Caffeination Destination: Darkcloud
As much as I’d like to say I really keep up with the Chicago coffee scene, I don’t follow coffee blogs as much as I probably should. So imagine my delight in late December when I happened to glance at Time Out’s restaurant section and spot an unfamiliar name under “Newly Opened”: Darkcloud: Urban Coffee Lab. First of all, what was a coffee lab (and are there suburban ones?), and how would I found out? Next stroke of luck was the date of the cafe’s grand opening– what do you know… it was the following day!
So I hauled myself up to Lincoln park (which is probably a quarter of the distance to Metropolis, so no big deal) to experience a cafe opening in the flesh. But what, you might wonder, is so special about Darkcloud in particular? No, it’s not the industrial, graffiti’d space (although that is pretty cool) or even their rotating selection of different roasters (see my reviews of The Wormhole and Buzz Killer Espresso). No, what distinguishes Darkcloud from any cafe in all of Chicago is that they have a Slayer.
No, not this kind (although that would be arguably more awesome):
But this kind:
Initially, whenever coffee big shots mentioned that a cafe had a Slayer, I assumed it was some kind of drip coffee contraption, like a siphon. It never occurred to me that it was a kind of espresso machine. Ironically, even though I used to prefer espresso to pourovers, I never knew much about the different machine models.
To my understanding (after some internet research and asking the barista, who was more than willing to explain), the Slayer, aside from looking pretty cool (and costing $18,000), allows for the upmost precision when pulling shots. It allows you to actually adjust the pressure for each individual grouphead (aka “pressure profiling”). Why would you want to do this? Well, just as every coffee is different, the time it takes for each shot to drop will vary depending on the type of beans you’re using.
Because of this, Darkcloud weighs their espresso differently, depending on the beans (You can see a great video of this here).
So my question is– is this kind of precision necessary? A double shot of espresso takes up such a miniscule amount of volume– can you even tell? I ordered a traditional cappuccino and prepared to find out.
Yes, I know I should have ordered straight espresso, but they were featuring an Intelligentsia Ethiopian, which I knew would be too bright for me on its own (and sure enough, when MOOG joined me and ordered espresso, she nearly gagged. But she’s a die-hard cappuccino drinker). Initially, I was skeptical that such a bright coffee would work with the milk, but the barista assured me that it “brought out the spiciness of the beans.” And sure enough– he was right. There really was something almost fiery about the underlying espresso, but not so pronounced as to overwhelm the (perfectly foamed, by the way) milk.
But would I have been able to pinpoint that it had been made on a Slayer? I’m going to be honest and say NO. It was a really incredible cup of coffee, but I also found it hard to judge it without being biased. The same way you can’t dislike a $300 bottle of wine, it’s hard to turn up your nose at something made on such an extravagant piece of equipment.
As for the cafe itself? Unfortunately, I can’t speak for what’s going on now, since I only showed up the day it opened. I’ve been following them online, however, and crying silently that I can’t attend their coffee classes, which are complete with food pairings.
Dark Cloud is unique: not only does it have a Slayer and a wide range of espresso offerings, but it is located in Lincoln Park, a generally pretty yuppie area (as opposed to say, Wicker Park).
When I get back to Chicago, I know what cafe I’m visiting first:
It’s time for some Slaying.
All Hail the Rice Cooker: Brown Rice Congee with Poached Egg
(Recipes Below)
The story which I am about to tell is 100% truthful, although it seems a twist of fate. It resembles a certain food column in the New York Times, where the cook seems to have “nothing in the kitchen,” yet turns out impeccably braised meats and pie crusts presumably by accident (Yes, Melissa Clark, I’m thinking of you!).
But rest assured, last night Old Mother Hubbard (aka Octopus Gourmet) went to the cupboard (or rather, bookshelf) and found it bare. To be honest, cooking was the last thing on my mind. After an unrestful night’s sleep, I had a headache and really just wanted some miso soup. The problem? No miso. The dining hall just wasn’t an option– there are only so many times a day one can frequent the salad bar.
I inspected my ingredients and mulled over a few options. Literally everything was almost out: I had but a scant handful of brown rice and one lone packet of soy sauce. No fresh vegetables, unless you count kabocha squash and celery. Here is what I did have:
- Dried shiitake mushrooms
- A few kinds of dried seaweed
- Dried Chinese shrimp
- Oyster sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, salt and pepper
- Eggs that needed to be used up
- Does tap water count?
Like the menorah that burned for eight nights, the combined powers of my rice cooker and Asian dried staples somehow created a miraculous elixir, something along the lines of a Macrobiotic “stone soup.” Rather than drag out the induction burner, I threw almost everything into my rice cooker and hoped for the best.
Congee, or zhou, is one of the world’s most comforting foods, but it is nearly almost always made with white rice. I, alas, had only brown rice, which retains its chew and doesn’t thicken the same way, but is delicious in its own right. After pouring what was left of the rice into the rice cooker, I added shiitake mushrooms, a few dried shrimp, and a lot of water, then let it cook. It wasn’t long before it had come to a boil and the rice had begun to soften.
In the meantime, I had decided to use the kabocha squash as a side. If I haven’t mentioned this already, kabocha is my favorite food in the entire world– I adore its sweet, nutty flesh and hearty texture, especially when I’m feeling under the weather. And the best part about kabocha? It may be the only vegetable I know that tastes better steamed than roasted. So I cubed it, put it into my steamer insert, and let it steam while the congee simmered.
Fifteen or so minutes later, the squash was tender and the congee ready for flavoring. As I suspected, it tasted of absolutely nothing. I sacrificed my soy sauce packet and a few twists of the black pepper mill, then tasted. Fail. The soup lacked body. Even if I had had more soy sauce, it would have only made it more one-dimensionally salty. All of a sudden, Eureka! I had it. Oyster sauce (the key to perfect fried rice, by the way) is both savory and sweet, with a slightly fermented smell. I added a hearty tablespoon and tasted the congee again with a huge smile on my face. The oyster sauce added just the right amount of “roundness” to the soup.
With the addition of a huge clump of dried seaweed, I knew it was time to poach the eggs.
After a few minutes, I generously drizzled the whole concoction with sesame oil, sesame seeds and chili paste. As for a garnish, cilantro or scallions would have been ideal, but I had none. No matter. I sprinkled on some celery leaves and ate the congee straight out of the rice cooker.
The runny egg yolk thickened the broth, adding an almost roux-like creaminess. Meanwhile, the kabocha squash had somehow infused with the umami elements of dried shrimp and shiitakes– it, too, had become multilayered in flavor. As I alternated bites of kabocha with slurps of unctious congee, I could hardly think, my tastebuds were going so wild.
How did what had begun as having “nothing” on hand turn into such a feast?
Brown Rice Congee with Seaweed and Poached Egg
Ingredients
- a scant 1/4 cup brown rice
- Water to cover
- 6 dried shiitaki mushrooms
- 4 dried shrimp
- 1 packet soy sauce (a few tsp)
- 1 TBSP oyster sauce
- A fist-sized lump of dried Chinese seaweed
- Black pepper
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 TBSP chili paste, optional
- 2 eggs
- Sesame seeds and celery leaves, for garnish
Instructions
- Plug in your rice cooker
- If you want to save time, you might consider boiling the water in an electric kettle first, or you can just add it with the rest of ingredients and wait a bit longer.
- Add all the dried ingredients except the seaweed to the rice cooker, cover with water, and set to “cook.”
- Wait (times will vary) until the brown rice is slightly mushy but still chewy.
- Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, and seaweed, letting it wilt.
- Meanwhile, crack an egg (or two, as I did) into a small container and slide into the simmering congee. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the egg is cooked to your liking.
- Turn off the rice cooker and drizzle with sesame oil, chili paste, chopped nori, and celery leaves.
- Prepare for a foodgasm.
Simply Steamed Kabocha Squash
Ingredients
- 1 kabocha squash, cubed (no need to peel)
- Salt and pepper, sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- Insert the kabocha into a steamer over boiling water or congee and cover.
- Let steam 10 minutes, or until soft.
- Serve, flavoring if you desire.
Student Blogs Rock the World
Thank you so, so much to the people at Wesleying, our completely student-run blog. Wesleying is the one blog I procrastinate with that doesn’t involve copious amounts of food porn.
Apparently in writing my rubuttal on the Onion’s article (which claims Bard to be the token “dinner party” college) struck a resounding chord among Wesleyan students. And I couldn’t be happier.
I have no idea if my views have gone up (still have no idea if people I don’t know personally really read this blog), but I get the feeling there are more expectations now. New dinner party ideas?
What’s something novel you’d like to see on Octopus Gourmet, keeping in mind that I have no oven or blender, just an induction burner, a rice cooker, and my own eight tentacles?
-Octopus Gourmet
The Onion Has it All Wrong
Wesleyan and Bard have been neck and neck in college surveys for as long as anyone can remember. These surveys and articles range from serious– Princeton Review (although even they cited both colleges as having high rates of “birkenstock-wearing, clove-smoking vegetarians)– to humorous– the Onion.
It’s not that I mind coming second to Bard in certain categories– in fact, I’m still completely baffled as to why we beat them in the Huffington Post’s list of Top 10 Hipster Schools. But with the Onion’s most recent article, Bard College Named Nation’s No. 1 Dinner Party School, I knew I had to take a stand and speak up for Wesleyan students everywhere.
I realize that the article is a joke, but the more I read, the more freaked out I got, and the more I started to wonder how The Onion gets their information. All jokes have a basis in fact, and it wasn’t so much the school they chose as what they said about it. To quote from the article:
School officials said Bard has made a number of positive changes since 2005, when a student was sent to the hospital after ingesting in excess of three poached tilapia fillets in less than an hour. Steps taken to manage the dinner party scene on campus include freshman orientation classes encouraging students to eat alone in their dorm room at least three times a week; banning the use of fondue kits on campus; and contacting the parents of students found using vegetables or tofu from the school’s dining hall in their homemade stir-fries.
“using vegetables or tofu from the school’s dining hall in their homemade stir-fries?” Have you read my guest post on dorm cooking at the Breakaway cook? Are these people hiding under my bed (where I stash my induction burner)?
So in defense of Wesleyan (or maybe just myself), I bet these Bard students have kitchens, at the very least. I have a couple friends at Bard and one of them lives in a wood-frame house as a freshman. I bet none of them cook meals at which at least 3 dishes are present IN THEIR ROOMS. Oh, but according to the article,
“That’s why we have a strict policy that any student attending a dinner party with more than four courses will be immediately suspended.”
Just this weekend I threw a dinner party. Unfortunately, the dishes were nothing new, but the company was, and I wanted to treat them to some old standbys: Star-Anise Spiced Eggplant, Stir-fried Eggs and Tomato, a variation on Bok Choy with Soft Tofu and Glass noodles with spinach, and brown rice.
Other dinner parties I’ve had have included Yellow Curry and Moroccan Chickpea Tagine with Dried Apricots (sorry, no recipe for that one yet) and Cinnamon Couscous.
I have special chopsticks reserved for guests, octopus plates, and a nice little coffee table. I put a lot of effort into dinner parties and the relaxation and gustatory pleasure they provide.
I’ve been in touch with people from Bard and I have yet to hear anything about dinner parties. So props to The Onion for a scarily accurate representation of American liberal arts schools and their hippie dinner parties– just don’t discount Wesleyan.
Coffee Review: Cafe Grumpy Guatemala
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the enormous gap between words and places.
It’s very easy to make big claims like “I prefer espresso blends to single-origin” or “African coffees are much too bright for me.” Oftentimes, these claims are justified. But just as you can’t generalize that all people from one country are the same, this also holds true for coffee.
It just feels so abstract to read a label that names a specific country, farm, even, where your beans are coming from, and try to imagine it. Of course, you’ll be infinitely closer to visualizing this than if you bought a canister of grocery-store French Roast, but imagination only takes you so far.
If I hadn’t gone to a coffee roasting plant in Bali, this would be even more difficult.
What began as wanting to say “While I generally prefer Indonesian coffees…” turned into a tangent, but a justified one. I’m trying my best to overcome my prejudice that brighter, fruitier coffees all come from Africa and that chocolatey, mellow beans are from South America.
Cafe Grumpy’s current Guatemala offering helped move me slightly closer to that goal. Brewed on the Clever, I have yet to taste a cup of coffee that lingers like honey on your taste buds in the same way. So sweet, it’s almost juicy, like biting into a just-ripe nectarine. And yet, the cup is perfectly balanced: no charcoaled taste, no sharp acidity– just a smooth, relaxing brew.
Ideal for breakfast, or for those lazy afternoons where you sit at your coffee table with a friend and wait slowly for the caffeine to kick in. It’s a gradual process of awakening rather than a sudden jolt.
Almost too gentle, too sweet, for those of us who want something harsher. But beautiful nonetheless.
Updated Recipe Page, Again
Just a heads up to let you guys know I’ve updated the format of the recipe page. Feedback encouraged! Does it look better? Also wondering how to get it to “jump down”: for instance, at 101 Cookbooks you can browse by ingredient.
Web design experts, please help!
RIP The Minimalist
So this is perhaps a little belated, but Wednesday was a mournful day for all of us. Everything seemed normal enough– I happily sat down with my cold brew coffee, a grapefruit, almonds, and the New York Times Dining Section– the reason Wednesday is my favorite day of the week.
A typical Wednesday a few months ago:
So you can imagine the sorrow that mounted in my soul as I read the headline, “The Minimalist Makes His Exit.” Yes, I know he’s not gone forever, but what is the Dining Section going to be without the Minimalist? I want eclectic, eco-friendly, easy to make recipes, and I want them weekly. Restaurant reviews and The Pour are all fine and dandy, but some of us are college students and don’t live in New York.
Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but my life goal is pretty much to be Mark Bittman. He’s an environmentally-conscious omnivore, self-taught, and has probably saved all our lives with his How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Not to mention, his writing is enormously entertaining.
Mark, you rock. You make my Wednesday mornings. Please don’t leave.
In his last definite Minimalist column, Mark names 25 of his favorite recipes. I’m not going to list them all here (but I am intrigued by his usage of ketchup in stir-fry– if anyone can make me like faux-Chinese food, it’s him). Instead, I’d like to give you guys a list of some simple recipes of mine that I’d like to think the Minimalist would approve of.
These are recipes that are neither 100% authentic nor “fusion” cooking. Enjoy. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the Minimalist will be sorely missed.
Octopus Gourmet’s “Minimalist-esque” recipes:
Bok Choy with Soft Tofu and Glass Noodles
Grilled Mackerel in Sesame Soy Marinade
EXCITING DAY! GUEST POST ON BREAKAWAY COOK
The Breakaway Cook, Guest Blog Post
Hi guys, today marks a special day in the history of Octopus Gourmet.
The amazing Breakaway Cook, aka Eric Gower, has let me do a guest post on his blog about dorm cooking and how it applies to his “breakaway” style. You can find his definition of that on his site, but it basically involves eclectic combinations of ingredients to create a new cuisine that isn’t “fusion,” just tasty.
As always, I would love your feedback, especially as I work towards trying to make this blog more “professional.”
Have good weekends!
-Octopus Gourmet
Caffeination Destination: O Cafe
Disclaimer: to avoid confusion, these “Caffeination Destination” posts do not only apply to Chicago cafes.
There’s a new cafe in town (in the Village, what else is new?), and it’s pretty damn good. Now all of us have the opportunity to try some coffee beans, not to mention chocolate, straight from Brazil.
Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, Stumptown… all these are fine and dandy, but it’s always exciting to know that there is a coffee culture outside the U.S.– where the beans are sourced from. Where it all began.
O Cafe is “big” for a New York cafe, which is to say there is seating space (no bathroom, though!). The lighting and polished wood give it a meditative quality, evoking more of a “tea ceremony”-like atmosphere than a coffee one.
But forget the tea– here, pourover drippers are serenely posed over glass decanters. The peaberry I tried was unbelievable– rich and chocolatey, like drinking espresso in drip coffee form, with some underlying raspberry notes.
Of course, espresso shines here as well, with perfectly poured latte art. (The one occasion where MOOG’s cappuccino seemed “less-than-perfect,” the owner (Fernando Aciar, Brazilian chef/baker) asked, “do you drink cappuccinos?” When MOOG responded “yes,” he made us another on the house.)
Speaking of baking, let’s talk pastries, shall we? I love grungy hipster cafes as much as the next person, but their pre-packaged, plastic-wrapped sandwiches that sit for hours under the fluorescent light of the refrigerator case are hard to get excited about. O Cafe in the morning is a plethora of smells: the addictive aroma of freshly ground beans, the cheese that goes into their bread known as pão de queijo, and the spicy apples that fill their rustic fruit tarts.
Although I think I’m missing the “dessert gene,” MOOG and FOOG could not stop raving about these fruit tarts. MOOG insisted that the crust was whole wheat, yet impossibly flaky. The filling itself was a mixture of apples and Korean pears, baked until soft but still slightly crunchy. The entire tart was then sprinkled with coarse grains of raw cane sugar.
And after two visits, we still hadn’t tried the chocolate! In addition to chocolate bars, O offers a variety of chocolate drinks, listing their cacao content in percentages. Of course, what is essentially a sophisticated, single-source mocha is also available.
But I can’t help it. I’m a purist. At the end of the day all I want some of those peaberry beans (which, by the way, are only sold in 6 ounce bags).
Get to O before it gets too crowded.
Coffee Granita
Just received this email:
To All Students,
The National Weather Service is forecasting a major ice storm for tomorrow,
Wednesday, February 2, creating potentially hazardous conditions for
pedestrians.
Use extra caution when traveling outside. If you must go out, avoid walking
under trees and power lines. Wear appropriate footwear and walk cautiously.
Be on the lookout for potential hazards overhead. If you see a downed wire,
assume it is live with power and stay away from it. Warn others in the area
to stay away. Report any downed wires or power outages to Public Safety
immediately.
If you experience a power outage at your residence on campus, keep doors and
windows closed to the extent possible, and do not use candles or other
open-flame devices. Do not attempt to use stoves or fireplaces for heating,
thereby creating fire hazards. Prepare yourselves now by keeping flashlights
handy, keeping cell phones fully charged, and making sure you have drinking
water and food available.
Drinking water? Is there something wrong with the ice?
Anyways, what better time than during an ice storm to accidentally freeze your already-iced coffee concentrate?
This is what happens when you try to bite off more than you can chew class-wise.
But you know what? It was delicious. Couldn’t have hurt that I was using Cafe Grumpy’s Heartbreaker blend, which is so rich that the oils of the beans stained the bottom of my Tupperware. After realizing there was no point in melting the concentrate and then adding ice, I proceeded to hack at the brown block with a knife, probably waking up my entire floor in the process.
No longer a “cup” of coffee, maybe, but a refreshing shaved ice beverage that would probably go nicely with some amaretto. So shut your blinds, swap your hot toddy for another kind of Toddy, and try to blend with your environment.
Fight fire with fire– or should I say ice with ice?
(Check out the appropriately-named post Fire and Ice)
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