Hard News: Food Show 08
245 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 6 7 8 9 10 Newer→ Last
-
I like coffee, I like tea...
and very occasionally I like instant. I don't see that it's snobbery to enjoy something you eat or drink.My biggest bitch is getting served tepid flat whites in cold porcelain cups, so now I just order them all takeaway in paper cups. (Yeah, someone will tell me it's not meant to be drunk piping hot, but that's the way I like it.) And not all that froth (crema), please.
There's a good (I think Nescafe) instant coffee called Short Black, I think.
Of the multi-nationals, coffee barista'd in McCafes is better than you'd think.
I couldn't get a good coffee in Melbourne recently, which was a bit of a surprise because it's such a foodie city. But I was only in the CBD, not in Lygon or Brunswick. Flat whites, or whatever they call them, were really weak even when we asked for a double shot. We wondered whether we had been spoilt by good coffee in NZ, or perhaps primed to like over-strong coffee?
I guess Stephen is right. We should not take our strict coffee expectations on holiday with us so we don't become like those tourists hunting out MacDs and Starbucks. But that week in Melbourne showed me what a sharp little addiction I had.
Whoever said Welly baristas are surly is going to the wrong places.
-
I have nothing to add to the coffee debate - not a hot drink drinker - I much prefer iced chocolate, and I'm becoming a bit of a connisseur. The chocolate frappacino from Starbucks is okay, but can anyone tell me where they do a really good one? And as for cafe nostalgia - DKD wasn't my scene but I went there all the time with friends, largely for the cake. Domino's was about the tofuburgers with peanut sauce, and beansprouts. There was a kebab caravan in Aotea Square that you wouldn't touch with a barge pole. There are two places I miss most though. One was called the Hut ( I think). It was on Victoria St, up the Albert Park end, and the guy there sold yoghurt cones. The other is the Open Late Cafe. It's a real crime that place shut down, but then with the closing of Peppermint Park and other such wonderful late night Ponsonby Rd haunts, I guess it's relevance diminished as the years went by. Oh, how I yearn for the 80's. (And I'm in good company, cos going by the episode tonight, so does Jaquie Brown.)
-
a little coffee shop called flat white in soho ain't too bad.....
-
Blondies Cafe
Oh dear, yes. We all, quite a lot of us, used to wander down there sometimes after A Certain Bar circa 81 and drink Irish Coffees in some vague attempt to get a hit, as that was all the licensing laws would allow.
Sad but true....
-
GrandDad was right, don't put milk in your coffee, the rum will curdle it.
-
Ah Simon you should have been in Dunedin, I remember a guide in one issue in the Critic mid '80s advising how to drink just about 24hr. It all hinged on a certain bar just outside Carisbrook that had a morning license dating from the days when workers at Hillside railway workshops would come off nightshift and want a brew.
Bit of a stroll from the City, but not too bad and flat all the way...
-
sorry to come in late - but I'm on a biz trip/different timezone and stuck in an american suburbia where Starbucks is sadly the best thing available - this is probably the only time I will patronise them.
I lived in the US during the rise of Starbucks, I watched their very preditory practices as they bought the leases out from under local cafes or opened directly next to them to drive them out of business - that's why I normally avoid them.
My other main beef with Starbucks is their attempt to change the language of the coffee culture - notice you can't buy a 'small' coffee there - they've chosen their own names and trademarked them and in the process tried to own the language of coffee in the US - I've had experiences at airport Starbucks where I've ordered a "double non-fat latte" something any cafe in the US would do instantly and eventually gotten to the point of being told "I'm sorry sir we're not allowed to say that you have to order with one of our names" - there's now a group of people that can only order in Starbucks with their trademarked names
The language of coffee is different in different places - I had to learn NZ's moving back from the US to NZ and honestly still don't really understand what things like a "flat white" really mean - and find real confusion about whether a 'double' means twice as much or an extra shot - like other language dialects there's no correct language - just difference which is good.
I am however waiting for someone in Trade and Industry to take down Starbucks for selling "Venti"(tm)s - Venti is of course Italian for twenty (we all know you can't trade mark a number but they managed to pull it off anyway) - anyway, its the Italian for twenty what? in Italy it would be litres or millilitres - but no - it's Venti because they are selling you 20 fluid ozs of coffee (worse than that they are 20 american fluid ozs which are not the same as NZ ones) - so anyway Starbucks are advertising stuff in non-metric units should there be someone down there with a big stick rapping knuckles ....
-
I used to work at DKD circa 1990 baking cakes
You made that chocolate cherry gateau? Retroactively: thank you!
-
Sue!
the problem with wellington everyone is such a coffee snob, the humble hot choclate is often looked down upon, and what you get is hot milk with a teaspoon of cadbury's drinking choclate (so not nice)
You need to try one at Deluxe. Today if you can!
-
You need to try one at Deluxe. Today if you can!
That cafe at the beginning of Courtenay Place - the Espressoholic, I think? - also did a good hot chocolate when I was last there.
-
Lucy - Espressoholic 2000. The hot chocolate is good, but is the ONLY thing it does well. Bad, non-local coffee, and music blaring at a volume that totally thwarts conversation (the latter also a problem with the night shift at Midnight Espresson).
And to go back a ways to those commenting on Vancouver coffee - Starbucks on every corner is, from a coffee perspective, better than a Timmys on every corner. Dear god, Timmys coffee. The donuts, on the other hand, are delicious heart attacks in a bag. Yum.
-
O what a trip down memory lane this thread is...
First time I ever had nachos was at DKDs. Was a bit suspicious of this foreign stuff, but found I quite liked it. It was a great place: handy for pre-or-post-pictures nosh up.
One place no-one's mentioned : JDs. I think it stood for Just Desserts. It was up the steps from the fountain in Lorne St, or down just one flight of steps from the street if you were coming from Uni side. Closed around 1988 or early 89, from memory. I remember nothing about the food or the coffee: just as a place to meet and Talk About Life.
In defence of Espressaholic - they do a damn good Eggs Montreal. They're not stingy with the salmon. And the music isn't too loud in the mornings.
-
the problem with wellington
everyone is such a coffee snob, the humble hot choclate is often looked down upon, and what you get is hot milk with a teaspoon of cadbury's drinking choclate (so not nice)Also I've never had a surly person at starbucks, but let's be honest wellington is famous for it's surly barista's
I've yet to find a hot chocolate anywhere that's as good as the stuff I make at home. I got the recipe years ago from the Listener - you melt a slab of dark chocolate with 300ml of cream in a pot over hot water, add a little vanilla essence (or baileys, or whisky, or chilli or whatever you like most with your chocolate), let it cool to room temperature and beat it until holds its shape. You add a spoonful to a cup of hot milk for hot choc without any grainy rubbish at the bottom. This would keep in the fridge for months, but it gets consumed pretty quickly.
Last time I had a hot chocolate at Espressoholic (about 1996) it was huge, tepid and not very good. No idea what it's like now - I gave up on it when it was the last bastion of indoor smoking and I got too old to tolerate perpetually surly and stoned-looking staff. Their counter food was always pretty good, though.
-
O what a trip down memory lane this thread is...
ok, one more, Potter Blair, 'Hairdressers, Art Merchants and Coffee'..initially in the Auckland Star building in Shortland Street, then down to Vulcan Lane where you could get served by some starlet and sit outside in the late eighties looking across at the multi-coloured men's suits being sold by Monsoon.
-
Andiamo in Herne Bay was doing proper hot chocolate based on that type of paste. Theirs was from Belgium, I think, but it sure was impressive. Same for Il Buco's served from the counter-top slushy machine. Don't know anything about frappucino, sorry Suze.
Rob, was Jack Henderson working at Just Desserts when you went there? I remember him holding court over the backgammon board, subversive conversations and some compelling apple cake. Was one of the only places open really late, other than the Open Late with its wonderful outdoor fireplace and over-lit interior.
-
__ can't say i'd have spent $3000 on a coffee machine myself__
And yet you wonder why not everyone can make good espresso when a "munter" like yourself can.
When it comes to espresso, good kit is important.
Sure. But I meant: "why can't people paid (and often actually trained) to make coffee for customers, with professional kit, make a coffee somewhere near as good as I can at home?"
-
Love, Mr Brown, Love. :)
-
As mentioned - top thread - great tales. Thank you.
And whoever posted the scary squirrel movie - thank you.
Paul - thanks for the tips on the language.
Next week I'm teaching volume to my students - I might visit Starbucks to get some cups - then open the discussion up with the language of measuring volume. Is it accurate. Is it fair.
Always satisfying to get students to challenge what's in front of them.
-
Rob, was Jack Henderson working at Just Desserts when you went there? I remember him holding court over the backgammon board, subversive conversations and some compelling apple cake.
Don't remember anyone by name but the backgammon board rings a bell.
One Wellington story: just after I moved here in '95, going into Neo on Willis St and saying 'Just a latte thanks' and the guy pulling himself up to his full height and saying with exaggerated dignity 'we don't do just lattes'.
I know this will confirm the "wellington coffee snob" line but he was taking the piss.
-
can't say i'd have spent $3000 on a coffee machine myself
Can say ,was given an Atomic (garage sale) from my parents many years ago and to this day a beautiful coffee is made (whatever type wanted) and when we go away for holidays,the trusty little thing comes along. Sits on the gas ring makes the coffee,then steams the milk.Anyone who tries this,remembers and looks forward to another.Also took a trip to Oxford to find a good coffee on hols around England then found out about the cafe in Soho but that was on a lucky visit to Escargot around the corner from the cafe. They could make a good coffee there which was well enjoyed after my exquisite 3 course meal.(Thankyou muchly Des!)
-
How do you steam millk with an atomic? I assume that's the number with the water chamber in the bottom, the bit for the coffee screws into the middle and the top chamber catches the water that's passed through the coffee when it boils.
I've had adequate travel coffee made in a saucepan. Same principle as a plunger but with more careful decanting.
-
and 10 points to someone who can name the cook-by-numbers method macdonalds and other fast food places follow
Speedee? IIRC 90 seconds timers for fries, 90 seconds each side for the patties, apple pies, as long as it takes to sell.10 minutes then bin the food although the timer in the display cabinets would mysteriously move so food would often be saved longer.We always knew the canadian cod used for the fish burgers was dodgy after about 10 minutes so were careful not to poison anyone there.And the milkshake syrup required a jack hammer to remove from the fridge floor.Solid as....Personally I ...never mind,the food was never good And then I could recall some horror stories:) .
-
this type is the one we have B Jones. You fill it and pressure builds which pushes the coffee through to jug then turn knob for steamer and hey presto! Most beautiful coffee and stunning little machinery to boot.
-
Il caffè è un piacere / Se non è buono, che piacere è?
Assolutamente.
What so impressed me about Italian coffee was the fact that it was done so quickly, with seemingly such little care - yet in reality was layered with perfectionism and a care so deep that it just wasn't noticeable on the surface.Just made a coffee. I could see it was coming out beautifully straight away by the blobbing and tiger-striping. I'm now back to wondering why 90% of cafes can't make a cup as good as some munter like me can make at home ...
Having purchased a grinder and machine recently (not quite to the Domobar grade but still) I'm in love with the ritual and buggering-around-with that comes with the pulling of an espresso shot. The coffee version of Slow Food I suppose...
-
What so impressed me about Italian coffee was the fact that it was done so quickly, with seemingly such little care - yet in reality was layered with perfectionism and a care so deep that it just wasn't noticeable on the surface.
Yes, although that's apparently more the case in the north, as my barista (a southerner) explained to me the first time I went home after movingn here, and I remarked that coffee here was good but they took their time making it.
Speaking of caring, though, no discussion about coffee would be complete without mentioning the Neapolitan tradition of the "caffè pagato", the paid-for coffee. What happens is after you've consumed your customary morning espresso sometimes you'll choose to pay double, and leave a paid-for coffee. Thanks to this practice, the place will be able to cater for a few known customers who couldn't otherwise afford their daily tazzulella 'e cafè, without them having to ask or you having to offer.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.