LONDON CAFE LEGACY

A perfect coffee in the morning (Credit: SarchJaneLeggett)

Image link: http://biggsreps.com

For habitual coffee drinkers in a hustling morning in London, squeezing out a cloned coffee chain shop with sipping a hot espresso on their hands is a common routine just to freshen up for another working day. Over time London coffee was portrayed as dull and cultureless to the point that some may even say London doesn’t have a café culture but only high street coffee chains, and if you are expecting an expertly made espresso you need to fly over the sea to Rome or Paris.

Indeed, the domination of high quality café in Italy is set in stone.  Sipping a traditionally made Italian-style cappuccino taste much more than frothy coffee flavoured milk as those in Starbucks or Costa, you can almost taste the history of it. But saying that coffee culture in London is merely leaked from Italy is remaining fallacy. According to London historian Dr Matthew Green, the culture of café(or coffeehouse) in London began in mid 17^th century while the first London’s coffeehouse opened in 1652. Just like the function of bathing spot in ancient Rome, London’s coffeehouse was a platform to socialize and brought ideas and elites together. From then, coffeehouse was labelled as a debate theatre where full of ‘opportunities for intellectual engagement and spirited debate with strangers.’ Once entered the coffeehouse people started mingling, this is an unbreakable in coffeehouse yet one that seems abnormal to us today.

With the established history of café culture, the cafe business in London alongside with the quality of coffee is continuously soaring. You would definitely be convinced when you taste a velvety flat white coffee in the namesake café Flat White (sister to the Milk Bar) located at 17 Berwick Street. Recommended also by Timeout London, Flat White is producing quality guaranteed coffees with the newest brewing technique including cold filters and tailor-made 4-group Synesso Hydra. Besides, coffee bean used in Flat White is from Square Mile Coffee Roasters which located in London, it is at its best condition since roasted coffee cannot survive in travelling, it would rapidly go stale and the flavour would be lost. This is why locally roasted coffee like the way Flat White is using, considered the best quality. According to Australian coffee expert Nolan Hirte, good coffee comes down to how well it was processed, each crop and priorly the terroir of where they roasted. It is at its best between 6-12 days after it was roasted.

With using the same coffee roaster, Prufrock Coffee where located at 23-25 Leather Lane is another master of London coffee culture. Featuring varies of brewing methods with a workshop in the cellar, Prufrock Coffee pay more attention on the details from using Vichy Catalan water (hailed as the most recognized mineral water from Spain) to bespoke coffee cup.

Delicate chemistry brewing sets (Credit: CosyCoffeeShops)

Image link:http://www.cosycoffeeshops.co.uk

Monmouth Coffee on the other hand offers a wide range of beans roasted on their own apart from the coffee. Located at London hardcore areas including Covent Garden, Borough Market and Bermondsey often with a long queue snaking out onto the pavement, symbolizes the thriving coffee culture in London. In Monmouth Coffee we can see a trace of the old coffeehouse legacy in which communication always goes first – outside the booth in the chatting area, no mobile phone is allowed!

It is noticeable that all the cafés that introduced above are all artisanal independent in which the flame comes from assiduous studies and practices in coffee making instead of relying on propagandas. Convincing others how good is a coffee is almost impossible by mere words whereas it is crucial to experience in first-hand. If you are a metropolitan Londoner who fed up by mediocre coffee from chain shops and in turn to seek out higher quality coffee, don’t hesitate to try out some of those recommended; I can assure you the longer you have to queue for, the more it worth the wait.

By Jennifer Chan

CHRISTMAS TURKEY RITUAL

Roasted Turkey (Credit: LaboratoryNews)

Image link: http://www.labnews.co.uk

Every great recipes start with great ingredients. Selecting for a perfect turkey for Christmas dinner usually sounds a bit daunting when you are facing a rack full of wide range of turkeys. Versions of how to select turkey are all around for example one should think about what kind of turkey you actually want (Frozen or fresh)? What is your budget? How many people you will be serving? Are there children included? How big your guest’s stomach? Plan on having leftovers? With which should go first remains your choice but I can assure you all of them play a big part in determining a successful Christmas dinner. For the size, Jamie Oliver suggested: “In my books, the perfect bird is 6.5kg-8kg in weight because that’s a good size to handle, feeds about 10 to 14 people and has better flavour than bigger birds.”

After deciding the size and the portion, you are about to face the biggest dilemma – Fresh or Frozen?  Fresh turkeys need no thawing and are ready to cook whereas frozen turkeys can be purchased weeks in advance but require several days of thawing before roasting. Most people may have assumed that frozen meat equivalent to stale, but here is a surprising fact - the freshest turkey is the frozen one. According to American butcher John Smith, in old days the birds were harvest three weeks earlier with them ended up in a fine shape. All the frozen turkeys are quick frozen right after butchering. Also there is no noticeable effect upon the quality of the bird in the freezing process. You may see ice scattered on the birds because the turkey processors chill them below 30°F before sending them off to the store up to two weeks before to keep them fresh, but they aren’t frozen, you should find out the meat inside the iced is still soft when you press the turkey much firmly. In this way, frozen turkey should be a good staple for your Christmas dinner regarding the length they last as well as the quality, letting alone the price is lower than fresh turkey.  Whether you want an frozen one or fresh one is a personal preference but if you prefer fresh turkey, a piece of advice is to try picking it up as closed to Christmas as possible. Storing a fresh turkey in your freezer may cause rapid deterioration since domestic freezers don’t have the same cooling system.

Besides, please be advised to choose the turkey with labels with words like Free-Range/Organic/ heritage on it. Generally speaking, free Range birds are ones that have the option of accessing outdoors to take some stretches instead of spending its entire life in a cage. Organic turkeys are reared by organic feed and without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and have never been injected with hormones or antibiotics in their whole life. They are raised in a natural way at its best. The abandoned use of chemical that create resistant “superbugs” in human body, guarantees the eaters health relatively. Additionally the access to outdoors encouraged exercise with encouraging muscle growth and fat reducing, it is beneficial to the eater’s heart, registered dietician Nancy Goodwin of the American Dietetic Association says.

With the entire Christmas commodity in the market, which one is the best among them? British Turkey Awards gave us an answer on 27th September. Sticking out with the delicate package and high food quality, Jamie Oliver’s “My tastiest turkey box” won the Best Christmas Convenience Product praise whilst ASDA swept the Best Christmas Traditional Product praise away with its basted whole turkey.  Jimmy’s farm Turkey has the honor for the Best Christmas Premium Product.  

Everybody would drool over pictures of a brown roast turkey with a peel of grease glinting on, but the crucial part to make it real start from the choice of raw material.  Take a wander at ASDA then you may get some inspiration for your Christmas dinner!

By Jennifer Chan