Coffee photos that speak for themselves... · Monday February 28, 2011 by colin newell
Not entirely sure why I find this photo amusing… taken some years ago – the Barista action figure I picked up in Halifax if memory serves me correctly.
Click on the photo below for the full meal deal.
Press coffee is my center of the Universe.
Whether it is from DISCO on Oak Bay Avenue…
Or HABIT COFFEE and CULTURE on Yates at Blanshard.
Or wherever it is being made.
I am there.
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Andrea's Dirty Rice with Chicken - Cooking Cajun · Sunday February 13, 2011 by colin newell
1 cups rice cooked
1 Pound chicken breast boneless fillet (pan fried with salt and pepper)
1 Yellow pepper chunky chopped
1 Red pepper chunky chopped
1 standard yellow onion chunky chopped
1 Anaheim pepper chunky chopped
Saute above vegetables in pan that was used for chicken
Saute/sweat vegetables for 10 minutes
5 minutes into sweat, add
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons parsley flakes
3 tablespoons creole seasoning *
1 teaspoon chili flakes
Stir into vegetable saute – and add 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Chilpotle sauce concentrate OR favorite hot sauce.
Chop up cooked chicken into bite size pieces and add to vegetable mix.
Add rice in thirds.
Add 1/2 cup of chicken stock.
Serve with sleeves of Irish Beer – this is a hot and spicy dish.
Creole seasoning recipe we use:
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt (optional)
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried leaf thyme
Paying your dues - coffee style - 2011 · Sunday February 6, 2011 by colin newell
Andrea and I spent an early Saturday sitting in my all time favorite rural cafe – The Drumroaster – Just off the Island Highway at the Cowichan Bay turn-off.
We eschewed sleep, this 1st whole weekend back from a month in Hawaii, to hang out with foodie Don Genova and his lovely wife Ramona. We have been corresponding for some time now – and considering we are taking some cooking classes with Don – well, we thought it was a good idea to meet up and catch up.
Photo right – Don’t diss the gurus. Geir Oglend (and company) at Drumroaster Coffee knows his stuff. So, sit, listen and learn newbies…
So over a pot of Bunn Trifecta brewed Ethiopian coffee (the Trifecta was a completely new experience for me…) Andrea, Ramona, Don and I compared pleasant stories about our recent time in Hawaii – Like, what is more fun or almost as fun as going somewhere? Answer: Spending an hour talking about the highlights – and talking about future trips.
Let me say this about Drumroaster Coffee – one place on the Island that has that special edge. Like several other Victoria area cafes and bakeries, The DR has that rare quality of making every customer feel like family. It could be the intense attention to detail, greeting every familiar face, the owners and staff table surfing and taking that extra moment to find out what happening with folks.
It took me a long time to figure this out. Guess I was looking in the wrong direction. Owners Geir and Pat Oglend (and their coffee active family members – Courtney and Carsen) have played critical roles in shaping the Island coffee scene; co-creators of Serious Coffee, Broadwalk Coffee, and the first espresso carts ever added to Victoria.
My point is: When the Drumroaster people talk, listen… Listen if you want to learn something about coffee culture. Same applies to Habit Culture and Discovery Coffee… even Cafe Fantastico. When folks like Mark Engels talk about food and coffee culture at Bubby Roses Bakery, it is the straight goods. These people have been doing it right for a long time.
And the other thing I learned is – there is no “pecking order” in food and drink knowledge locally. We all know who has the most knowledge (named above) and that is not going to change. There is always going to be the elder statespersons in the local scene. Their knowledge is never going to be irrelevant.
This little rule (for me) applies here… in Vancouver, Seattle and beyond.
So shut up and learn.
That, folks, is my thinking today.
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Fall Fun Food and Follies 5 Things to do while you are alive · Monday November 8, 2010 by colin newell
Yesterday my wife and I set aside some time to meet with a neighbor.
A new neighbor in fact. A lady who has located to Victoria after her husband had retired.
They had lived and worked around Canada… in places as far flung as Halifax, Ottawa, Saskatoon and Regina.
She grew up in Germany and was a young child as Hitler was beginning his reign of terror on Europe.
She is actually an amalgam of German and Danish. A handsome and studied woman, she had seen a lot of stuff in the mid-forties – and although just a child at the time (she) formed a solid impression of what Nazism and Fascism truly represented. And how we need to be watchful even today.
And here she was in 2010 telling us about what life was like for a young girl in Nazi Germany and then for a young woman starting a new life in the West.
Her story has an interesting and tragic twist. Her husband and she had just started to settle in Victoria (in their late seventies and in perfect health) looked forward to the golden years pursuing their mutual passion of sailing and travel.
A freak accident however took her husbands life a few months ago – and now she has to carry on the journey alone. Sad.
In just under 3 hours we covered a stimulating chunk of Western history, from life in Germany in the War to new beginnings in Canada in the late 50’s – The magic of Canada in the 60’s – the evolution of the Canadian identity in the early 70’s and so on.
She has over 30 years on me, with a correspondingly more encompassing sense of the big picture and an acute sense of the absurd in how some aspects of Western society have remained virtually unchanged since the last Great War.
Sobering stuff indeed.
I learned a bunch of stuff from this gal. One of them is: Tomorrow really never comes. Every day really is your last until proven otherwise. Care for those around you. Love your friends. Leave your mind entirely open for new ideas. Embrace strangers because, hey, you never know.
Keeping doors open. It is what we all need to do.
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