Coffee time

On a spilt shift today so had some daylight to play with - rare in the midwinter working calendar. First decision was to have coffee.....second was to take a few shots of the process and the key ingredient. Honestly, that was the order.

The Mocha

Decided to go with the Mocha coffee maker today. It has been good to me over the mayhem of the past few weeks - speedy, strong and quintessentially (cough cough) Italian!

The Bean

The Bean & the Grind

My grinder has blades - highly controversial I know but it is what it is. It does the trick for what I need....for the moment.

The Mocha

Bringing something new to Paris - Le Bal Cafe

Welsh Rarebit made with Ireland's finest Guinness

Le Bal Cafe is offering a little twist to the norm in Paris. Top notch filter coffee, welsh rarebit, oxtail, bread & butter pudding and great service.  Not to be missed for dinner or brunch if you're up around Place de Clichy. Yes, I am totally biased for reasons of friendship, but I will gladly be a loyal regular any time I'm in Paris 'cos they are that good!

David maintaining his filter focus!

Dib dib dib......it's all about being prepared!

Be prepared

It is incredible watching the baristas in action in the busy coffee houses in Italy. The preparation and work-rate put in to give Italy its espresso caffeine fix is very impressive. From the Autogrill (don't dis it till you've tried it) flyovers across the Autostrade from Rome to Naples, to the more traditional but very stylish Caffé Alvino in Lecce the coffee turnover is phenomenal. 
I haven't quite figured out is the en-masse desire for an espresso simply an addiction or something closer to religion with millions of Italians worshipping  at the great altar of the barista. 

The bar at Caffe Alvino

Caffe Alvino had thousands of extra incentives to keep you seated......arancini, calzone, fagottini (hot dogs and chips wrapped in pastry), rustico, crostata, dolci, biscotti.... I could go on! Yum!

Dolci at Caffe Alvino

We took ourselves off to Edinburgh last week to visit Donal and Sandra and to take in the Snow Patrol gig in Glasgow.  By way of recovery from a very class concert we went in search of coffee and a catch-up with Agata - a friend I had not spoken to face-to-face with for 10 years!  Cutting that longer story short, we ended up in the Elephant House famed as a place of inspiration and relaxation for J.K. Rowling while writing Harry Potter.  Needless to say as a Potter fan (not avid but still a fan) I was quite impressed by my surroundings, the atmosphere and the view but the quality of the coffee in the Elephant House was not so enthralling. I am pretty sure there was coffee in there somewhere, perhaps hiding at the bottom of the massive mug.  Fun nonetheless!