Vancouver Coffee

Vancouver is a coffee city. We drink coffee in Calgary. There is coffee culture in Sydney and Melbourne. But this past week in Vancouver was the first time I had a REAL coffee and experienced a REAL coffee community.

The Australian coffee experience to me was impersonal and in general displeasing. The coffee scene in Calgary is young, budding and therefore sparse. To me, the Vancouver scene was surprising and satisfying. I met a lot of cool people last week who were all in the coffee business. They were all buddies and even though they worked for different companies, they got along just fine. Now I think that what makes Vancouver’s scene work is the fact there are actual places to crawl to. I went to Crema, 49th, Elysian, JJ and new Wicked. There are a few more places that I could have gone to but these places were interesting and substantial enough.

Each cafe has a different vibe. Wicked is small and personal. 49th is chic and modern. Crema is chillin’ and had amazing atmosphere. Elysian was homey.

Each cafe has different combo of coffee to offer. Wicked … Intelli. 49th … 49th on Mirage, siphon, press. Crema had JJ, Ritual, Stumps, and more depending on the week. Elysian had special roast from 49th and SPARKLING WATER!!

There is such a rich variety of coffee choices and different people trying to represent different aspects of coffee that they personally believe in. I can only hope that Calgary gets to this point, and even bombs past this.

Canadian National Barista Championships: #2

Preparation is TEDIOUS!

Last week I spent a fair amount of time sorting out my competition coffee after the roast. Looking for quakers (bad beans that add bitterness) and picking them out. Also looking for general bad beans that I think will ruin my coffee for whatever reason. I may have gotten a little crazy because a few hours into sorting, I was chucking out “bad” beans simply because I didn’t like the way it looked. Anyways, about 5 hours later, I had 5 pounds of competition coffee sorted out and bagged, ready for nationals. Woohoo!

Then I sorted out the rest of the roast for practice sessions. That was probably another 2 hours of sorting. If I had to sort for a living…I may just jump off a cliff or something like that because I was SO drained.

I'm not quite as happy as these people while sorting

Man is it a long, arduous process. In-house competition was mid-August, regionals was mid-September, and now nationals are mid-October. This makes 3 months worth of preparation or thinking about preparation. It is draining. One of the things I’m thinking about during these prep times is what to change, what to keep the same and what to tweak ever so slightly. For noobs like me, I find that these past three months has been a STEEP learning curve and it’s pretty cool. Huge progression. Huge knowledge gaining. Hugeness. Each comp is like a new one I’m preparing for and not really a continuation from the comp previous.

Anyways, can’t wait to get to Vancouver. Can’t wait until its all over and we’re all partying.

Go Fish!

Being from the land locked cit of Calgary, fresh seafood is not really in great abundance, as compared to other cities such as Vancouver.  As a result, one has to look LONG and HARD (insert immature laugh here) for places that have brought in great product.  On top of that, one has to narrow these places down to restaurants / cafe’s that actually prepare this seafood in a proper way.  Lots of delicious, fresh fish can be turned into armageddon-aftermath-like dishes with a skillful FLICK of an incompetent chef’s WRIST (insert immature laugh here).  You may think it’s actually hard to screw up such amazing starting ingredients, and I would tend to agree with you.  This is why I think it’s a skill to be so incompetent, or competently incompetent.  Now that I think of it, this is a great analogy for coffee.  How often do we see cafe’s with the best equipment and great coffee, pump out semi-decent espresso’s and brewed coffee?  What a waste!  BUT I DIGRESS…

One great example of a dish that is often ruined is Fish and Chips, or Fish n’ Chips, or Fish & Chips, or Poisson et Frites, or Poisson n’ Frites, or Poisson & Fri… you get the idea.  This is a dish that is everywhere in Calgary…yes, that’s right, Fish and Chips has amassed a massive marketshare in the monotonous mixed markets of mediocrity (how’s that for alliteration).  This is a dish that has so much potential yet is ruined too easy.  How many times have we had these where the waiter brings out a white platter of greasy, oil soaked, stinky, dry fish with the texture of 1 part butter : 30000 parts sand?  Oh yeah, and the fries… Oh the Fries!  It seems like Mr. Mcain special delivered those matchsticks of repulsiveness right to your doorstep.  Don’t forget the TARTAR sauce which is the bastard love child of Mr. Hellmans and Ms. Heinz-Relish (she was an academic and wanted to retain her maiden name for 1st author publication recognition purposes).  While this post is getting out of hand and the last paragraph literally made no sense whatsoever, the point I’m trying to make is that we are in FISH AND CHIPS DEFICIENCY here in Calgary.  So what’s the answer?

VANCOUVER.  And what an answer it is!  In my last trip to Vancouver, I stopped by the shack that has given me the best Fish and Chips I have ever had.  Go Fish is located on the Fisherman’s Warf just across from Granville Island.  It’s a tiny shack with room for maybe 5 employees or so, slaving over hot fryers of oil and pans sizzling away on a range.  You start by lining up… there is never no line.  I bet the first person that goes there once they open stands in line, too.  While you are in line and starting to fantasize about the orgasmic fish you are about to consume, you peruse a menu being passed along the line like a game of telephone to see which fish is going to bring you to pleasure island.  Because I am such a manly man, I went with Halibut.  Studies have shown that there is a direct proportional relationship with those that have a Halibut preference to their respective manlymanliness characteristic.  My other companions chose Cod and Halibut respectively.  After engaging in the act of a transaction, we grabbed some seats with tables ( a rarity due to the amounts of people eating there ) and waited.  Do not expect it to be fast…the people working are cooking as quickly as they can, but due to the sheer amount of orders, your fish will take time.  To me this signals that your order is being made FRESH…this is important, remember?  Oh yeah, I wanted to say that Go Fish is literally on the docks of the wharf… I’m quite certain that the fish is caught and walked up the plank to the shack where it is thrown into the fryer.  I think the fresher the seafood, the less middlemen there are.  Anyways, after finally hearing our names called, we sat down to our bounty…

Besides the really cool dim sum steamer basket they serve these in, my two pieces of Halibut perfection was accompanied by an Everest sized mound of frites, a home-made coleslaw, and some tartar sauce.  Let me describe to you how good this fish was… Sinking your teeth into the succulent portion of fish, you’re first met with buttery crunch of the perfectly-fried batter.  The batter is not paper thin by any means, it is maybe a millimeter thick.  But it adds an amazing crispiness accompanied by a richness that makes this fish and chips almost decadent.  After the beautiful batter gives way, you are not met with air or bubbles (as is the case with other poorly made dishes)…no, no, no, you are met with juicy, creamy, thick slabs of FRESH HALIBUT.  Absolutely succulent fish that melts in your mouth like pudding.  Halibut is gorgeously dense yet has such a buttery mouthfeel… all of this wrapped up with the rich crunch of the perfect coating of batter – tell me this is not making your mouth DROOL (aka. producing salivary alpha amlyase).  The tartar sauce was great, there was sweet notes of fresh dill that really set it apart from other commercial tartar sauces, which addeed a cooling, sweet accompaniment to the fish.  The fries were freshly cut, and were slightly thicker than McDonald’s fries, yet were crisper, softer on the inside, and fresher tasting.  The coleslaw was tasty as well, with julienned cabbage and carrots mixed with a sesame-based vinaigrette.  The coleslaw tasted light and refreshing, a stark contrast to the goopy, gelatinous messes that are sold in supermarkets everywhere.  Needless to say, after a massive meal like this, I developed an acute case of Itis and had to be remedied by an espresso from JJ Bean in Granville.

Go Fish is definitely one place for amazing Fish and Chips, in an awesome location… I think it is reason enough to make the trek from landlocked Calgary to Vancouver!