Thursday, March 17, 2005


irish coffee & soda bread or regional coffee culture, part xxxiii

ah -- my boss at my beloved job did indeed bring in his family's irish soda bread. this is one fabulous loaf, because unlike so many breads of this ilk, it isn't dry, hard, crumbly, cheap on the currants, or overbaked.

it is yummy, tender, soft, and with a thin delicate crust like a proper scone; he makes his version with about 25% whole wheat flour.

of course to go with this, we really all should have a proper irish coffee. this too is surprisingly hard to find.

for those who are trying to avoid alcohol, lemme point you to a whisky-approximate syrup. or just go with a "peppermint paddy"; maybe even an "irish cream?"

on the regional coffee culture front, i found this article about the coffee culture in chicago of deep interest. chicago now runs ahead of new york city for the number of coffee shops, which may say as much about the dread "lake effect" snow as about nyc's long-running preference for cocktails over coffee.

nyc is slowly developing a real espresso culture, but cocktails are still a very large thing here, and new yorkers are still mostly unaware that we have possibly the worst coffee in the country, on the whole.

but i'm not giving up! we are making progress here at bccy. . .and i have to say that the advances in chicago without a doubt owe a great debt to bccy pal doug zell at intelligentsia.

posted by fortune | 7:55 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments