dresese

Cappuccino progress

Latte art
Originally uploaded by Andrew Hyatt.

Some interesting updates on my cappuccino progress. My progress has been very slow. For weeks, I just was unable to get any decent froth at all. I didn't know why, it just seemed like it was impossible. I was disheartened.

Then, one day I went to make a cappuccino, and there was a guy working on the water system. Evidently the water pressure had been low for the past few weeks, which was effecting the espresso quality. After he fixed it, I found I could make froth quite easily. The difference was huge. Which is odd, because steam is steam, right? What difference does the water pressure make?

I might not understand it, but man, I was happy. I could quite easily make the smooth emulsified foam that I like so much.

However, all was not perfect. My foam was quite good, but I still wanted more of it. At the Steps of Rome, my favorite coffee shop in San Francisco, their cappuccinos had very stury foam, and lots of it. Which was amazing considering it was all emulsified, and not spooned out seperately. But I couldn't quite get so much foam.

A few days ago, Google was hosting a group of students from NYU. I met one of them by the cappuccino machine, and he demonstrated his latte art skills for me. It was quite impressive, and the results are shown in the picture for this post. However, he made more of a latte, and I'd say his cappuccino was only somewhat better than mine.

Next time I take my camera to work, I'll snap a picture of my cappuccino results. I'm going to start trying to make patterns soon as well.

Orkut & FoodCandy

I joined Orkut the other day. Well, actually, you can't just join, you have to get invited. So I asked around my office and a friendly co-worker invited me. I spent some time online, and it is interesting all the communities you can join, and how you can find people, and make information available to friends, or friends of friends, etc. And the people there are interesting, a huge number of Brazilians, many Indians, and people from everyone. There's even around 20 people from my high school, Parkway North! However, the communities I have found are relatively quiet, at least the somewhat fringe ones I have joined.

Anyway, I only have one friend so far, my co-worker. So, if anyone is interested in joining Orkut, and knows me, go ahead and email me. Come, join, and... well... do whatever it is people do there!

Also, my friend dB has started a food-oriented social networking site, FoodCandy. Email me as well if you want to join. It just started, but I think it has good potential, so join up already! And make thousands of friends!

Shalom Kosher Restaurant

Last weekend, Adam and I went to a new kosher kabob place, one that was written up in a New York Times article I previously mentioned. Read on some pictures of the delicious food we had.

We started with some pickled vegetables: tomatoes, beets, and cucumber. Very nice and refreshing. The pickled beets had a surprising kick to them.

We also had the nice bread. Normally I wouldn't take picture of bread, but the bread at these places is sort of unique, with a distinctive bagel-like shape. This picture has nothing to judge the size of the bread by, but the bread is medium sized. It can feed two people.

We had lamb soup, which was very nice and hearty. I like how they use plenty of parsley. It's not just for decoration, they really put it there to give the lamb a subtler flavor.

More interesting was the "lagman", a hand-pulled noodle soup. The thick chewy noodles were great, and the broth was perfectly seasoned.

Next was the chebureki, a sort of giant oblong deep-fried soup dumpling, which could be filled with beef, or mushrooms, or other ingredients. They both had some nice juice inside, with the mushroom one being incredibly juicy.

And of course let us not forget the kabobs. We got the some healthy kabobs: a deliciously salty and strong-flavored salmon, mushrooms (which could have been cooked a little more, I feel), and tomatoes.

We also got a lamb kabob, and a beef skirt steak kabob. Both were excellent. Unfortunately, unlike Cheburechnaya, no lamb fat kabob was offered.

But that's not all! We also got a plate of cabbage, which was about as good as cabbage can be. Which is not incredible. But good.

And finally, dessert, which was something called Chak-Chak. Basically it was sweet noodles. Like those noodle baklava you see, but with really thick noodles, and arranged in a tall block.

Looking back at this, I'm really amazed we could eat of all of it. I'd say it was cheap, but all this food came to about $40. Not expensive, certainly. But there are cheaper meals to be had. Overall, everything was well done. The standouts for me were the lagman and the salmon kabob. However, I feel that most people would find the salmon kabob too salty.

According to one of the workers there, Martha Stewart is planning to do something for her show at this place. You heard it here first. I was pre-Martha for the Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, and now this. Get out of my head, woman!

Patsy's pizzeria

Patsy's pizzeria is one of the oldest pizza places still around, and a classic pizza of the coal-fired variety. The original is in Harlem, and Patsy's and their offshoot restaurants have been among the best pizza in New York for as long as anyone can remember.

Today some friends and I went to eat at the Patsy's on 23rd Street. It was surprisingly empty at 12:30 on a Friday. We ordered two pies, a plain pie, and an olive pie.

The pizza was quite good. Like many of it's kind, some of the slices were partially soggy. However, the rest of the pizza was excellent, with a great crust, a tasty sauce, and excellent quality mozzarella.

After this pizza, I still need to try Grimaldi's (a Patsy's offshoot, in fact), DiFara's and Una PIzza Napolentana.