I’m not a coffee girl, but oh how I wish I was; just the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans makes me feel warm and cozy, and if I could wear it as a fragrance I totally would. Coming from the land of Starbucks you’d think I’d be a pro, but somehow, my love affair stops there as I just haven’t ever been able to drink a full cup of it.
If there was any place where I could be schooled on the delicacies of a proper cuppa joe it would be at Bluebottle Coffee Company – artisanal microroasters of organic, pesticide-free, shade-grown, coffee beans that are off to you within 48 hours of roasting. I love everything about this place, and I wish I could camp out at the Mint Plaza location everyday. I’m officially on a mission to earn some coffee badges.
One thing that could help me along with my coffee training is the Affogato, a generous scoop of ice cream with a shot of espresso for drowning the ice cream with. (I don’t want to offend true coffee connoisseurs and loyal fans of Bluebottle, but I’ve got to start somewhere.) Oh my gosh, there are no words….
It was really big, so it’s perfect for sharing. I can’t wait to go back for an afternoon date so we can share this and sit by the window for some people-watching. I LOVE people watching, especially when it’s over something this good.
So, even though it may take a bit of time for me to appreciate all of the wonderful drinks they offer at Bluebottle, I’ll be be here every chance I get to pick up a bag as a gift or for an afternoon snack with visitors. This is an amazing company and I love what they do: not only are they experts at their craft, but they’ve truly infused environmentally-conscious practices into every aspect of their business. Check this out:
- All our coffees are certified organic, sustainable, and shade grown. We make occasional exceptions for beautiful shade-grown coffees grown responsibly without pesticides but not yet certified organic.
- We use cellophane-lined bags instead of plastic or polypropylene-lined. Cellophane is made from wood cellulose, so it is 100% biodegradable. Because of the slight porosity, cellophane is not used by roasters who are worried about shelf life, but because our coffee does not sit on store shelves for long periods, we can use this material with no trade-off in quality. Once the metal tie is removed from our bags, they are recyclable or compostable.
- We use food-safe stainless steel bins to mix our blends instead of the plastic bins which are standard in the industry. Your beans literally never touch plastic or aluminum from the time they are packed into burlap sacks at the country of origin to the time they are poured into your grinder.
- We compost coffee bean chaff (a waste product of the roasting process) and pay extra for paper (compostable) half gallon milk jugs, rather than plastic gallon milk jugs.
- All test batches, expired batches, or batches that do not meet our requirements are composted or donated to local food banks
- All inks we use are soy-based. All papers (except for our coffee bags – we’re still looking for cellophane-lined recycled paper bags) have post-consumer recycled content of 50% or greater, and are unbleached. All cleaning products are greenest non-toxic products we can find, and all appliances are the most energy-efficient on the market.
- All customer communications are done over the internet whenever possible.
They’re official!
[Thanks Ed for taking the Affogato pics. Still have stage fright with the camera.]
[Thanks Brian for leading the way.]
Even with my weird schedule lately I still love a good Saturday. While I was out and about I came across these books and got completely giddy. The Where’s Waldo Complete Collection and the Best of Mad Libs do exist outside of my dreams, how cool is that? I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for anything that reminds me of when I was eight.
After some window shopping and some reading in the park, we were off to to watch the fight with some friends. Let me just say that I tried, but I’m not a fan of boxing. The best part was celebrity spotting in the audience, but the fight and the ref kept getting in the way. I did catch Mariah and Nick Cannon. Have to hand it to Mariah though, she posed through all 12 rounds, that must be hard work. The only other sighting I caught was Mark Wahlberg, and that was quite nice. Oh yeah, then there was the part where Chris Brown sang the National Anthem. Yeah, exactly.
It was great company and snacks…and Prosecco, a wonderful way to kick-off a Saturday night. From there we were off to hop around the city and ended up at Le Colonial to visit a friend DJing. After a drink or two and some dancing we were off to Ryoku for sushi and anything fried. We never had dinner, so we had to make up for it at 1:30 AM. These are not going to be pretty pics, but it was latenight dining captured with my phone. It is because of the champagne and this meal (and maybe a few other leading up to it), that I have started to detox today. So worth it though!
Green tea, white salmon, salmon belly, karaage, croquette, kurobota, yakitori…detox.
(I’m already looking forward to a real sushi dinner after the detox, still working up to a date at Urasawa on of these days.)
A few weeks ago my friend Keri was visiting from Seattle. Before a night out on the town we stopped by Anchor & Hope for a few appetizers. For most people this might have constituted as a meal, but if you know me at all, you’d know this was my snack after a full meal; and to be honest I probably had a late-night snack later on.
I’ve been here a few times now, and each time I’ve had a wonderful meal. I always end up in SOMA before a night out, so it’s an easy stop that promises great seafood dishes in a warmly candle-lit, turn-of-the century warehouse. I’m sure I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve always been able to just stop by without a reservation.
On this particular night we split three appetizers, but while we sipped our wine we received paper baggie with french bread and a small ramekin of perfectly spreadable butter (not a fan of cold, right from the fridge butter) with a light sprinkling of fleur de sel. I usually hold off on starting with the bread and opt to save it for when the saucy dishes arrive–I’m quite an accomplished “dipper”.
Here’s how it went:
1. Warm sea urchin and crab: Creamy and rich, with a nice taste of “ocean” from the sea urchin. (Perhaps a bit lost with all the cream, but still a lovely taste of the sea.)
2. Warm asparagus salad with poached egg: Love asparagus, love poached eggs, love a proper hollandaise.
3. They didn’t call it pork belly, but it pretty much was: Perfectly fatty and smokey; it went so well with the acid from the warm purple cabbage.
Bread and butter
Warm Sea Urchin with crab and lemon beurre blanc
Warm asparagus salad with poached egg and meyer lemon hollandaise
Pork belly and purple cabbage
Overall Anchor & Hope is one of my favorite destinations, especially when I’m craving a taste of the sea. In the past I’ve had an amazing bouillabaisse-style fish stew, perfectly cooked scallops, proscuitto-wrapped trout, and a crazy wonderful clam chowder. Service and atmosphere are great, and for all you beer aficionado’s I hear they have quite a selection.
In short: we were on our way to pick up ingredients for Zuni chicken, passed by Zuni Cafe on the way, took an unexpected detour and ended up with a lovely table in the cafe sipping cocktails, downing oysters, and patiently waiting for our chicken.
Fresh squeezed orange juice mimosa, and a spicy bloody mary
Washington Kumamoto oysters
Caesar salad for two
Roasted chicken for two with warm Tuscan-style bread salad
So there, that’s the truth. Now, I realize that my point that anyone can and should try this at home will totally be negated by this admission, but I promise that this was just a nice moment of spontaneity that was seized, and has nothing to do with the fact that Zuni chicken at home takes hours…nothing at all.
So here’s the background. If you haven’t yet heard of Zuni’s famous chicken, just know that it takes about an hour from the time you place your order, and some would argue a fairly sizable chunk out of your wallet (considering it’s chicken), but to me it is worth every second of the wait and every penny charged.
My first Zuni Cafe experience was when I moved down last year. I’d heard of the chicken, but was skeptical since chicken isn’t typically at the top of my list of things to order when dining out. The funny part about our first chicken venture was that we really liked it, but for some reason it went from a strong like to an obsession over the course of the next few weeks. (I wonder if there’s a clinical term for this?)
The chicken is amazingly tender and juicy, and the skin is crisp and salty with a wonderful smokey flavor from the wood fired oven. And then there’s the bread salad. Oh my gosh, the bread salad…a mixture of fire roasted and lightly charred pieces with others perfectly damp from the light vinaigrette and chicken juices.
It’s because of this obsession that I needed to learn to make it myself, and thanks to the extremely detailed recipe I’ve had wonderful success each time. It is an amazing labor of love and yumminess, and my point here (yes, I’m finally getting to it) is that while I love to stop by the cafe every now and then, taking the time to plan and make this meal at home is one of my all-time favorite ways to celebrate a special occasion (even if there’s nothing to celebrate). This meal has so much love wrapped in every step, there’s no reason to be scared away if your heart so desires to try this at home.
