Not long after arriving in Vancouver I signed up to the coffeegeek Vancouver event mailing list. From time to time Mark Prince, the founder of coffeegeek.com organises some kind of get together for coffeegeeks in the Vancouver area. Last Sunday afternoon was the first such event that I have been invited to, and hopefully it won't be the last. This particular event was a cupping of several of the cup of excellence winners from Brazil. Cup of Excellence is a competition that selects the very best coffee produced in that country for that particular year. The winners are auctioned off to the highest bidder.
The cupping that I went to was a cupping of the 5 winning coffees from Brazil. The whole cupping thing was a new experience to me, but one I had read a bit about in the past and had always wanted to try it, so this was a great opportunity. Basically cupping involves brewing several different coffees in separate cups at the same time, keeping as many of the variables constant as possible (ie grind size, roast level, roast date, brew time etc) then taking a spoon and slurping spoonfuls of coffee and comparing them to each other. You repeat this several times as the coffees cool to see how the flavours change as the temperature drops. Of the five coffees only one of them tasted significantly different to me at first, and I found that the one that tasted different was my least favourite of the five (although still very nice). It was pretty interesting hearing some of the others describing what they were tasting, although I couldn't taste any fruit punch in cup E, it just tasted like very nice coffee to me. In one of the coffees I did start to detect what could be described as a citrus kind of taste but only very slightly. When it came time to pick our favourite Reuben was the only one there that identified the number 1 bean as being his favourite. The rest of us all chose number 5 and I actually thought bean number 1 was the worst one there, I guess taste is a very subjective thing.
After the cupping we got to sample three very special coffees as a french press. The first one was a Panama something, and roasted it retails at around US$110 a pound. By far the most expensive coffee I have ever tried. It was also the nicest french press I have had too. A very unique taste that we all agreed was exceptionally pleasing.
The second bean was the pick of the crop from the Skybury Farms in Australia. It also retailed at a pretty high price, though not nearly as high as the Panama. I didn't really like it much, actually none of us thought it was anything special. Sure it was better than your typical supermarket coffee but for the price I certainly wouldn't say it was value for money.
The third bean was a very rare Kona Peaberry. Very little of this bean is made available each year as the farmers keep the peaberry for themselves because it is so good and also because only a very small percentage of beans are peaberry beans. The coffee came from Smiths Farms a coffee farmer in Kona that sells direct to the public (well at least to US and Canada anyway). I am still deciding whether I will order any to take back to NZ, it was a very nice french press but I have been told it doesn't work so well as an espresso.
Before we left Mark Prince's house (where the cupping took place) we each got to choose 1 of the beans we sampled to take home with us. This was a very generous thing for Mark to do as some of the beans were not cheap. The only ones we were not allowed were the Panama beans (not surprising given the cost of them) and one of the Brazilians because Mark really liked them. I chose the Kona Peaberry and have been enjoying them over the last couple of days. Unfortunately as I have been typing this I have also been drinking my last cup of the Kona, but boy was it good. Reuben selected one of the Brazilian beans and seeing as he doesn't have a grinder he kindly gave them to me, so I will be able to have another very nice coffee for breakfast in the morning. Yummy.
I am going to be away for the next few days so I might have to have a couple of cups because I don't want the beans to go stale while I am gone. I am going to Whistler with Roz and Reuben for a couple of days to get a bit of snowboarding action in. The weather has been fantastic over the last week with hardly a cloud in the sky, not great in terms of fresh snow I guess but if the weather holds out it should still be pretty nice. We are renting a car, so it will be my first time driving any significant distance in a left hand drive car, should be interesting. I have been considering taking my grinder away with me, but it may be a bit of a pain carrying on the bus on my way to work in the morning.
Sorry no pictures today. I have a couple on my camera of a few meals I had last week but can't be bothered getting them off the camera at the moment.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Another week gone
Yep it is now Sunday afternoon and time to review the past week.
The week started off well with yet another trip to Granville Island for the week's fruit and veges and a few cuts of meat. I was very organised this week and had an entire week's menu planned out. There was going to be an stuffed artichoke salad, loosely based on a Waldorf salad, a curried broccoli soup, an avocado orange and fennel salad, swordfish with roast fennel, and a pork tenderloin stuffed with pork sausage meat and apricot. As it turned out I only had half of those dishes and had the pork tenderloin twice after discovering that I rather liked it.
After returning home I made myself a quick and easy salad with avocado orange and fennel. The fennel was shaved from the fennel bulb with a vege peeler then soaked in balsamic vinegar. Unfortunately the avocado was not the best with lots of brown pathes through it so the presentation did not look too flash hence the absence of a photo, sorry about that.
Monday was the first night that I had the pork tenderloin. I was in a bit of a rush that night as I only had 1 1/4 hours to cook and eat before heading out to my bible study. I did however find enough time to take a quick snapshot of the dish. I had some roasted pear and roasted fennel bulb as an accompaniment. The pear was particularly tasty, it was simply brushed with a little melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon then roasted for 25 minutes. The roast fennel however was not a winning side dish, it was definitely better in the salad on Sunday.
Tuesday was originally going to be the artichoke day, but in the end I was out at Roz and Reuben's for dinner so the artichoke day was missed. Reuben cooked a lovely pasta dish with eggplant, tomato, cheese and I'm sure some other ingredients that I forget at the moment.
Wednesday was soup day. The recipe book didn't have any photo of this recipe, and after making it I understand why. It looked kind of like sick. The soup was a curried broccoli soup with a cucumber-mint raita, which is a yogurt based dip sort of thing. It went very well with the spicy soup, adding a nice cooling element to thd dish.
Thursday I had Roz and Reuben over for dinner so decided to try the pork tenderloin again seeing I enjoyed it so much on Monday. This time I left out the roasted fennel and replaced it with roast broccoli and some 'steamed' asparagus. My Tyler Florence cookbook had this interesting looking way of cooking asparagus by throwing it in a paper bag with some salt, lemon slices and a drizzle of olive oil then putting it in the oven for 20 minutes. I guess my lemon must have had more juice than his one though, because when I pulled them out of the oven they were kind of soggy. I very nearly threw them away I was so disappointed, but after tasting one found it was not too bad after all.
I had a leftover pork tenderloin as I wasn't sure if Andrew my flatmate was going to be home on Thursday. So on Friday I decided to make a Thai style pork and coconut salad. The basic ingredients were pork, toasted coconut, coconut milk, Thai bird chili, coriander (cilantro for any North Americans reading this), mint, tomato and red onion. This is another recipe that I will have to put on my must make again list, it was scrummy.
On Saturday I finally went up Grouse mountain with Roz and Reuben for a day of snowboarding and skiing. There had been a good 50 cm of new snow in the 3 days prior, with 8 cm overnight. I guess that we were not the only people who thought that it would be a good time to head up the mountain as we spent far longer waiting in queues for the chairlifts than we did snowboarding. The snow was pretty good most of the day though, so it was an enjoyable day. There are far more runs you can do during the day as apposed to the runs open for night skiing, so it was fun finding areas I had not been on yet. I managed to land a couple of jumps, and also didn't manage to land a few jumps too. I think it was the first time that my helmet has saved me from a headache.
After snowboarding we went back to Roz and Reuben's apartment for a soak in the hot tub. A very nice way of relaxing after a day on the slopes. Later on we went out for dinner at a very nice restaurant. Each year a number of restaurants in Vancouver participate in the Dine Out Vancouver program, where you get a 3 course meal at significantly reduced prices, either $15, $25 or $35 depending on the class of restaurant. We went to a place called Joe Fortes, a seafood and chophouse. For starters I had four oysters on the half shell. Now in the past I have never really been a big oyster fan finding them a little slimy and generally just not very nice. These were fantastic though and the sauce that they came with was superb. For the main (or entree as they call it over here) I had grilled sockeye salmon with truffle risotto. The salmon was cooked just right and the risotto was very tasty indeed. If truffles weren't so expensive I would try and make it at home some time. Dessert was a New York cheesecake, yet again a very nice dish. All in all I think it was exceptional value. To give you some idea what their regular prices are, a 1/2 dozen oysters sell for $20 at Joe Fortes so $35 was a steal.
The week started off well with yet another trip to Granville Island for the week's fruit and veges and a few cuts of meat. I was very organised this week and had an entire week's menu planned out. There was going to be an stuffed artichoke salad, loosely based on a Waldorf salad, a curried broccoli soup, an avocado orange and fennel salad, swordfish with roast fennel, and a pork tenderloin stuffed with pork sausage meat and apricot. As it turned out I only had half of those dishes and had the pork tenderloin twice after discovering that I rather liked it.
After returning home I made myself a quick and easy salad with avocado orange and fennel. The fennel was shaved from the fennel bulb with a vege peeler then soaked in balsamic vinegar. Unfortunately the avocado was not the best with lots of brown pathes through it so the presentation did not look too flash hence the absence of a photo, sorry about that.
Monday was the first night that I had the pork tenderloin. I was in a bit of a rush that night as I only had 1 1/4 hours to cook and eat before heading out to my bible study. I did however find enough time to take a quick snapshot of the dish. I had some roasted pear and roasted fennel bulb as an accompaniment. The pear was particularly tasty, it was simply brushed with a little melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon then roasted for 25 minutes. The roast fennel however was not a winning side dish, it was definitely better in the salad on Sunday.
Tuesday was originally going to be the artichoke day, but in the end I was out at Roz and Reuben's for dinner so the artichoke day was missed. Reuben cooked a lovely pasta dish with eggplant, tomato, cheese and I'm sure some other ingredients that I forget at the moment.
Wednesday was soup day. The recipe book didn't have any photo of this recipe, and after making it I understand why. It looked kind of like sick. The soup was a curried broccoli soup with a cucumber-mint raita, which is a yogurt based dip sort of thing. It went very well with the spicy soup, adding a nice cooling element to thd dish.
Thursday I had Roz and Reuben over for dinner so decided to try the pork tenderloin again seeing I enjoyed it so much on Monday. This time I left out the roasted fennel and replaced it with roast broccoli and some 'steamed' asparagus. My Tyler Florence cookbook had this interesting looking way of cooking asparagus by throwing it in a paper bag with some salt, lemon slices and a drizzle of olive oil then putting it in the oven for 20 minutes. I guess my lemon must have had more juice than his one though, because when I pulled them out of the oven they were kind of soggy. I very nearly threw them away I was so disappointed, but after tasting one found it was not too bad after all.
I had a leftover pork tenderloin as I wasn't sure if Andrew my flatmate was going to be home on Thursday. So on Friday I decided to make a Thai style pork and coconut salad. The basic ingredients were pork, toasted coconut, coconut milk, Thai bird chili, coriander (cilantro for any North Americans reading this), mint, tomato and red onion. This is another recipe that I will have to put on my must make again list, it was scrummy.
On Saturday I finally went up Grouse mountain with Roz and Reuben for a day of snowboarding and skiing. There had been a good 50 cm of new snow in the 3 days prior, with 8 cm overnight. I guess that we were not the only people who thought that it would be a good time to head up the mountain as we spent far longer waiting in queues for the chairlifts than we did snowboarding. The snow was pretty good most of the day though, so it was an enjoyable day. There are far more runs you can do during the day as apposed to the runs open for night skiing, so it was fun finding areas I had not been on yet. I managed to land a couple of jumps, and also didn't manage to land a few jumps too. I think it was the first time that my helmet has saved me from a headache.
After snowboarding we went back to Roz and Reuben's apartment for a soak in the hot tub. A very nice way of relaxing after a day on the slopes. Later on we went out for dinner at a very nice restaurant. Each year a number of restaurants in Vancouver participate in the Dine Out Vancouver program, where you get a 3 course meal at significantly reduced prices, either $15, $25 or $35 depending on the class of restaurant. We went to a place called Joe Fortes, a seafood and chophouse. For starters I had four oysters on the half shell. Now in the past I have never really been a big oyster fan finding them a little slimy and generally just not very nice. These were fantastic though and the sauce that they came with was superb. For the main (or entree as they call it over here) I had grilled sockeye salmon with truffle risotto. The salmon was cooked just right and the risotto was very tasty indeed. If truffles weren't so expensive I would try and make it at home some time. Dessert was a New York cheesecake, yet again a very nice dish. All in all I think it was exceptional value. To give you some idea what their regular prices are, a 1/2 dozen oysters sell for $20 at Joe Fortes so $35 was a steal.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
More snow and more home cooking
Well it has been a rather chilly week here in Vancouver. On Tuesday evening it started to snow again and continued off and on until Wednesday evening. Fortunately it has not resulted in nearly as many traffic problems as the snow in November caused, so getting around has not been much of an issue this week.
I quite often catch a bus home from work that runs parallel to my street but 9 blocks away. This gives me a little bit of exercise on my way home which doesn't do me any harm. Occasionally I walk the 1 1/2 without any buses but not when I have my business shoes on as they would kill my feet walking that kind of distance. But I digress, why I brought up the bus route in the first place was to illustrate in a round about kind of way how cold it was this last week. So I got off the bus 9 blocks away and started walking home, thinking it was a little nippy but not too bad. However by the time I got home my hands were numb as was my chin and nose. The numb fingers made it quite tricky getting my keys out of my bag but I managed. I checked the temperature when I got inside and found it was -7 degrees at the time plus with the wind chill I think it was around -15. Hmm, that wasn't really a very interesting story but oh well it is written now.
I went for another trip to the Granville Island public market this afternoon and happened to have my camera with me. As I was walking over the causeway that takes you to the island I noticed that the water in to my right was frozen, and not just a thin layer on top but quite a significant amount of ice. Some people had thrown rather sizable rocks at the ice to try and break it, probably to go ice fishing I expect, but the ice only showed a bit of cracking.
The main reason for today's trip to Granville Island was to buy some shrimp and vegetables for tonights meal. This was a recipe from the cookbook Roz and Reuben gave me for Christmas. It was poached salmon with fennel and hand-peeled shrimp (fortunately someone else had the job of hand peeling them). Boy oh boy this was a tasty we dish, and one I will definitely try again some time. I think I may have slightly overdone the salmon but it was still delicious. I had never cooked fennel before and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it is. I will have to look out for other recipes with fennel in them.
I quite often catch a bus home from work that runs parallel to my street but 9 blocks away. This gives me a little bit of exercise on my way home which doesn't do me any harm. Occasionally I walk the 1 1/2 without any buses but not when I have my business shoes on as they would kill my feet walking that kind of distance. But I digress, why I brought up the bus route in the first place was to illustrate in a round about kind of way how cold it was this last week. So I got off the bus 9 blocks away and started walking home, thinking it was a little nippy but not too bad. However by the time I got home my hands were numb as was my chin and nose. The numb fingers made it quite tricky getting my keys out of my bag but I managed. I checked the temperature when I got inside and found it was -7 degrees at the time plus with the wind chill I think it was around -15. Hmm, that wasn't really a very interesting story but oh well it is written now.
I went for another trip to the Granville Island public market this afternoon and happened to have my camera with me. As I was walking over the causeway that takes you to the island I noticed that the water in to my right was frozen, and not just a thin layer on top but quite a significant amount of ice. Some people had thrown rather sizable rocks at the ice to try and break it, probably to go ice fishing I expect, but the ice only showed a bit of cracking.
The main reason for today's trip to Granville Island was to buy some shrimp and vegetables for tonights meal. This was a recipe from the cookbook Roz and Reuben gave me for Christmas. It was poached salmon with fennel and hand-peeled shrimp (fortunately someone else had the job of hand peeling them). Boy oh boy this was a tasty we dish, and one I will definitely try again some time. I think I may have slightly overdone the salmon but it was still delicious. I had never cooked fennel before and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it is. I will have to look out for other recipes with fennel in them.
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