What is your favourite restaurant

I thought I would start a bit of a blog / restaurant review with a rating out of 10 for the various eating places around Colombo. Given that Sri-Lankans love a good feed….where is your favourite place to grab a bite and why ?

As for me I have my firm favourites…

Breakfast – I have yet to find a good breakfast spot in Colombo but I love the ‘rest house’ breakfasts when you go on a trip like the one at Kurunagala, and Ambepussa.  The Kandalama hotel also puts on  quite a spread with a good mix of Western and eastern food 8/10 !

Lunch – Commons 8/10, the Cricket Cafe 7/10 and the food court at Crescat 8/10 …

Dinner – Palmyrah at the Renuka 9/10 or Akasa Kade 8/10 for some authentic Lankan food, Il Ponte 9/10, German Restaurant 7/10, Siam House 8/10. Does anyone know if Sakura is still open and if the food is still good ?

Making espresso

The art of making a really ‘good’ coffee has so many elements that it borders on the virtual impossible for a school kid doing a part time job standing behind a coffee machine to perfect the art of making truly good coffee.
For instance there are the beans…which part of the world they come from impacts greatly on their taste characteristics. A coffee blend with beans from only one region would most likely be biased too much in one direction. It’s a bit like tea, the taste characteristics vary from the upcountry to the low country. Teas are blended to get the perfect balance of tastes to please the masses that drink it.
Once the coffee beans are blended they are roasted. The roasting process is also an art. A good roaster has at least 7 years of blending and roasting experience !
The roasted beans need to be used to make your cup of coffee as soon as possible to retain the freshness and flavour characteristics, they are packed in vacuum packed bags to ensure their freshness.
Once the pack is opened and the beans are ground the skill of the barista comes into play. The grind must be just ‘right’ or the water will flow through the coffee too fast (weak taste) or too slow (bitter taste).  The correct amount of coffee to pour one shot of espresso is 7grams.  A good barista  must be able to  judge the quantity of  coffee they dose into the filter.  The coffee then has to be ‘tamped’ with the right pressure…some tampers are spring loaded to ensure the correct pressure is applied to pack the coffee into the filter.  Tamp too hard and the water will have a hard time getting through the coffee likely to make the coffee taste bitter, tamp too lightly and the water will pour through the coffee too fast resulting in a weak brew.
The ‘hardware’ part of the equation comes into play now…the coffee machine…proudly displayed on the counter for all to see.
Most commercial coffee machines have only one water boiler…to heat the water to make the coffee (which should be around 94 degs C) and to create the steam to steam the milk (over 100 degs C). Does anyone see the irony here. It is impossible for one boiler to maintain the water at two temperatures so there is a compromise usually in the temperature of the water which goes through the coffee being too hot. It is only a few machines that employ a dual boiler system that maintains separate temperatures for the steam and the water which makes the coffee. La Marzonno is one of these.
Now there is the water which goes into the machine…chlorine and other additives in the water can alter the taste of the coffee. It is important therefore to use a filtration which basically removes all the additives in the water and distills it so only PURE water goes into the machine. This process is usually called reverse osmosis. VERY few coffee shops use this method as it cost quite a bit to install and require regular maintenance.
Now the art of stream milk….this takes much patience and practice to perfect. To make a good cup of coffee the barista needs to make sure there are virtually no air bubbles in the milk so it velvet smooth when it hits the coffee and mixes with the crema (the top layer of oil on the coffee).
The temperature that the milk is steamed to also needs to be right so that it doesn’t ‘burn’ the milk so that its the perfect temperature to drink (between 60-70 degs C) when it reaches the customer.
Now if you can get all that right your have a truly GOOD cup of coffee :o)
We have been trying making coffee adhering to these principles for over a year now but we are still not perfect!
Sorry for the lengthy post but I thought I would share with you what goes to make a really GOOD cup of coffee. I have yet to have one in Colombo….maybe its time for us to open a Truffles there ?!?

Naughty indulgences..defying the health craze

In the health crazed world of low carb diets, gym memberships, and exercise mania amoung young and old its interesting that shops & cafés selling chocolates and desserts are flourishing.  It is almost as if people cherish the rebellious nature of these places and flock to them to enjoy their indulgences.  I am not talking about the run of the mill Kandos or Cadbury’s but gourmet handmade delicacies with their intricate designs and mouth watering fillings. 

Today’s consumer is more discerning with greater spending power than ever before so maybe its this choice of being able to indulge in something ‘naughty and nice’ which that is the reason for the success.  It seems people today want choice and are willing to pay for it !

Having always been a chocolate lover as well as a bit of a health nut I did some research into chocolate and found out that its not all bad news.  In fact dark chocolate (higher in coco than its milk chocolate counterpart) is on a list of cancer-fighting foods.

Dark chocolate is very high in antioxidants called polyphenols – 50g of dark chocolate has around twice the polyphenol content of a glass of red wine, and about as much as green tea.

Chains like Starbucks, Gloria Jeans, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Barista and good old Coffee Stop have given new meaning to the humble cup of coffee with lattes, capuccinos, frappes, mochas, macchiatos and Café au Lait the order of the day.  I have decided to join the coffee/chocolate revolution in Melbourne and start a café specialising in handmade chocolate & desserts, coffee and the finest Sri-Lankan tea (www.teadrop.com.au)….giving consumers the best of each.   The menu will be simple and limited to snacks and tapas (“bites” as they are commonly known in Sri-Lanka) and a kickass breakfast will be available on the weekends as a hangover cure.

Truffles Café and Chocolaterie will open in late Feb/early March in Melbourne, so if you happen to be around pop in…..free wireless internet so you can sit and blog away to your hearts content

Let’s see how this latest venture pans out but I know I will certainly be savoring the ride !

In search of the perfect high

Back in high school it was a big deal if you were caught smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer or making out at a school function.  Then in university partying mean copious amounts of alcohol and many hung-over mornings.  The dawn of the millennium brought with it a whole new chemical cocktail with which to escape reality and keep going for 2-3 days straight…pills in various shapes and sizes. 

These days socializing with friends at a club means frequent visits to the toilet or other private sanctuary where one can rack up and snort up.  The prevalence and use of drugs these days is amazingly widespread and commonplace.

While the timings of these events may vary for each of us, and the fact that each of these stimuli has been around for a while now, I am sure the progression from one to another has been similar.  It leads me to wonder then where we are heading ?  

In a few years are we going to wire our brains to some kind of machine which will neurologically stimulate our pleasure centers’ in order that we may experience the ultimate high ?  Or is that too anti-social ?  Will the twisted creators of these stimulants simply create different cocktails for us to ingest ?

Where is the grass greenest ?

Why is that whenever I come down to Sri-Lanka I meet people who are in envy of the fact that I live in Australia, and express to me their desires to want to migrate there when all I want to do is find a way to spend more time in Sri-Lanka ?
I could understand it if these people were part of the underprivileged in Sri-Lankan society who don’t have the opportunities which are available to everyone in the western world, but these people live in Colombo 7 with a nice car(s), servants and basically nothing to worry about… apart of course from the odd bomb which has been going off in Colombo recently.
When I probe further I find that their want to live in a western society stems from their desires for independence and freedom to do whatever they want without half the city of Colombo knowing about it. While gossiping has its drawbacks, part of the attraction of Colombo is being part of a huge extended family, and a sense of belonging which you certainly don’t get in a big city like Melbourne.
I guess the extent of these desires depends on whether you are male or female and on how much importance your family places on what other people think, but to me living in Sri-Lanka far outweighs life in Melbourne. The pace of life is not so hectic, you don’t have to drive 30 minutes to catch up with a friend for a coffee, people seem to have time to just hang out (maybe because their parents take care of all life’s chores) and to me it is a city which really grows on you and after a while no matter where you have come from you just belong there. I would be interested to hear about other peoples’ experiences and thoughts on this topic.

Why are the smartest not the richest ?!?

From the time we are born our parents have this desire for us to study hard, get good grades and get into the best university possible (in the case of most Sri-Lankans to study medicine, law or accounting).  So we bust our guts in school trying to outdo one another, getting private tuition, anything to be top of the class.  Then it’s off to university where between the distractions of alcohol, drugs and the opposite (or same) sex we try to get our degrees, masters and PhDs. 

Our proud parents pose for graduation trophy photographs to be strategically displayed around the family home so that visitors will ask about how the offspring are faring.  They will then be given an account of which university the kids attended and how they are doing so well as a lawyer/accountant/doctor working for xyz.

While in most instances working in a profession requiring a high standard of education does bring with it a high level of income and respect from the community, these occupations are most often servants to the truly wealthy.

I have seen and read about so many instances where someone arrives in a foreign country with nothing but the clothes on their back, barely being able to speak the language, but through hard work, perseverance, passion for what they do, and a bit of luck build a business empire which employs scores of MBAs, lawyers and accountants. 

Another case is the kid who drops out of school gets a job and jumps into the real world long before their classmates have even finished high school.  Through real life experiences they develop a kind of streetsmart canniness which enables them to seize an opportunity to start a business which becomes a tremendous success. 

I have friends who are high school and university drop outs making a lot more money than those of us who studied for years…… 

The question then: Is studying all those years the best path to making a lot money and success, or is it one of real life experiences and following your dreams ?  Or are some people ‘born’ with this knack to see opportunities where others don’t and exploit them ?