And The Missing Letters Were....

So the missing letters from the last post were v and l which should allow you to spell the name of a well known Belgian beer; Duvel. I was assuming that at least one of my readers would drink enough Belgian beer to recognise the distinctive font used on Duvel bottels and glasses but I was guessing I was a little over optimistic.

I was trying to spell Duvel as I'm currently in Gent, Belgium (I've been giving a GATE training course to a great bunch of people at CrossLang) and happened to arrive in the middle of their yearly arts/music festival. The hotel I'm staying at has a Duvel sponsored bar, and for each Duvel you buy you get two tokens which represent bottle tops with a letter on them. If you manage to spell out Duvel then you get a free commemorative Duvel beer glass.

It took me two nights and some trading of tokens but I now have my glass and lasting proof that I was here. Of course now I have to hope that I can take the glass on the plane home within my hand luggage, a) so that it will survive and b) as I don't have any checked luggage with me (after my trip to Marrakech I try and avoid checking luggage unless I really need to).

A Very Welcome Sight

I arrived in Paris today for a work meeting that lasts until the end of the week. This is actually turning into something of a habit as I was in Paris from Tuesday to Friday last week for a meeting related to another project I'm working on. If this week is anything like last week then there won't be much to blog about as I won't get to do any sight seeing of any kind. Having said that I did think the sight that greeted me when I got to my hotel room today was worth blogging about.

When traveling in mainland Europe I'm always annoyed by the fact that hotels never seem to provide coffee making facilities in the rooms. This is common in the UK, but I've almost never seen it anywhere else. So imagine my surprise, and delight, when I found a kettle and coffee in my room. Mind you I guess this means the rest of the week will be downhill from here!

Breeds of Chicken

We had planned this summer to start keeping chickens. Unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan. Firstly we haven't got as far with the garden as we would have liked, which means that there isn't yet anywhere to put a hen house. Secondly we had the unexpected expense of having to replace the car after it failed it's MOT so badly that it wasn't worth having it fixed. This does mean that we have had a lot of time to read up on keeping chickens and to spend time trying to figure out which breeds we would like to keep. Bryony has been doing most of the reading while I've settled on at least three varieties of hen I'm happy keeping: golden, speckled and crafty!

On the serious side, we are looking at having four chickens of different breeds which lay different coloured eggs. Not only will both the chickens and their eggs like nice and varied but it seems a really good way, especially as we get used to things, of keeping track of the health of each bird. If we suddenly don't have white eggs we will know which bird is sick.

Drinking From The Bottle

Apparently drinking beer straight from the bottle is considered a little uncouth! But like me "Fred likes to glug his beer from the bottle, but Mrs. Fred is appalled. So Fred went out and did something about it -- he created this bottle-in-a-glass as an homage to real men like him." Fred you are my hero!

If you also aren't allowed to drink straight from the bottle then you could buy your very own glass.

First Cup Of The Day

For years I used a mixture of free coasters (I acquired quite a few as a student) and AOL CDs (well they should never actually be placed inside a computer), but last Christmas Bryony bought me a set of 'proper' coasters for the desk in my study. I'm not entirely sure how accurate the message is though.

Whilst it is undoubtedly true that before my first cup of coffee I can't handle anything, I'm not sure that after the first cup I can handle everything!

A Very British BBQ

On Saturday we had a very British BBQ:

• There were sausages.
  
• There were burgers.
• There was copious quantities of beer (Yorkshire Square to be precise).
• There was a lot of rain!
  

Disaster Strikes!

I've run out of instant coffee! This is a disaster! I've no idea how it happened but this is the first time in my life I've run out of coffee.

Ah well I'll just have to make do with fresh coffee for the rest of today until I can get to a supermarket tomorrow -- how will I cope!

Coffee in Breakfast

Whilst I like a proper full English for breakfast I'm also quite happy with a continental breakfast as long as it is accompanied by copious amounts of strong black coffee.

This morning though I got coffee both with and in my breakfast! The drink was better than the food but as yet another source of caffeine I can't complain.

Remember the Wine

Have you ever drunk a great bottle of wine and then not been able to remember what it was? This has happened to me quite a few times especially when I've had a good wine in a restaurant and not been able to write down what it was without looking rather strange.

The Hardys wine range has solved this problem with these ingenious little tear off labels. They are part of the label on the back of the bottle and easily peel off leaving you with all the details you need to find the wine later. Shame I've never seen them on bottles of wine from anyone else. Hopefully they catch on.

Tassimo Coffee Maker

You may remember that around a year ago I started a sequence of posts looking at making coffee, mostly so I could talk about the cornucopia of coffee machines I own. Sorting through some photos I was reminded that I had intended to blog about a Tassimo coffee machine.

One of the two hotels we stayed at on honeymoon was Sheildhill Castle which rather than a kettle had a Tassimo coffee machine in the room. Now surprisingly I had not only never used one of these machines but I'd never even seen one in the flesh before. They are really simple to use (stick in the water and a pod, sit back and wait for coffee) and will make other drinks not just coffee. Honestly though I think I prefer any of my other machines.

Firstly, the use of a single pod for a single cup of coffee has to be bad for the environment. Secondly what happens if Tassimo stop making the pods, or in the current financial crisis, go bust? Easy, the machines will suddenly stop producing coffee, an absolute nightmare!

I think the best thing about them is that they are convenient for a hotel and very easy to clean. Also the brightly coloured pods laid out in a tray look pretty!

Hot Milk

When you have a cold and a sore throat (as I do at the moment) there are many remedies you could take. For example, Lemsip is supposed to help both your throat as well as providing some pain relief. Personally though I much prefer a simpler home remedy.

Add a tablespoon of golden syrup to a mug of hot milk and stir well. Then grate copious amounts of fresh nutmeg on top. Wrap up warm, relax and drink your milk. I promise you will start to feel better!

Bringing Home The Wine

Having been to Bordeaux I had to bring at least one bottle of red wine home with me. Unfortunately that turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.

Given the number of security restrictions in place when flying I knew that I wouldn't be able to buy wine in Bordeaux and then safely bring it home. I couldn't put it in my case for fear of it breaking and I wouldn't be allowed it in my hand luggage as it would definitely be more than 100ml in volume. So I decided to risk there being good wine to buy in Bordeaux airport after having passed through security.

Fortunately there was a shop after security with a pretty decent choice of French wine from the Bordeaux region. After quite a while I settled on the bottle in the picture. Paying for it, however, was where the trouble started.

I handed over cash and in return was given my wine in a carrier bag to make it easier to carry onto the flight. To me this all seemed reasonable. An hour or so later we arrived in Gatwick where we were due to change onto an internal flight to Manchester. This is where a problem quickly became apparent. To transfer from an international flight with BA to a national flight with BA you have to leave through passport control and security and then re-enter the airport as if you have just arrived at the airport by any other means of transport. This of course means that you have to go back through security and passport control where you cannot take a wine bottle. It turns out that in Bordeaux they should have placed my wine bottle in a clear plastic bag with the receipt clearly visible and then heat sealed the bag with security tape. If they had done that then I could have taken it onboard as hand luggage without a problem.

Fortunately BA were happy to put the wine in the hold so all I (and my boss who had bought two bottles) had to do was securely wrap it. So we traipsed across the check-in area to buy some bubble wrap at the luggage office then back across to check the wine into the hold and then back across again to the slow luggage belt where it was marked as fragile before being entrusted to the baggage system.

Fortunately it survived the short journey to Manchester without incident and was thoroughly enjoyed (with Venison steak) on Sunday evening.

Shopping in the Souks - Part 2

When I described my trip to the souk in Marrakech I mentioned that I actually did do some shopping. Almost every meal served in Morocco will end with mint tea. So I bought a tea set so that when I try and cook Moroccan food at home I can also try and make mint tea in the proper kind of pot and serve it in the right kind of glasses.

Of course nothing in the souk has a fixed price. I have no idea if I paid way over the odds for the set or not but I did manage to bring the price down by 200 dirhams (about £14) from his initial asking price.

Dalhousie Castle Cafetiere Coffee

The first hotel we stayed in was Dalhousie Castle. I'll get to talking about the hotel in a later post, but first impressions were good.

As many of you will know I quite like coffee. So I was very impressed with the coffee tray in the hotel room. The tray didn't contain the normal boring packets of instant coffee, instead there was a cafetiere and Dalhousie Castle branded packets of fresh coffee (and decaf for those who might prefer that). Not only did it look good but it was also by far the best coffee I've ever made in a hotel room.

The Whisky Shop

It took a long time before someone offered me a whisky I could drink without the burning sensation making me want to pass out. The first whisky I really liked was a 10 year old Isle of Jura single malt and to this day it is still me favourite.

Given that good whisky is expensive I'm always wary of buying a bottle only to find that I don't like it. Given this I'm definitely a fan of the Glenkeir Treasures range from The Whisky Shop. They buy barrels of whisky direct from the distilleries and then decant into small bottles upon request. This way you can try lots of different whiskies at a fraction of the cost it would cost you to try them by buying normal sized bottles. I found out about the shop when I was bought a 10cl bottle of 12 year old Ben Nevis whisky for my birthday last year. A truly fantastic whisky!

Now I have a clearer idea of what I think makes a good whisky I'm going to follow this flavour chart and try some more light and delicate whiskies. Although I won't rule out trying a smoky rich whisky either!

Coffee: "Cona" Vacuum Pot

Click To Play

On this strange journey through my coffee making equipment we reach the final stop, a "Cona" Vacuum Pot. I was given this coffee machine as a graduation present back in 2006. This machine is my most recent, most expensive, most fragile and most fun coffee machine. It also makes the best coffee!

Often referred to in our house as my chemsitry set it is difficult to describe how it works (other than it involves creating a vacuum) so I videoed it making a pot of coffee. Given how fragile looking it is and the fact that it takes quite a while to make coffee this way I don't use it very often, but it is great for getting out and making coffee at the table after a meal with guests.

I hope you enjoyed that brief tour around my coffee making equipment. At least now if you are ever in the house you will know what kind of coffee you can ask for!

Coffee: Filter Coffee Machine and Espresso Pot

So far we have seen a cafetiere and an espresso machine. Whilst they both make nice coffee they are not very useful when you have lots of people around who all want coffee all the time! For that you need a filter coffee machine. They are easy to use (add coffee and water and leave alone), they keep the coffee hot, and they are easy to clean and refill when the coffee runs out. Again I went for a relatively cheap model, but it works a charm and makes it very easy for me to provide lots of coffee.

The next coffee machine I acquired, an espresso pot, was a present. An espresso pot is the exact opposite of the filter coffee machine in that it makes a single cup of coffee. Unlike the previous ways of making coffee this one is actually quite fun as there is a certain element of having to watch and wait for the coffee to be ready -- mainly so you don't burn the thing dry leaving it on the heat too long. As an added bonus it works quite well on an Aga.

Coffee: Espresso Machine

Whilst I'm usually happy with coffee made in a cafetiere, I do like a good espresso. So the second coffee machine I bought was a cheap espresso machine. The nice thing about this particular machine is that it has an attachment for making frothy milk. Now I never have milk in my coffee but I know someone who does like a good cappuccino. This usually means that I make a full cafetiere of coffee and a full carafe of espresso so that I can also froth enough milk to make a nice cappuccino using the cafetiere coffee so that everyone is happy.

Coffee: Cafetiere

The first piece of coffee making equipment I ever bought (other than a kettle!) was this cafetiere back in the autumn of 1998. Given that it has been very well used over the last 9 and a bit years I'm surprised that it has lasted as well as it has -- especially given that the glass in my parents first cafetiere got broken on one of the first attempts I made to clean it after it had been used!

As coffee makers go a cafetiere is relatively boring. You add coffee grounds and hot water, wait a minute or so then depress the plunger so as to ensure the grounds don't end up in your cup. However, for someone who was used to instant coffee, the difference in taste is phenomenal and was well worth the small investment at a time when I was a relatively penniless university student. I can't remember exactly where mine came from (other than it was a shop in Meadowhall) or how much it cost, but the Another Coffee website has quite a range to choose from, including one attractively priced at £8.95 for the current crop of penniless coffee loving students.

The first coffee I bought to use in the cafetiere was Hot Lava Java from Taylors of Harrogate. I was probably drawn to this brand a) by the bright coloured packet b) the free matching storage tin and c) because the back of the packet described the coffee as a "blast of pure caffeine". The description goes on to say: Containing twice as much caffeine as a normal coffee, this blend is not for the faint hearted. Drink it at night, it'll keep you wide eyed until the wee small hours. Drink it during the day, you'll have so much energy you won't be able to sit down. Thinking back it was quite popular late at night with my housemates when we all had coursework deadlines the following day!

Coffee: Introduction

Given the title of this blog I thought it was about time I talked about coffee. So over a number of posts I'm going to introduce you to the frankly daft amount of coffee making equipment I own. First though I thought I'd start with a couple of good resources for anyone else who is interested in coffee, and to which I'll refer during these set of blog postings. So, among the many books I own are two entirely devoted to coffee.

The Coffee House - A Cultural History: This is a fantastic history of the introduction of coffee and the coffee house culture to England and mainland Europe. From the first coffee house in London opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosée, to the modern proliferation of coffee house chains, such as Starbucks, there is very little of the history of coffee in England that is not covered by this book. A very interesting read, even if you aren't that interested in drinking the coffee!

Coffee: The title says it all, this book is like an encyclopedia of coffee (I assume the linked book is the same even though the ISBN numbers don't match). Whilst it does overlap slightly with the previous book it also provides detailed instructions for using many different types of coffee maker as well as quite a few coffee based recipes. I've found it very useful, even if only for working out what approach to making coffee I want to try next!

And for those of you without ready access to my collection of books there are a few useful/interesting websites as well.

The Another Coffee website is a great place to go to buy anything coffee related, from coffee to very expensive espresso machines through cheap but simple ways to make coffee. I could probably spend a small fortune on this site if I let myself.

Whilst not entirely useful, the "illustrated" coffee cups on World of Latte are lots of fun to look at, but if I ever make you a cup of coffee don't expect it to look quite that fancy!

Hopefully that has whetted your appetite for the coffee related blog posts that will follow over the next few days/weeks.