Friday, March 31, 2006


peter g's counterculture rwanda karaba

rwanda
ooh ooh ooh — and what came in the mail today but peter g's counterculture rwanda karaba lakaka? long-time readers will recall that so far i've been fortunate to receive the stumptown rwanda, dougie's gmcr rwanda ("the benchmark"), and the seven lakes from the development organization.

peter's coffees are always rewarding and delicious -- even amazing. i cannot wait to try this one out.

speaking of trying coffees out, i finished up andrew b's ecco são benedito. i've tried it as a cappuccino -- which doesn't suit it -- and as a macchiato, which does. that was just a gorgeous coffee (you can learn more about it over at dogmilque now, which i guess is serving pretty much as the official ecco blog.)

i can't thank peter and andrew enough. but while we're on this subject. . .

lately i've been getting a lot of cook and food books to review. who knows why, since i'm not a foodie blog, and everyone knows what i think of most foodie blogs.

for example, recently i was sent a copy of a book about having a tiny kitchen. i don't have a tiny kitchen, actually, even tho' i live in nyc.

i actually have a huge apartment -- sorry to have to confess this -- from which i can see from the verazzano bridge past the brooklyn and manhattan bridges all the way to the chrysler building. my dining room holds a travertine marble table that seats 8 (yes, i have a separate dining room).

my kitchen has many very large cabinets, with 3 or 4 tall shelves each. since my ceilings are quite high, you have to get an extra-tall step ladder to reach the topmost shelves above the sink that go all the way up.

or i have to ask mr. right to stand on the counter and get stuff down, that's possible too. our building also used to have the most charming dumbwaiter(!), which has been converted into a large pantry.

i also have a broom closet, a liquor cabinet, and shelves for wine. i also have a large hanging rack for all my french copper cookware over my antique stove.

sorry.

thus i must offer my apologies to author of said book, because i really can't review it. not that i could have anyway, since its strange design, with so much white type against psychedelic acid green, makes the tiny text hard to read.

after receiving so much printed material lately, i must politely suggest that those who would like to review things please keep some points in mind: i am always happy to consider objects related to this blog -- bread, coffee, chocolate, yoga -- and i will expand into general baking as well as of course, pizza.

in general, i am sympathetic to slow. i have little interest in microwaves except for melting chocolate.

please don't send me books on how to make, um, "dinner" in a crock-pot using campbell's soup or other packaged and processed food. please remember that i have been known to make my own mozzarella and that every morning i weigh my coffee to the gram for perfect brewing.

this said, i love receiving coffee (especially from members of the roasters guild the scaa, the scae, the aasca or any coffee farmer!), coffee machines (which i will return to you quickly if you cover the shipping back), coffee books, etc. etc.

on the yoga front, i will happily look at books, cds, dvds, props, and clothing. i am happy to consider chocolate from artisan chocolatiers.

to my mind artisan chocolate does not include potato chips covered in low-quality milk chocolate coverature, for example. those are frankly disgusting.

on bread and pizza, i am again very happy to consider books, baking equipment, dvds, even fed-ex'd loaves from reputable artisan bakers.

i hate to sound so imperious and nasty, but i'm just being overwhelmed with off-topic stuff. sorry.

also, since i finally had a moment last night, i went ahead and enabled the greasemonkey script to get technorati tags going at long last. i was sure blogger was going to get on the stick with this sooner, but c'est la vie.

please see below.

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