(no subject)

My experimental food kick continues this week.  Today it's artichoke drink.  Unlike last week's tamarind juice, I didn't buy this one with the tacit expectation that it would be palatable.  I purchased this because I wanted to be the only kid on the block who could say, "Why yes, in fact I have tried Artichoke Drink, so I can speak as somewhat of an authority..."

So far I have opened the can and poured it into a glass so that I could form some first impressions.  It's about the colour of an amber ale, and it has a very light, almost woody bouquet.  In all respects it is, so far, the opposite of last week's murky, floater-laden, cloyingly-sweet smelling tamarind.  I keep pausing to smell this drink again and again because it reminds me of something that I can't quite place.  I've read that the sense of smell is the one most closely linked to memories, and this one is trying to unlock an old memory that won't quite jar loose.

Ah well, memories aside, it's tasting time.  Cheers.

o_o

-_-

O_o

o_O

x_x

It's not bad at all, though it has a pretty pronounced aftertaste that kicks in a few seconds later.  It doesn't taste like it smells, but the aftertaste does.  I don't know if I'll buy this again, but I'm not sorry that I tried it, and I wouldn't turn it away if somebody handed me a glass of it.

caffè!

When I moved out here from the coast, one of the most painful things I had to give up was good coffee.  I couldn't find good coffee in this town.  I was hard-pressed to even find mediocre coffee.  To give you an idea of how bad it was, even Starbucks hadn't opened a branch here - and I'd have settled for their middling brew over what was being offered here at the time.

Fortunately the situation has changed a bit since then, and now I can find a fair number of places offering mediocre coffee.

In the beginning there was the cafeteria downstairs.  They offer a hot, brown beverage that may or may not be coffee, but it contains trace amounts of caffeine, and it's comparatively cheap.  They have since started slapping labels on it like "Columbian", and "Esperanto Blend" to try and trick you into thinking that it will taste less vile - or taste like anything at all.  As an added benefit, by pouring the same coffee into labelled urns they get to charge more for it.

The next closest place for coffee is Salisbury House across the street.  We don't go there.

About five years ago Tim Horton's moved from their location in the Exchange District to an outlet in the mall across the way.  Tim's coffee isn't especially good, but it's always fresh and it does the job in the morning.  I can sum it up in four words: extra large single single.

If I wander a bit further afield, there is a Gourmet Cup about a third of the way along the length of the mall next to our office.  I used to get their coffee all the time before it occurred to me one day that I really don't like it that much.  A bit further along from them in the mall is a Starbucks kiosk that opened a couple of years back.

A couple of blocks further there is a Second Cup.  They have relatively decent coffee, and a few speciality drinks that I also like, but they're a bit far to go for coffee. 

Imagine my delight last week when a new sign went up across the street from our office for The Fyxx.  They're not open yet, but they've already got a new regular customer once the coffee starts flowing.  I'll feel a little bad for abandoning the gals at Tim Hortons (I'm a regular), but you gotta Go with the Joe.  The Fyxx has pretty good coffee.  Not exceptional, but pretty darned good by this city's standards.  I am content.

=/

ABC is planning a remake of Night Stalker.

I really liked the original series.

I can't shake the foreboding feeling that the new series is going to suck really bad.

I think I've lost my faith in television.¹

(That's why I forgo television for WoW.)

¹Oh mindless entertainment, why have you forsaken me?!

(no subject)

I'm more than halfway through the new Harry Potter book.  I used to pick up a book and finish it in a day or two, but lately I only pick up a book at the end of the day, and read one or two chapters before I turn in for the night.  It's driving poor atara up the wall because she wants to be able to talk about the book, but she doesn't want to spoil it for me.

I've got quite a pile of books that I'd like to work my way through.  Well, I'm most of the way through the first.

When did I join the illiterati?