One Spring day in 1995 coffee site is born... · Wednesday March 21, 2012 by colin newell
It was on a warm Spring day in 1995 that I was fooling around with an IBM PS/2 running Windows for Workgroups. On other boxes I would soon install and play with early versions of Slackware Linux, Windows and OS/2 (WARP). And on those boxes I would start out with a gopher server server playing with something that would soon turn the World on its ear — The World Wide Web HTTP protocol.
Working in what is now called “Systems” at UVic, I was lucky enough to be at ground zero when the World Wide Web was first flashed up. I tested GOPHER on several machines before running an HTTPD server on a ethernet enabled PC workstation – that would have been as early as the Spring of 1991.
The original domain name, espresso.ts.uvic.ca (which I used for some work related stuff, electronics, radio and so on…) would briefly be the platform for the first version of “The Coffee Experts Group…” (on or about 1994) and this would soon depart for an ISP downtown called Octonet as well as a relative newcomer to Victoria, Islandnet.com
The coffee themed pages become so popular so quickly that I hastily moved it all onto Octonet.com and mirrored it at Islandnet.com where it lives to this very day.
The coffee websites first official domain name was coffee.bc.ca (which is this blog you see today!) The coffeecrew.com (Coffeecrew) [a more modest moniker than “Experts”] was adopted in the late nineties.
17 years on. Happy Birthday to us! Click on the photo below for the bigger view.
Thanks to our our readers for hanging in all these years…
First day of Spring 2012 Brannana Bread · Tuesday March 20, 2012 by colin newell
I cannot think of a better use for a banana than sticking it in something to hide the fact that it is a banana –
Banana bread – it is not really bread, but it is great with coffee in the afternoon when everyone’s blood sugar starts to crash.
I have a few recipes on this subject – and Yup – here is one more variation on the classic.
I buy banana’s to eat and I rarely eat them – they sit on my microwave til they turn darker than a cup of drip brewed Sumatra.
And they end up in Banana bread. And here is the recipe with a variation or two:
A little healthier than the standard…
Colin’s Bran-nana Bread
Wet
1/2 Cup butter softened
1 Cup raw sugar
2 Eggs
3 medium mashed bananas
Dry
1 cup whole bran
1 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped almonds
In a mixer, add butter til creamed. Add sugar. Add 2 eggs one at a time
add banana’s one at a time.
Add dry to wet in mixer and mix to moisten all ingredients.
1 hour in greased pan at 350 degrees.
Let it cool before you attempt to cut!
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1964 Pick up truck and a song · Wednesday March 7, 2012 by colin newell
In the dusty summer of 1964, I was a 5 year old looking forward to entering Grade One.
To be honest, I kind of new that the gig was up. Had been living free and easy all these years. No responsibility. Long days of shooting the breeze, watching over our 4 acres of hay and horses and apples.
One afternoon, late August, in a moment of mischief, I tossed my sisters one and only Beatles album around like a Frisbee – not understanding the dynamics of plastics, glass and other fragile items that might break – and this one did… into a million pieces.
So into the back of a 1963 Chevolet pick up truck I was tossed by a neighbor with the approval of my mom and 8 bucks (I think it was, if that – to buy a new copy)…
Twist and Shout by the Beatles – released in February 1964. Literally days before an entire continent would be glued to their TV sets as the fab-4 would perform for the first time on national television. And I was there.
In the year 2012 one never sees children flopping around the back of a hay filled Chevy but in 1964 it would have been commonplace. And so it was: Off to the Eaton’s on Douglas at View Street. It would be a year before the greatest Christmas catalog of all time would be released; the 1965 Wish book from Eaton’s.
Digress.
After picking up the new LP I was whisked to a farm in the countryside where my older sister was riding horses. And much to her surprise she was curious that I was dropping off a brand new copy of a record – this was my parents idea of remedial justice. Thankfully, I was not judged too harshly.
“New Beatles album? What is wrong with the old one?”
Funny observation from that point – I replied, “They broke up…”
“WHAT!” My 10 year old sister shrieked… NOW she was mad.
It took some quick hand gestures while looking up at this girl who was easily 2 feet taller than me… “No, no… record… broken… hundreds of…”
It all worked out after that.
From that point on I started paying very curious attention to each and every Beatles release – because my much older sister bought each and every one – and with each record their music was evolving – morphing into something more adult each and every day.
By February 1967, I was a much, much older 9 year old – with more sophisticated tastes. While watching American Bandstand one Saturday morning with a youthful Dick Clark, he introduced a newfangled “promotional film” by the Beatles (we can them videos now…) for the songs “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields”
I remember the reaction of many of the kids in the audience – of shock that the Beatles had moved on leaving many of them behind in their bobby socks.
Not me. I had known for some time that Beatlemania was over baby. It was well over by the summer of 1966… another hot and dusty Summer where old 60’s pick up trucks and beat up cars would play an important role…
In my life.
2012 When the company's good, the food doesn't matter · Sunday March 4, 2012 by colin newell
For Andrea and I, every day of the year is a potential dine around event.
But here in Victoria, right now – it is dine around and we are trying to take advantage of it – we have a few places lined up this week.
This previous Friday we did Bon Rouge – a sexy French Bistro Restaurant at 611 Courtney Street with dear friends Mark and Valerie.
Bon Rouge is the kind of place where you would almost expect characters from the French thriller “Diva” to appear, conspiring in a dark corner over one of Bon Rouges signature $5 martinis. Pretty sure I saw a couple of guys in dark suits up to no good. They were drinking vodka martinis and were clearly fomenting revolution…
I digress.
It was a busy and blustery Friday night in Victoria with just a vermouth twist of warmth in the air – none to soon: Winter has been going on way to long!
We were a tad early so we were seated at the bar. Andrea ordered a vodka martini with a twist of lemon. I ordered a small French press of insanely strong coffee (Fernwood) and some bread. The bread never showed up – but that was OK – we were soon to be relocated to the dining room, more or less on time.
Bon Rouge is a big room (3 rooms actually) and its biggest plus is the table layout, some great private booths and acoustics perfect for intimate chats – even between 4 folks.
Bon Rouge, for a French restaurant has service that I would describe as casually detached (some would call it slow, I wouldn’t) and maybe slightly less attentive than maybe it could be. But from where I am sitting (as an industry consultant), it’s not that bad. Lots of the food is of the “slow” category. For instance, I ordered the beef marrow appetizer – takes 20 minutes to prepare minimum and it was at the table to the second. Andrea had a shrimp and prawn ceviche that was very good. Mark has an Onion soup that appeared more like a 1/3 of a soup – also good. Valerie had the same appetizer as Andrea. No one was complaining.
I had bone marrow at a French restaurant in the Napa valley – Bistro Jeanty – and it was amazing – the marrow at Bon Rouge was a let down in comparison – there were a few nibbles and some bread… maybe a tablespoon of marrow. Sad colin.
In the mains, I had pork three ways; cheek, porchetta and bacon with some grilled vegetables (parsnips) and an awesome demi glace. For me, pork anything tastes too good to be healthy and this was no exception.
Andrea had the lamb & lamb (sausage and shank) with bitter wilted greens.
Valerie had the trout – and Mark had the lamb times 2 like Andrea.
Mark and Valerie shared a creme brulee and Andrea and I sampled one of Bon Rouge’s simple cheesecakes.
Bon Rouge is not World class French – but neither are the prices. If anything, it is the New Wave of French cuisine. There is too much humor and too little stuffiness to make it pure French. And we love it for the most part.
The four of us had a great time. It has been a really challenging week and the conversation was key at this gathering. In some ways we could have just at easily eaten at Boston Pizza or Earls and cover the ground we did that evening. But we were at Bob Rouge… and all was well.
Dinner for 4 – around $200 less adult beverages.
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