combs of white chocolate. Still, the parting gift almost stole the show: a tiny parfait housed in a perfect eggshell.