Some food for thoughts.....

Breakfast at Beitou Maple Landis:


Beef noodle soup at Lau Dong:


Grilled beef at Ikki:


Pork dumplings at Kitchen Pucci:

That all looks wonderful!

brad

djmonkeyhater wrote: PID'ed espresso machine on the counter. I couldn't make out the brand but you can all rest easy knowing it was set exactly at......95. which is the celsius money temp for extraction but gonna limit the steaming. NO LATTE FOR YOU!!

I finally found out who makes that espresso machine - It is the Taiwanese "Klub" Manufacturing Co.

There is a place near my work (a chain called "Maky") where they have a three group version set at 99C. The coffee that comes out of it is pretty good! (that is, compared to what comes out of the average idle HX at most coffee places in Changsha!).

In the PDF of the 2-group that I linked to above it says it has independent boilers for coffee and tea - I'm guessing that this means it has a HX for the coffee (and steam) and another (PID'd) brew boiler for the tea group (?).

Anybody have more info about these machines?

Regards, Henry

chang00 wrote:Some food for thoughts.....

Great photos, by the way!

Regards, Henry

Hi gang,
Some thoughts for food!
Klub Teaspresso, the one mentioned above. They showed at the Barista Championships and Specialty Coffee Show:Click Here
Darn I miss Asia for the food if nothing else. Every few meters along the street had a stall, push cart, or restaurant that served a different cuisine. The owners were, of course, often from different provinces. It all gets reduced to a kind of weak common denominator here.
Happy Thanksgiving!
-Richard

Hey Richard, thanks for the link above, I missed it!

I'm at 'Crema' in Hong Kong right now, and damn am I appreciating being here! I managed to escape from a day of forced jewelry shopping (I'm here with a mainland China tour group) and just finished a double espresso. I'm not a huge fan of their espresso (Malabar Gold, iirc), but it is a welcome break from canned coffee.

Gotta head back to the bus unfortunately...

Regards, Henry

I just returned from a two week trip through Europe and Southeast Asia and found exactly one good coffee shop. Granted, my work schedule was brutal but the coffee in the hotels , airports, and rail station cafe4s I visited was uniformly mediocre. Superauto machines used to brew Americano style coffee seemed to be the norm, although I did have a decent traditional cappuccino at a cafe in Haltern Am Zee Germany.

In Tapei, Taiwan I was lucky enough to stumble upon Wilbeck Coffee - a microroaster with a small cafe. It's just a few block from the main train station and I had a very acceptable shot of espresso there. Had a nice chat with the owner Jerry, and he brewed us a cup of Ethiopian Djimmah. He is using a La Marzocco GB5 and Mazzer grinders for the espresso drinks, and Hario V60 style plastic cone for the "by the cup" pourover coffee (no airpots).

Location:

北市信陽街26-7號 2312-1252
Taipei , Xinyang Street 26-7 No. 2312-1252

His roaster is small - about a 1 kilo batch size - and has beans are sourced mostly from a Japanese broker. Roast profiles are on the lighter side, and he had a limited but interesting selection including the Djimmah, some Brazil Yellow Bourbon (didn't catch the finca name), Yemeni, and a Sumatran Mandheling "Gold Top". Don't know how it tastes but the Gold Top green beans were among the cleanest preps I've ever seen for an Indonesian.

Nice people, good coffee, decent espresso - highly recommended if you're in the area.

Good day to all,

Though I've been reading the forum for quite sometime, I just "joined" so to be able to post.
After living in Hong Kong for 4 years I just moved to Shanghai. I've visited some of the grocery shops and food stores that cater for "expats" and is hard to find coffee beans. Other than Illy and Lavazza, not many choices around.

If possible, anybody with information about sources of good coffee in Shanghai ?

During the next couple of weeks I will start looking for some coffee shops as well and would post about it if I find some that deserves it. In general, most of the coffee shops cater for a different taste (of course they are geared for the local market, that favors sweet, milky stuff "alla Starbu***", of course, not worth to visit.

Thanks if anybody can provide some information. I will do in the future if I find anything worth to mention.
Cheers
Mauricio

Although I have been to Shanghai and Hanzhou twice, I did not know these vendors then and have not ordered from these two places. They have good reputation on Chinese coffee forum:

Carmo in Shanghai:
http://www.carmo.com.cn/

Happybob in Hanzhou:
http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_det ... 1066155740

Both offer greens and roasted coffee via web and mail order. Please let me know if they are good, so next time I visit I know where to go.

Very interesting thread! Not only do these last 2 pages make me want another cappuccino, but now I'm seriously jonesing for dim sum.