Macondo

Macondo
8 & 9 Hoxton Square
London N1

Could Macondo be the best café in the whole of London? I think so. Exposed brick walls, cozy leather sofas, this is a great place to while away the Sunday morning hours. If you while away enough hours, you might as well stay for lunch. Despite my initial apprehensions, the place does actually serve authentic tortilla de patatas and paella, as well as a variety of other appealing foods, which yesterday included mushroom stroganoff, some aubergine bake-type thing, lasagna, and the infamous broccoli with cheese, which was a bit random. But forget all that, this place has the BEST cakes ever. They have REAL cheesecake. None of this Philadelphia fridge cake nonsense, I mean proper baked cheesecake made with fromage blanc, drizzled with honey and served with whipped cream. Their coffee's pretty darn good, too, and they serve an interesting array of drinks, including mint and lime iced tea (highly recommended).

Service can be a bit flaky, though. You have to order at the till and it's all slightly chaotic when it gets busy. I ordered and paid, and then they forgot our order, and then they forgot I'd paid. It seems a bit strange given that the food is actually on display in trays sitting atop shelves. I mean, you could just give me a spoon and I'd have no problem serving myself, since it all looks so yummy! But anyway, our server was having kind of a stressed out day.

Watching the Hoxton crowd is part of the experience. They can certainly be, well, let's say "expressive" in their fashion sense, and they range from continental chain smokers to doctorate students conducting interviews about cross-cultural ethnicity for their humanities dissertation.

And that Nutella cake.... it's just waiting to be tried...... maybe next time.......

Proper, baked cheesecake (bottom) and carrot and orange cake (affectionately described to us as "squidgy" cake (it's drenched in honey, so mind your kidneys.....)

My first latte

I don't think I ever published my first latte, so here it is, oh great pride of my espresso machine...


Back from my oh-so-brief sojourn in the French Alps. The weather was too good for me to be bothered to blog about it, so you'll have to be patient while I gather my willpower to post you more pictures of alpine culinaria. And nastyskankbyotch is off to a conference in Rotterdam tomorrow. I wonder if they have nice lattes in Rotterdam. Watch this space.....

My first espresso....

OK, so I've finally given in and bought an espresso machine. Years of plunging that French press and using that stovetop clearly haven't satisfied the irrepressible allure of the home-made espresso.

I got a Francis! Francis! Trio X3 machine, which is a less boisterous version of its X1 cousin. It lacks all the retro dials and all, but for those of us with spatially-challenged kitchens it's a great compromise, combining sleek looks with slim practicality. I was also much swayed by CoffeeGeek, who gave it an extensive test and a good write-up.

The thing looks like something out of the Titanic and, once out of the box, it's a breeze to set up. Sadly, it doesn't come with a holder for ground coffee (at least mine didn't), so if you want to use your own grounds, you'll have to get it separately. The pod grouphead is pretty easy to use, though, and it comes with 18 servings of Illy pods so you can at least get your fix while you get that other grouphead.

I wasn't brave enough to try the milk frother yet, being a novice barista, but here's my first espresso, which even on a new machine, was reasonably OK. No doubt they'll get better as the thing wears in. I'll let you know when I manage my first cappuccino......

Dreamt that....

I've been having some very weird, random dreams recently. It started the other day, when I dreamt that I poured soured milk on my coffee. For some reason, this was very distressing. I then dreamt that I had to clean up a vatful of coffee ground sludge off my sink, which I presume was the leftovers from the coffee I poured down the sink the previous night. Anyone an expert on coffee dreams?

Yesterday, though, following dinner with SM at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Hampstead, I dreamt that we were having dinner at some other generic establishment, let's call it Franchise X, wherein the following conversation ensued at the end of the meal:

Me: "Excuse me, could we have a glass of tap water, please?"

Waiter: "I'm sorry, sir, we can't serve you tap water."

Me: "What do you mean, you can't serve us tap water?"

Waiter: "I can't just serve you tap water, you have to be eating something."

Me: "But we've just had a whole meal! You want us to have another one so we can get a glass of water?!?"

Waiter: "I'm sorry, sir, but that's our policy."

Me: "Well, how much do you want people to spend in order to get a glass of tap water?? Could I speak to your manager, please?"

Wait 15 minutes...... some guy in pyjamas and a toothbrush comes out of the kitchen and walks towards our table.

Toothbrush guy: "Excuse me, sir, you had a query about something?"

Me: "Are you the manager?"

Toothbrush guy: "We don't actually have managers, it goes against company policy. But I have the requisite skills and qualities for somebody in a managerial position."

A guy in pyjamas and a toothbrush? What the heck is that about? No doubt there are signs of a deep-seated anguish at the state of the service industry in this country. I have, on occasion, been charged 1p for tap water at restaurants, which is, frankly, just insulting. Oh, we know it's a legal requirement, but we're still gonna charge you for the effort of turning on the tap.... But, dude, what do they put in those burgers at GBK??