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!

Sell Coffee, not your soul

What's the story (morning glory)?

Every cup of coffee should have a story to tell, I think. The ones I have every morning, possibly have the same one line story but it is an important one - It is a cup which forms the boundary between the fuzzy-ness of last night's dream and the hard cold reality of the following day. It's the warmth from that one cup which offers comfort and courage to face the rest of the day.

The cafe I visited this weekend -  Cafe Jocolatte, had the perfect environment for exactly that - stories. And they proved it by their tag line

 'Drink coffee, eat chocolate and talk'

Simple and profound and exactly my thoughts!

It was a much overdue visit, but it finally happened. The cafe has one of the most welcoming interiors, and many more surprises waiting to be explored once you are inside. It is not more than 15 minutes walking distance from my place and so I have no idea why I waited so long to walk right in!

The place is possibly closest to what I had in mind for a physical representation of SYB. It looks cosy from outside, but is actually quite spacious once you go in. There is a garden with outdoor seating as well (for warmer days - Yes English summers are a 'real' phenomenon!! They do happen once in a while :-) and more space upstairs. The walls are decorated with bright art work (which are for sale - you can take a look at their website) and most importantly I loved my flat white which went perfectly with the Toblerone-almond tart.

If you are able to zoom into the picture above, you can also read about the advertised 'Marcussens tea'. With 25 herbs going into it, I think it has it's own special story to tell!

Also for the non chocolate eating, non coffee/tea drinking people (surely there must be a few such outliers!) there is also some wine on the menu if you fancy.

As for me, I shall now proceed towards the refrigerator, and relish some left overs of the Austrian 'Sachertorte' also bought from the same place ;-)

Parting thoughts - while coffee, chocolates and cakes may not solve our problems directly, at right moments and in right amounts, they are a bit like good friends. They make us feel warm and comforted, and sometimes gives us the much needed kick to wake up and solve our own problems!

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

Just beat it!

We made awesome coffee today at home, and I just had to post the picture here! I hope I can serve this to you first hand soon. The trick is to beat it till the sugar and coffee becomes one whole thick, smooth, light, creamy textured paste and then add the hot milk right in.

Among other things, I know I still have to update you all on the few other Delhi cafes that I did manage to visit during my stay here. I will soon be leaving for Mumbai and I hope I can cover a few cafes there as well.
This trip was so good and memorable that I cannot quite believe it is almost the final countdown...


Sell Coffee, not your soul

Local coffee in global attire

So I have restarted the SYB initiative and with new vigour and aspirations. And I realised that I have spoken so much more about the peripherals than about the most important thing about this venture, which is the coffee.
So far the best coffee I have had was in Trapani in Sicily. In fact some of the best food I have had in life was in Italy. But getting back to the coffee, I think it was called caffe crema ( I am not 100% sure about this), and it was a sort of a thick cold creamy heavenly concoction of coffee, cream and ice.
Part of my plan now is to recreate the taste, that texture and that absolutely orgasmic experience. I have found a few recipes online, and I want to try it at home if possible.

Apart from coffee there is another thing that the Italians taught me. That is simplicity of ingredients and supporting local produce. In Britain as well the trend these days is to support the local farmers and growers. It helps the food business, it helps the local farmers and increases the appreciation for them. It is a complete win win situation, and yet I see quite the opposite trend in some other parts of the world.

Someone recently reminded me that I need to think globally and act locally. And that is exactly what I am going to do.


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