02021-10-04 | Touring
After driving to Santa Fe from Denver on Saturday I stayed in a Ramada on Yale close to the airport in Albuquerque. When I made arrangements for this trip all hotels for this weekend were surprisingly expensive, especially in Santa Fe. Later, Jon figured out that this was due to the Balloon Festival, which happens on the first weekend in October. I had picked one of the cheaper hotels by the airport and planned on driving back to Santa Fe on Sunday for some business I had to attend to. Monday I would fly home from Albuquerque.
On Monday morning I woke up around 0515 and read People of the Book until a few minutes past 0600. Then I walked 0.9 miles to the Starbucks on Gibson. It was still dark, about 45′ before sunrise. Encountered three people, one of whom was talking to themselves. Arrived at Starbucks only to discover that the doors were all locked. There was a sign on the door saying that for security reasons the cafe was closed until sunrise. The Starbucks app, however, claimed that the place would open at 0500. I stood by the front entrance observing dozens of cars order coffee in the drive-through. Considered walking through the drive-through lane and ordering coffee. Then one of the five or six employees opened the door and asked whether I was there to pick up a mobile order. I said no, I wasn’t, but I could make a mobile order, if that’s what it took. I told him I had walked for twenty minutes to get there. He seemed incredulous (((what? people walk? in the dark??))) but let me into the store and locked the door behind me. Perhaps really not the safest neighborhood?!
I ordered a large coffee and a pair of kale egg bites. After I received the food I walked back to the hotel. The person talking to themselves had turned to arguing, but not quite screaming, with a post, as I hurried by. I gave another person coming towards me a wide berth by walking through a parking lot. I was relieved when I reached my hotel.
Reading on my laptop and sipping the coffee – the egg bites had already been consumed – I noticed this object on the wall, near the ceiling. It looks like a smoke detector that was wrapped in cling wrap to prevent smoke from getting into it? Room #345 of the Ramada hotel. If you worry about smoke inhalation you best avoid that room.
I think it is good to stay in questionable hotels from time to time, if only to properly appreciate the nice ones… :-)
PS: the books is really good! It describes the journey of a rare illuminated manuscript through centuries of exile and war.
Less flash and more substance than The Da Vinci Code . . . The stories of the Sarajevo Haggadah, both factual and fictional, are stirring testaments to the people of many faiths who risked all to save this priceless work.
– USA Today
02021-09-28 | Uncategorized
While I was waiting for a cortado (same amount of coffee as a cappuccino but a little less milk) a husky took off from the cafe and ran diagonally across the intersection. It was totally oblivious to the fact that it was dragging a table, to which the leash was attached, with it. After all, huskies have a history of dragging sleds for long distances. A human ran after the dog and brought both back to the cafe. Nice try, dog.
I prefer a cortado over a cappuccino because the taste leans a little more toward the coffee. Many call the cortado a gibraltar. Why you ask? This is the story I heard: while training baristas Blue Bottle would have them make coffee with smaller amounts of milk/foam than one would use for a regular cappuccino because why waste milk for training. Makes sense. Blue Bottle was asked what this drink was called and since they used the Gibraltar range of glassware by an old American company called Libbey they replied it’s a Gibraltar.
A cortado is the same drink as a gibraltar, but there seems to be a regional preference for using one or the other name on a cafe’s menu. Most baristas understand either term, however, if you want to try it.
02021-06-09 | Coffee, Santa Fe, Video
Running out of beans in the espresso machine I resorted to hand-grinding some beans I found in the freezer and made drip coffee. Can you *almost* smell it?
02009-11-17 | Uncategorized
Terry sent me this link and we might try to go there today.
Fresh or aged, the coffee is kicking at Satei Hato | The Japan Times Online
Willingly, you take a seat at the 12-meter-long Oregon pine counter, where you are greeted with all the deference due visiting royalty by manager Toyoshi Taguchi. Spirited away in 1989 from a Shinjuku kissaten by Satei Hato’s owner and namesake, Taguchi has since been diligently helping to redefine what coffee should be in today’s world of designer froths and foams.
And
The most obvious would be the collection of over 300 dazzling coffee and tea cups, including Wedgewood, Herend (from Hungary) and Meissen (from Germany), as well as some choice beauties from the kilns of the Arita masters.
No two are alike, giving Taguchi ample opportunity to choose cups he feels best suit the customers. All of them are pricey, so while you might be flattered by what Taguchi feels “matches” your personality, it’s best not to ask what they’re worth until you’ve successfully placed your cup in its saucer for the last time. Taguchi claims he keeps a stiff upper lip when someone drops a 190,000 yen Arita-yaki original. While they are in the room, he utters a polite shoganai.
“When they leave,” he says, deadly serious, “I cry.”
02009-07-09 | Photos
I was up early, at 06:00, and while I was not yet packing, I was thinking about it.
Here are before and after pix of my headphones.
Before:
and After:
I mentioned these headphones before – here and here. For some silly reason the headphones come in a box with two interchangeable cables, one curly and one straight, when instead one cable should have a 1/4″ plug and the other a mini-plug. I don’t care about curly versus straight, but I know I don’t want to plug that monster (first image) into my iPhone! Anyway, problem solved. Alan Behr came over this morning and soldered the small Neutrik plug I had ordered, to one of the cables – in exchange for a couple of Caffe Shakerato to fuel his bike-ride back to the hotel…
This sounds gross: Cafe dVine, Wine-infused Gourmet Coffee
