Summer Fun Food Drink and Gear - BING Bots suck - Chapter 20 · Wednesday August 18, 2010 by colin newell
Misfiring Microsoft search bots at BING.com have been hammering my site so much lately I had to put an HTACCESS block on them – not to stop the site being overrun with their crazy spiders… but to save my pocketbook.
Looking at my detailed web logs, it appeared that I was being scanned by “20-30 bots every few seconds”, appearing much like a denial of service attack.
The IP addresses of the bots – Had almost 90,000 hits on my website yesterday – came from 65.55.25.149 – the culprit Microsoft.com in Redmond.
Those people are not only incapable of developing a stable operating system; VISTA or Windows 7… but also, they haven’t a clue about running a search engine.
So guess what?
You’re blocked!
Microsoft gobbled almost 8% of my monthly web bandwidth in one day – thanks a lot folks.
Now piss off.
Colin Newell is a Victoria area resident, food writer, blogger and multimedia engineer – when he is not working at a local University, he is on the hunt for the perfect cup of coffee…
Summer Fun Food and Drink 19 Cafe Conversations · Sunday August 8, 2010 by colin newell
Good cafe conversations are like a mountain stream – your best bet is to sit on the edge and listen to it babble gently – and occasionally toss a small stone in and watch the ripples.
And I had a lively converse over cups of exotic HABIT coffee with writer and raconteur Brennan Storr this afternoon.
Brennan Storr is a twenty-something amalgam of a Mickey Spillane character with a bit of Hunter S. Thompson’s DNA thrown in for good measure. Razor sharp social observation and witty quips and retorts fly randomly like a scattered stacked deck of playing cards.
And that is before the first sip of superb single origin what-cha-ma-call-it from somewhere in central Africa. Sorry hipster HABIT coffee brewers. Not paying attention.
Brennan is the kind of guy who is just as comfortable in a hipster cafe as he is at an anonymous motel room on Main Street, Big City, Canada – up to whatever writers and raconteurs do in their spare time. For the faint of heart – you probably don’t want to know. Let’s assume that he, like me, likes to wander the streets of Vancouver, Los Angeles or Toronto draped in the cloak of anonymity that only the large urban melange can afford.
Mister Storr is also better known, perhaps, for his twisted and quirky food writing on Largely the Truth – A site that relies as much on being alert and prepared when you are reading it and also maybe holding a glass with a finger of Scotch and a Cuban cigar with your free hand.
It is heavy reading at times but rewards the reader with a wild-card or two of genuine funny with the tasty aspect of his muse and impression of Food in Western Canada.
Brennan is also a regular on the social medium known as Twitter – and if you are not following him, you are not really living. He is funny, spontaneous, irreverent and unpredictable in 140 character measure. Drinking coffee with the man has its occupational hazards – unless of course you mind being subjected to the free form style normally reserved for open mike comedy night.
Which I am always up for – because I like conversational stimulation – like I like my coffee… hot, fresh and from a mysterious corner of my cerebral cortex.
And as it has turned out, Twitter and social networking has turned out to be beneficial. I find inspiration in the oddest places and it takes me to the next level in my writing – wherever that might be.
Meantime, watching the mountain stream… making its way to the Sea.
Long time resident of Victoria, Colin Newell, eats drinks and lives popular culture on an Island called Vancouver – and finds the life and times of the Cafe Modern most interesting.
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Summer food fun and drink chapter 17 Victoria's best poutine · Saturday July 31, 2010 by colin newell
Mathieu Lott, owner and Poutine chef at La Belle Patate on Esquimalt Road in Victoria B.C. Canada knows his potatoes. He loves his potatoes – and it shows.
And if you think that there is only one kind of spud, you are sadly wrong.
Photo right – Mathieu Lott owner and operator of La Belle Patate has a love for the apple of the Earth!
Mathieu, or Matty as his employees and friends call him, lists off the variety of potatoes that he uses and the quantities – thousands of pounds of potatoes come into La Belle Patate to be cleaned, peeled and hand-cut into perfect fries.
Because fries are the bedrock of a great poutine.
Ah Poutine. For the uninitiated, Poutine is a dish of French fries, topped with a thick and dark vegetable based gravy and a macadam of Island made cheese curds. And for those who feel that this might not be the most healthy meal – Poutine is a cruise missile with your arteries in the cross hairs. After a platter of poutine (in our case the Vege BBQ version), two “Steamie” – all dressed steamed hot dogs (and buns) loaded down with pickled cabbage (saur kraut) and mustard – washed down with two lemon Nestea drinks that have about 15 scoops of sugar per tin… Let’s just say that if your pancreas has not packed it in and your arteries have not clogged beyond repair – then the added salt is pushing your blood-pressure into the red zone.
Which is an entirely good and wonderful thing.
We try to get to La Belle Patate once a month for a “correction” in our normally great, border line hippy eating habits – because HEY, our internal organs and cardio-vascular system need to be reminded from time to time who is in charge here!
Lunch for 2 with drinks: $14.
La Belle Patate is located at 1215 Esquimalt Road a half-block past the Civic Center and Esquimalt’s original strip mall. Bon apetit!
Mathieu Lott recently traveled to New York city to check out the burgeoning poutine-scene and found it hopeful but in need of a bit of work…
Summer Food Fun and Drink Number 9 Hipster Universe · Sunday July 11, 2010 by colin newell
The Victoria B.C. coffee scene is pretty unique to the Planet Earth. We have the best possible beverages prepared in every imaginable fashion.
Espresso coffee? It’s hard to beat. Like your drip? We have that too. In Victoria you can get Synesso coffee, Aeropressed coffee, Hario V60 coffee, Siphon coffee – heck you can even get instant coffee if you ask politely.
And it really is some of the best coffee anywhere in North America.
I would happily and confidently put my local baristas against anyone on this caffeinated Planet knowing that they would place well.
And it is not like we have some special corner of the market on the beans – because we do not.
We have some mighty fine roasters – and some of the best folks who know how to import some mighty fine “already roasted” beans if necessary.
We have a cafe for every one and every taste.
If you are a fan of the single origin bean (like an Ethiopian Sidamo or a Mexico Malinal) then Cafe Fantastico might be your java joint? Their roasters Derek and Ryan are top in their game and know how far to push a green bean to get the best out of it.
Black Stilt coffee (two locations) takes the environment so seriously that they discard about one garbage bag of refuse a week – The coffee is good and their Hillside location is popular with University and College kids.
For the “Too Cool for School” set, there is HABIT COFFEE AND CULTURE – Owner Shane Devereaux’s laid back style is an odd juxtaposition in a space that is hipper than a Kerouac novel – and the coffee is bad ass however it’s prepared. I do the Press when I am there – it is always perfect and the sugary selection of baked goods is always enticing.
Looking for the Zen of coffee? Consider Discovery Coffee (2 locations) – maybe not as happening as HABIT, but the turntable is just as likely to be blaring The Stones or Creedence Clearwater Revival and the coffee is never less than leading edge.
Want to drive a few extra miles? Drumroaster Coffee on the Island highway near Cobble Hill and the Cow Bay turn-off is the home of coffee senzei’s Geir, Pat and Carsen Oglend. Geir is the great grand-pappy of Island coffee and you are assured of no less than a perfectly transcendent cup of mud.
Tell them I sent you!
