Jeremey's Weblog

Epic Espresso

Max at Catalina is bringing in guest espressos every month, and this month it's Epic Espresso from 49th Parallel Roasters.

WOW. It's really good stuff... if you're in Houston and you drink espresso, you need to go by Catalina and check it out.

Epic is rich and deep and smooth... flavors are predominantly "rich and smooth" flavors like chocolate. There's some brightness but it's definitely muted... maybe a little citrus, a little floral. Just enough to give it depth and character. It's the best I've had, certainly.

Technorati Tags:
coffee, espresso, catalina, 49th parallel

Great Shots!

I pulled three very good shots this morning! Woohoo! I just had to share.

Three, you ask? Yes... I pulled one, it was good. So I pulled another, it was good too. So I had to pull one more. And it was good. But four would be really pushing the caffeine intake. :)

CoffeeGeek Meetup

I went to a meetup at Catalina Coffee (best coffee in Houston) for CoffeeGeek users this afternoon, and it was great fun... lots of great coffee and conversation.

Kudos to Max (Catalina's owner) for being devoted to quality coffee and for helping build a coffee community here in Houston.

I forget what the bean was, but we got to compare the same coffee brewed in a Chemex, a FETCO extractor, and French press. The Chemex brew was light and flavorful, but my personal preference was for the FETCO or the press... both had more body. The Chemex is almost tea-like. I could definitely see using all three (the FETCO being definitely a commercial unit).

As always, the lattes were beautiful and delicious:

Technorati Tags:
coffee, coffeegeek

The Almost Perfect Food

For one brief moment, I had found the perfect food... Fior di nocciola. It's basically organic nutella.

I read the nutrition label... calories per serving... 140. Servings per container... 1. ONE?! You mean this ENTIRE 12oz JAR OF CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT GOODNESS is only 140 calories?!?!?!

You could eat like 10 jars a day and still lose weight! BLISS!!!

But it was not to be. Then I read the serving size. Those *#&#%$@ people screwed up their nutrition label. Yes it says 1 serving per container, but 1 serving is only 28 grams... hellooooo there are 350 grams in the jar!

NOOOOoooooooooo!

Technorati Tags:
food, chocolate, nutella

Now That's a Knife!

My new toy... 10" Shun classic chef's knife. I have their 7" santoku already, but this is the big daddy of them all. Shun knives are crazy sharp, far sharper than my very nice German knives (due to the alloy used, etc.). Plus they're purty.

I recently discovered that Alton Brown is a big fan of Shuns too... he even has a self-made "commercial" for them, Good Eats style. See the video on altonbrown.com. And here's the link to his Shun knife page.

Technorati Tags: food

Here 'Tis!

Technorati Tags: food

No-knead Bread

This recipe for no-knead bread has generated some buzz... it was highlighted in this article in the NYT (free registration maybe required). Mine is in the oven, almost done!

Basically you let the dough rise for 18 hours... time is the big ingredient. And also baking a very moist dough in a Le Creuset or other similar heavy cast iron dutch oven seems to create favorable conditions much like commercial steam ovens.

I will report when I've eaten some!

Chowhound thread: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/340910

Technorati Tags: bread, food

Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA

This is a fantastically good beer. It's a wet-hopped IPA (and dry-hopped too, apparently) to the extreme, but it also has great malty character and thickness. The floral complexity of the hops is amazing. Wow. This might be my new favorite.

The brewery: http://www.dogfish.com/

Technorati Tags: beer, drink

CHOW

I'm liking CHOW. Not just because it was developed with Rails. ;) It's a cool food site, good articles, and it's pleasant to use.

Technorati Tags: chow, food, rubyonrails

Smokin' Mac

OK, for the heat lovers out there, you gotta try this. Next time you make (or "make") mac-n-cheese, finish it off with a couple chipotles in adobo sauce and a bit of the sauce. For my own bowl, two peppers (chopped very fine) and half a tablespoon or so of sauce. Mix it in good. For a pot, you probably want more, if you're into heat. Smoky fiery creamy cheesy goodness. Mmmm.

...and you thought this was gonna be yet another blog about overheating Powerbooks...