Peter's own borough - 101

It has taken me a while to get to this post. I have been going through a sinusoidal wave of high and low and before I could put one thought down, it virtually evaporated into a feeling which was exactly opposite of the first one. Making it very hard indeed to put something coherent down.

Anyways, I had previously promised to bring you a few glimpses of Peter's own borough and today I am finally ready to share these local stories with you.

November last year, while searching for ingredients for our first house warming, we came across this Turkish place called Bodrum. This little cafe+take-away joint is situated on Lincoln Road, a road which has a lot of diverse food places. ( I have tried the Afghan place called Kabul, which I absolutely love, and have the Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian restaurant next on my list of places to try).

But coming back to Bodrum, we really liked this little place. We reached there all tired and exhausted, and were instantly rejuvenated by their warm smiles and service. The best part about this place is that they serve Lahmachun (thin crispy Turkish Pizza) which is one of my favourite. They also serve you Turkish tea for free with your food. And to top it all the prices are very reasonable.

Unfortunately although Lincoln Road has a lot of potential, I don't think it is marketed very well. Even the look and feel of the road is not really maintained. As such not many people seem to want to go there. In general the attitude of people in this city is to order take away and so there are loads of take-away options. But some of these take away joints are actually good or at least quite different places to visit as well. And I would recommend giving it a shot once in a while!

My hunt for cafes got interrupted since December owing to my whirlwind tour across India, and then coming back and rejoining work. The last few weeks have been frantic at work, and the weekends were pretty much spent recuperating.

But there is this place that I pass by every day while walking to and from work, and their inviting black board which reads 'Homemade soup and Cheese scones for £2.75' always made me want to go in and take a look. The problem is that I walk so fast, that I had never really looked in properly, because if I had, I would have gone back to it sooner than waiting until yesterday.

But yesterday morning, the first thing that I wanted to do when I woke up was to walk down to this place. It is called MD's Coffee and is situated on New Road very close to the Market way. The cafe has a Mediterranean feel to it, and has a variety of sandwiches and breakfast options to choose from. They also do Turkish coffee, bubble tea, Iced chai, Matcha tea, fresh orange or carrot juice and a good cappuccino as well.

I stuck to my initial reason to go in, and had the soup of the day with bread filled with Feta cheese (they had run out of scones). The food was good and filling. And the ambience inside the coffee shop is quite nice as well. There are plenty of scarves, lamps, embroidered cushion covers etc. on sale which to me looked like have been brought over from Turkey perhaps.
It is a nice place to catch up with a friend on a winter morning or perhaps to slow down for a few minutes on the way to work.

Speaking of my walk to work, that in itself is a separate story to tell one day. But for now I will leave you all with my 'current' nomination of one-stop Peterborough:

Sunday Roast                       - Fox and Hounds, Longthorpe
Catching up with girlfriend    - The Boathouse
First Pub of a night out          - Charters
Last Pub of a night out          - North Street Bar
Comfort food                         - Kabul (Afghan place)
Junk food cravings                - Pizza Santino


Have a wonderful Sunday!

Sell Coffee, not your soul

New and Shiny

I am back after months of procrastination. I have been at the brink of 'to post or not to post' all this while - and each time stopped myself from making a half hearted attempt. You see writing for me should flow automatically and not have me trying to strangle the words out of my head. While this means I am truer to my passion, yet it also means I fall prey to my worst enemy/quality i.e. laziness.

And as a result I missed out on updating you guys on a few interesting stories from my life.

Primary of which is my move to Peterborough from Cambridge. No, it is not a very big move, yet it is a move and it does mark a new beginning of sorts. I have already been to several different restaurants and nearby cafes.

Affogato - The Boathouse

I will post more in my coming blogs. In fact watch this space to know 'what is positive about this borough'. I assure you, you will find loads and loads of negative stuff if you look for it and some of which unfortunately is true. But as with everything else I do like the underdog. And at the end of the day it is the people you meet who make a place a home and I have to say I have met some cool people here.

Another big change is my laptop + operating system. I have converted from Windows to Mac OS and it took me some time to get used to this shift in thinking/storing/operating. I call her 'Aether'. In Greek this means pure fresh 'Air' that the gods breathe.

And because I am in a new city I decided I need a new hobby. And what better hobby can I pursue than that of Latte Art? And so peeps, here I introduce the little red coffee machine with milk steamer et al - a brand new addition to my kitchen, which has already produced some 16 odd cups of awesome espresso for me and my friends! Latte art is only a few steps (and loads of practice) away!

I know the holiday season is coming up and I am personally looking forward to December (my favourite - the month of adventures) but I hope I can post a few more stories this year before I go on holidays.

See you soon!

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Hope floats!

Past few weeks I have been crazy busy and almost - almost forgot about everything fun and creative in life. But then yesterday a hint of a diffused sun made me move myself out of the couch and out into the open. Let me tell you that the outside was nowhere near what it looked like from the inside. No sooner that I hit the road, the dark grey depressing clouds were back and this time with a sprinkling of what cannot be called as snow or rain or even sleet - something in between all of that!

Nevertheless we marched on (driven more by hunger than by any passion of finding a good cafe really). Our first choice the amazing home-made dumpling place - Zhongua - being completely full, we simply proceeded to Cafe CB2.

Now this cafe has been on my list of places to visit for some time, yet never really found the occasion for it. Yesterday, by pure chance we found ourselves at its doorsteps. My initial plan was to visit this place one evening because I know they often have gigs and live music happening in its basement. However because we visited around lunch time, we really got to see it more as a bistro than a cafe. In fact to me the place was a bit confused. It even had a bar like place serving alcoholic drinks.

You will have to take this piece of writing with a pinch of salt. I apologise in advance for being slightly on the cranky side of life these last few days and that may have interfered with my mood and observations of the place. But I was not the happiest person when the waitress seated us close to the entrance (where it was cold enough for me to have to keep my coat on the whole time). The worst part though was that she promised to give us a table inside as soon as one became available and completely forgot about it later. And even though I asked her once again before ordering food, she just said 'yes yes of course'  to our face and the next minute forgot all about it. To top it, all this time I could see empty tables inside.

I don't think I would be awfully pleased with this service on a good mood day either.

That off my chest, I can now concentrate on the positive about the place - which was finding the 'coke float' on the menu. This very simple vanilla ice-cream drenched in a soft drink like Coke/Pepsi was something I loved having as a kid and was quite delighted to see it here. Nostalgia made me go for it instead of a coffee even though the weather really called for one.

Overall it was not the best day out, however I am willing to go there once again some other evening and find out if the place indeed has a split personality. I have hopes that this place may still come alive for me.

And if there is one thing which floats rather well apart from ice-cream that is hope :-)



(Also among other things, I found out that the Cambridge Eat festival is going to take place in March. I am looking forward to the street food festival in particular. From their website I got to know of many different independent Cambridge food places. Do take a look here if you are interested.)

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Let's start at the very beginning

As we all know, beginning is a very good place to start. And so without further ado, if I am to start talking about Cambridge, CB1 is possibly the first place to talk about. For those of you who haven't visited the city of Cambridge (UK, not US), you probably have an idea of this place in your head. Well Mill Road is one street in this city, which is quite different from the usual pre-formed idea. At least it was different to mine. It is not sophisticated, posh with scholars walking around in their robes. You don't see a glimpse of the famous river Cam from here, nor do you see the punts. No towering impressive university building is in sight either. The by lanes have these houses stuck to each other known as terraced houses and the main street is very multi cultured, with shops, restaurants and cafes belonging to many different regions of the world (including English, Algerian, Turkish, Indian, Korean, Chinese, Bangladeshi to name a few). The street is full of character, and seems exactly like a place where the 'geeky-freaky-and-crazy' (all in a good way of course) crowd of Cambridge would hang out.

One such hangout place on this street is cafe CB1. It is not sleek and polished. But it is a quirky little place, which from the outside may look a bit old and basic, but as you walk in, you can tell its a place for the 'regulars' to meet up and chill. Also the numerous really old computers and loads and loads of books in the background almost sets the mood for the people who walk in. During my visit, I heard someone discussing his (or someone he knows) plans for going to moon (I know it is not good to eavesdrop, but hey, who can avoid listening to bits and pieces of an interesting plan :). Another person was looking through an old notebook, and I think I saw some feedback control systems and digital circuits drawn there. (I could be wrong of course, I could be seeing what I want to see and hearing what I want to hear :) But that really is part of the magic of a place I think. A place which tickles your imagination and makes you think.

The coffee was good, though not possibly the best I have ever had. The ginger cake I had, was also not my favourite, but then again, this is not a place to just eat and drink, but a place to feel and dream and be a part of the real Cambridge I would say. A place to start your explorations of this city, and possibly breaking out from the set idea in your head. Yes you will see the river, the punts, the impressive university buildings eventually but that is not all that is there to this place.

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What's in the name?

How often do you have to calibrate and re-calibrate yourself? You say something with great resolute and find yourself going back on your word the very next moment. And all this while you thought you were being honest to yourself the first moment as well as the second.

A book I had read in the past told me contradictions don't exist. Yet at every stage of life I seem to bump into one. I guess every additional moment gives us a different perspective and additional information about ourselves as well as our surroundings, and that calls for some calibration. But I do struggle with exact opposite ideas trying to co-exist.

Anyway, the point I am trying to get to in a very round about way is that, in the past I had said I will try to avoid big corporate coffee chains like Starbucks, Barista, Costa and the likes. Yet these days I find myself addicted to a cup of cappuccino in the morning. It is almost a ritual for me. I get to work, start my computer, change into work shoes, take my cup and head down to the cafe downstairs to get my super frothy cup of cappuccino with chocolate sprinklings (I don't for a minute stop to care that this is coming from a big brand) and then start working.

In fact the Tesco's right behind my house has sold their cafe over to Costa Coffee. I remember in the beginning I was not happy with this, and must have resolved not to go there again. Yet the other day I was sitting there, enjoying a cup of flat white in the morning, sinking into their sofa and I don't recall any trace of guilt or negative thoughts in my head at all.

Speaking of big names, recently I went to Patisserie Valerie in Cambridge to satisfy a sudden and rare cake and coffee craving and was not very happy with the taste of the coffee or the cake. I have visited this place a year back, and that experience was slightly better. But I hadn't tried their coffee before. Also it is not the kind of place I would like to sit and enjoy a cup. I guess the warmth was lacking.

This really proves one thing, that no matter what you do, if you start a cafe, it better sell really good coffee. This is the best and simple formula. Everything else, the comfy sofa, the good service, the nice atmosphere, the underlying principle behind opening a cafe, everything, is secondary. And that is what I need to keep in mind when I have my own.

Also this does not make me stop trying to go to more independent coffee shops. In fact there are a few really quirky and nice coffee places within Cambridge, and I want to feature them here in this blog very soon. But until then, take care, have a happening new year and note to myself, have an open and learning mind, always.

Sell Coffee, not your soul

Keeping the 'bean' alive!

So it is that time of the year, when I get some time to come back fresh and rejuvenated to this blog and share a few tales. Most of you who were there with me last year around this time, are probably wondering about what happened to the cafe dreams. Well the honest fact is, the dream is still there, but I realised I was not ready for the reality of it. Not ready to settle down. Not ready to take the big step. Not ready to leave engineering.The thing is I cannot run away from my life to begin something like this. I need to be at peace with myself first.

In the past I have always treated running away as a valid solution to living life. But just the other day, while speaking to a friend, I realised that there comes a time when you forget what it is that you are running away from, and what you are running away to. And not knowing the answer to these questions really is the problem. I guess running away in itself is not that bad, provided you have faced the 'whats', 'wheres' and 'whys' of it all.

Anyway, moving on to more coffee updates (which is what this space was originally designed for, and not for my life rants!) , I guess the best coffee I have had in the past year was in Salzburg, Austria. It will always be a special moment in this cafe, right in the middle of the city, with my family, sipping coffee and soaking in the ambience. My parents were visiting Europe for the first time, and I was lucky enough to join them in this leg of their journey. 

Looking back, it was surely one of the moments when I felt very nearly at peace and so happy. (Not something that me or any member of my family will ever openly admit - because as a rule we don't voice our feelings.)

Besides, for a long time now, I have been in search of this mysterious 'cafe crema - or so I think is its name' which I had in Sicily, and have not been able to properly locate since then. I have a feeling the name 'cafe crema' is possibly wrong, and I have not remembered it correctly. But while taking the flight back from Salzburg airport, I had this ice coffee, which was not the same, but came quite close to the original one I had in Sicily. And this again made me very happy.

The moral of the story definitely is to not give up hope. Hope of finding the perfect Sicilian crema, or finding yourself, or for that matter hope on me. 

One day I will serve you more than just a story. And we will then sit together and talk about our dreams, the ones that came true.

Sell Coffee, not your soul

Moving on

So I am back to UK after my fantastic break and study period. I have learnt a lot to do with the cafe business in this period and have documented it. The study will surely be the basis of any future endeavour I engage myself in even if it has nothing to do with cafes!

Back here, normal life, or what is close to normal in my life is catching up with me. In things happening I will be moving to yet another city soon. Not completely moving out of Cambridge though. So will be time division multiplexing between the two places for a while. So hopefully from cafes and coffee point of view, I should be able to go to newer places and live to tell tales of them as usual :)


Sell Coffee, not your soul

Almost a visit to Amici Cafe

So last week we continued our search for good cafes and reached Khan market. We had a list of cafes that we wanted to try out here. Khan market as I realised was this two and a half lanes full of food places, cafes and shops. By now I was getting used to the narrow side streets of Delhi (flashforward: my view will change when I visit my cousin in Gurgaon the next week!)
After walking around for a while and soaking in the many different outlets, and flipping through the menus which were conveniently placed under the supervision of a security guard, we decided to walk into Amici Cafe.

We walked in and were greeted by the owner (or perhaps his son) who seemed courteous, but not very focused. I wasn't sure he even listened to me when I spoke. In any case, we went up and waited a while to be seated. But no one really asked us anything. I was quite glad to see the open kitchen where some guys were making fresh pizza in front of us and baking it in the oven. I showed some interest and asked one of them if I could take a picture, but all I got was a grrmph. No smile, no exchange of words, just a snort. After waiting for a while when we still couldn't attract anyone's attention, we decided to leave and go to our next destination.

While walking out, the owner (the son again) asked us if everything was ok. We told him that we could not find a place, so we may come back later. He immediately let us know how understaffed they were and hence there was no one to attend to us. While I wasn't expecting an excuse, I would have still walked out with the hope of returning back, but then he continued speaking.
Owner's son (looking at me): Where are you from?
My friend intervened: She is from London...
Owner's son (now looking at my friend): What about you?
My friend: I am from Delhi, but I haven't been here before...
Owner's son: Oh very good, very good, keep bringing them here...(pointing at me)

Needless to say I was not happy. What did he mean by them? I am not them! And why did he not ask my friend to keep coming back...especially since she is from the city? Does he only want foreign tourists in his cafe? And the main thing is that my friend is not his agent! Why should she bring him foreign guests at all?

That was the end of our Amici experience. From here we decided to walk down to Turtle Cafe our next stop.




Sell Coffee, not your soul

What we learnt at Kunzum cafe

So after the ecstasy at Thadi, my friend and I continued on our journey to hunt down more cafes to inspire us. Kunzum cafe was next on our list. Conceptually I had really liked this place. The idea to have a place where people can come, sit  down, relax, talk about their travel plans and share their own travel stories, all this sounded like fun. Just reading about such a place excited me.

With all this in mind, we finally stepped into this cafe. And I was instantly shocked. There was no kitchen in this cafe. In fact this was not a cafe at all. It simply had one side board with a kettle and assorted tea and coffee packs. Trying to hide my initial disappointment, I took off my slippers, to enter the cafe. Yes that's right, you have to take your shoes off before seating yourself. I think I understand the idea behind it, which is to make you feel comfortable, as if you are at home. However in reality the flooring was not all that clean, and so bare-feet walking on a dusty floor did not exactly make me feel at home.

Since there was no menu and there was just one guy who seemed to be serving everyone, for a long time my friend and I just sat there and wondered what to do. We started looking at some of the photographs which were hung on the walls. They were quite pretty. I went and got some travel books about Delhi and Himachal Pradesh from their extensive book shelf and started flipping through the pages. After giving the lone waiter enough time to finish his many tasks, my friend went and placed our order. I wanted something cooling since the temperature in Delhi is still quite a bit high for me at this time of the year. But I had to accept the green tea instead, since there was nothing cold on their sideboard-kitchenette.

Soon we were feeling a bit too suffocated because of the closed nature of the space, and also because the people sat on neighbouring tables had stopped being entertaining, we decided to leave.


Learnings;
The Good: The idea/theme of the cafe is undeniably good. Especially because I pride myself as a world traveller, the theme was closer to heart for me.
I also liked the idea of pay what you like. It sort of made up for the fact that this place is not really a cafe. This also means if you don't like the place or the product, at least you can pay what you feel is correct, instead of being forced to pay an exorbitant price and leave feeling looted.

The Bad: The space was much too closed and there was absolutely no ventilation. To add to this since the place is tightly packed with high, low chairs, sofas and single mattresses on the floor you cannot help but get in each other's way. Eavesdropping into your neighbour's conversation is not an option, it is compulsory here.
Personally a very big negative in my mind was also the fact that there was no personal touch. It is possible that  I went to the place at a wrong time, but I would have really liked it if the owner of the place was there, speaking to people and helping newcomers to connect more with the central theme of the place.

The Ugly: I felt a bit cheated, because this was not a cafe. Tea, coffee, confectionery are the highlights of a cafe, but this place did not put any focus on this aspect at all. My personal belief is ambience cannot be the only highlight of a cafe, the product that is sold also needs to match up to the level of the ambience.

All in all it was a good learning experience, and we went back home with lots of scribblings in our note pad. It is important to learn how to do things. It is also important to learn how not to do things.


Sell Coffee, not your soul

Featuring Thadi Cafe

As we walked down the narrow but lively streets of Hauz Khas village, my friend and I saw this old looking and not very attractive building which had a sign of Thadi Cafe loosely hanging outside it.

After some debate of whether it is 'safe' to go in ( I can attribute the fear to the paranoia which I seem to have developed just by not spending enough time in my own country), we finally voted that we should give it a try. Also I had a read a few lines in a blog earlier this morning, and I really wanted to see the place.

So we followed our heart, and the signs, and kept climbing up the stairs of this mysterious looking place, all the time guessing what could be in store for us. When we finally reached the terrace (which is where the cafe was located), we were so thrilled, that we almost cried out in joy. The view from the terrace was awesome. This terrace-cafe looked over the Hauz Khas water tank giving a person like me who had no idea about the place and this lake such a pleasant surprise.

While my friend sat soaking in the ambience (the view, the caned chairs, painted walls, posters about art concerts etc), I went in to carry out my own investigation, under the pretext of ordering food. My second surprise for the day awaited me inside. The owner (one of the four, as I found later) of the place was also an engineer, who opted for doing something different with his life. Needless to say, there was an instant connection, and I spent quite some time chatting away with him. I found out that the word Thadi meant a small vendor of tea and coffee from the Jaipur region where the guys had studied. I found out about the aspirations and reasons behind the conception and implementation of the place. I also managed ordering some food by the end of it.

So in conclusion:
Ambience: Fantastic, the view from the terrace and low seating arrangements inside gave a double dose of character to the place. The music system was a good one, which to me personally was a plus! My friend loved the diwali lights which were turned on at dusk.

Food: We had the Thadi chai (tea) and a veg grilled sandwich, both were decent. My only crib, why didn't the waiter leave the pot with left over tea behind, I would have loved a second round!

Pricing: Very affordable. (Especially when I find almost everything super expensive in India!)


Sell Coffee, not your soul

Soul searching in Delhi

So continuing with my new vigour, I have finally managed to make that trip I always knew I had to. I am now in Delhi for a month with the intention of going out there in the real world and meeting more amazing people, taking stock of my own life and designing a sort of life I would be happy to live. And of course like all other countries and cities I have been to, here as well my cafe hunt continues.
Today's day was very well spent at Hauz Khas Village in Delhi, a place which is thriving with art and culture. A walk through this village and occasionally peeping into its many boutiques and art galleries left me feeling light headed and dreamy. It also helped that I was with my very good friend, someone who I am able to share the zillion thoughts and emotions which usually floods my mind when I am experiencing such strong and wonderful emotions.
I also discovered two different cafes in this area, the first being Thadi cafe. Although after my research back home from Cambridge, I had wanted to start with Kunzum Cafe (the second one of the day), a quick google search just this morning, made me want to visit Thadi Cafe first. Both cafe visits were very educational and left me feeling very satisfied by the end of the day.


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Cafe on top of a hill!

 Some breath taking views of this amazingly located cafe in Athens! Words to follow shortly

Can you imagine sitting here like on of the ancient Greek Gods sipping the beverage of your choice!

 And finally the Frappe!



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Timout spends Timein hidden cafes!

Check the list created by London Timeout. Don't forget to check out the comments section, because there are so many more listed there!!




Sell Coffee, not your soul

Coffee Republic

Though initially the idea of going to coffee chains wasn't really in the plan, a very very cold and crisp evening in Oxford made us rush into Coffee Republic yesterday. And since it is not good to be prejudiced against anything, I thought of going ahead and doing a review of what I learnt from this place as well. As is the plan I had my mocha (to be a fair judge etc.) this time with whipped cream on top of it. Punit had an iced mocha (yes even I was surprised, especially since we took shelter in this place to avoid the freezing temperatures outside!). We sat by the window and relished our mochas as we stared into the busy and bustling with youth Oxford city.

The coffee was good, but somehow very similar to the one you get in Starbucks, or Costa,. Keeping my biases against chains and franchisees aside, I seriously could not really tell any uniqueness in this mocha, although there was nothing wrong with it. It wasn't watery, but it wasn't creamy as well. It was not bad but it was not that great either. The ambiance was again very neutral, nothing really special about that. The only striking difference from private cafes was the amount space it had for itself. It was much more spacious than the last two cafes that we had visited.

And because some my readers (and by that I mean 1 out of the 2 current readers I have!) suggested that I need to put in more pictures and videos to improve the readability of this blog, here is the view of the table top marketing idea from tabletopmedia in this cafe.

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Nude Espresso

So as promised, we visited the second coffee bar on our list. This is the Nude Espresso close to Liverpool Street, London. The name I must say was quite intriguing, and hence the curiosity was more. But unfortunately the coffee experience in Nude wasn't as heavenly as it was in Flat White. I took the same Cafe mocha, so as to be a fair judge of quality, and this one was no where near as creamy as the one I had in Flat White. This time Punit took Macchiato, and he did mention that his was quite full bodied, which I take was a good thing. Apart from coffee, I also took a toasted pesto sandwich, which was quite tasty, but then again, nothing to die for. All in all to be completely honest Nude was a bit of a let down, especially because it's quite some distance from where I live as well. It's a good thing that we also clubbed our Spitalfield market and Upmarket survey with this same trip.


Observations:

• Extremely busy, again hardly a place to sit and relax or even chit chat
• Not really spacious but slightly bigger than Flat White
• Personally the quality of coffee I had was not out of the world
• Ambiance was not that great
• It's run by a NZealanders, and possibly one of the plus points of this place was that he was quite cute and had a cool accent.

-Sell Coffee, not your soul

Flat white

So yesterday we were out in the freezing weather with a single purpose in mind. (Actually that is not entirely true, since Sushi Hiro occupied half our mind space for the first 2 hours of our outing, but then again, sushi is no coffee and so will not go into that story here). Anyways after our sushi craving was put to rest, we decided to start with our visits to London Cafes in search of the right coffee, right environment...or our 'market research' you could say. After walking for a few minutes in the snow, we finally found the first one on our list, 'Flat White', a cafe in Soho.

Facts:

• Flat white is run by a NZ guy, or someone from 'down under' as they say it. 
• They sell coffee, cakes, muffins, salads, sandwiches and such other snack
• Located on Berwick St, Soho, London
• Relatively small cafe

Observations:

• Get their coffee beans from Square Mile coffee roasters
• Extremely busy, even though not all other cafes in the area were full
• Not a place to sit and relax, or think
• Great tasting coffee and hot chocolate
  
• Served in glasses or cups, no real rule which one for what
• Decor and furniture - basic
• Promote art mainly from Australian and NZ artists
  
• Service was not the greatest, in fact I  even suspect the guys sitting next to us was served our order, who didn't even pay for it and just quietly left once they had finished. Ofcourse we eventually got what we ordered, but the waitress was a bit confused.

Inferences:

• Central London cafes are small busy places and may be difficult to open a slightly bigger space with a workshop.
• If the coffee tastes good, people do not even care much about the environment (we still need to see if the vice versa is true)
  

-Sell Coffee, not your soul