Author Archives: j

good bad ugly

tagline: “oh, how the mighty have fallen” or “when you’re at the top, the only place to go is down.”

first, the bad…eva (pronounced “eee-va”) restaurant is one of our favorite restaurants. clarification: one of our top two favorites – hatfield’s being the other. we had cap of the ribeye and amazing carrots using a gilt coupon. so, of course, we snatched up some more gift certificates for brunch and dinner. i suppose part of our disappointment has a lot to do with how high our expectations were, sadly. at first, there was so much potential: bottomless mimosas! eggs! fried chicken! a famous cinnamon roll! double chocolate pot de creme! but then the server took the mimosa glass away and never came back or mentioned anything to us. additionally, our gem lettuce salad with mustard vinaigrette became a hearts of romaine caesar. it was good, but wtf?

mimosa

the disappearing bottomless mimosa

caesar salad

this is not a gem lettuce salad w/ mustard vinaigrette…

next, the ugly…the breakfast sandwich was greasy, soggy, waaaaay too sweet, soaked in butter, and tasted less like jam and more like tomato paste. on the flip side, the egg was absolute perfection. not a single drop of runny white. the salmon with horseradish creme fraiche and roasted beets was lovely and very cute nestled in its white bowl. (actually, as i look at it more carefully, it is dwarfed by that bowl. *sigh*)

this is what disappointment looks and tastes like.

breakfast sandwich

the sandwich which must not be named

salmon

tasty, thankfully

finally, the good (which has absolutely nothing to do with eva restaurant)…this is my kimchi chigae that i made yesterday using year-old kimchi and ramen noodles:

kimchi chigae

kimchi chigae with medium firm tofu and ramen noodles

good morning

this is how today started:
[a] sip sugary milky coffee
[b] taste test kimchi to make sure it’s still good for making chigae
[c] drink more coffee

only a korean stomach could survive such gastronomic feats. in case you were wondering, the kimchi (purchased 9/25/11) is *fantastic*. not even sour and i had awesome garlic breath for the next 4 hours.

Ethiopia Goma Duromina Cooperative

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium Intensity / Sweet aromatics, bright, clean fruit notes
Roast: City to City+ roast levels have the best sweetness and fruited notes. Full City has more berry fruit notes and slight chocolate bittersweet. Darker roasts not recommended.

roasting another ethiopian today. i don’t understand: the beans are full-size and it still hit the first crack about 12 minutes into the roast. i let this one roast longer since it’s more forgiving than the previous ethiopian wrt a darker roast (although too dark and you lose all the flavors, of course).

summer summer summertime

peaches

right: OMG!!! best f’ing peaches ever!!! left: let’s buy them again…OMG – did we buy the wrong ones?!?!

nope. we bought *exactly* the correct ones. this calls for peach cake!

Ethiopia Grade 1 Chelelektu Yirga Cheffe

Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-Bold intensity / Intense aromatics, floral, bright, perfumed, sweet
Roast: City to City+ is the best, brightest, sweetest cup.

getting coffee via a csa has been great but it has put a bit of a damper on my roasting. instead of struggling to keep up with our coffee consumption, my roasted beans have waited up to 2 weeks to be brewed. i finally made it through the last of our previous shipment (although i still have some green ugandan beans we ordered via a blackboard eats promotion) and am starting on a new shipment. i just finished roasting this ethiopian on P2 and the first crack came at 10:14 (remaining)!!! first crack rarely happens that soon. but come to think of it, these green beans are pretty tiny… the trick with P2 is to figure out when the first crack ends. all of my roasting documentation doesn’t give any advice on what happens when the beans hit first crack at 12 minutes into the roast.

also, P2 has a different profile than P1 (think of P1 as a bulldozer and a mack truck; think of P2 as a prius). tom at sweet maria’s advises not exceeding city+ so instead of waiting for P2 to take my beans to FC+, i stopped the roast at 7:00 minutes (remaining). tasting notes to follow…

redesign

finally a redesign i can live with. i loved the old design but it was dated, didn’t work well on mobile devices, and wasn’t as useful or as pretty as it could have been. but don’t worry – it’s still saved in the background. this is still a work in progress but once finished, should age gracefully. like cheese, wine, and my jokes.

keeping busy

88 episodes of inspector gadget and 163 episodes of rocky and bullwinkle are available to stream on netflix. what a splendid way to pass some time!