356 days

Nach der vollständigen Rehabilitation des Fetts lese ich nun heute in der Süddeutschen, dass es eine Metastudie zum Kaffeegenuss gibt, aus der hervorgeht, dass bis zu 5 Tassen Kaffee am Tag gesund sind für Herz und Gefäße. Wen wundert’s? Mich nicht, wenn ich mir meine Mutter und all ihre Ü-90-Freundinnen anschaue, die ihr Leben lang am Kaffeetropf gehängt sind. Umso genussvoller können auch wir jetzt unsere Cafés besuchen und die jeweils angesagten Kaffeegetränke durchkonjugieren. Ich   muss an die vollbärtigen Knaben denken, die im Kopenhagener Torvehallerne Foodmarkt mit fast religiösem Eifer ihrem neuen Kaffeeritual frönten indem sie das taten, was in Deutschland seit der Erfindung des Melittafilters jede Hausfrau tut: Kaffee aufbrühen und filtern. Gefiltert wird auch im Hause 356, und den Espresso ziehe ich mir da rein, wo ich weiß dass die da können, nämlich beim Italiener.  So, und jetzt warte ich auf die Rehabilitation der Zigarette, damit ich wieder zu rauchen...

My neighbourhood is full of cafés and bars: for a start, the most famous ice cream parlour in Muenchen is on my street corner. There is the Greek, a couple of Italian places, a lovely Indian restaurant with individual cushions on the chairs. There are also some good old traditional Bavarian pubs left, where you smell the sauerkraut as you are passing. I am fond of them. But the best of all is Barista, a place that sells antique and strange coffee machines and old crockery and tins and stuff, and over time is has become a full scale café that makes lovely coffee. It is not at all cute, or nostalgic, or trendy. It just is what it is - a jumble of stuff to do with coffee. You can sit outside on nice colourful chairs, (oh and by the way if I had gorgeous thick curly gray hair like that I would not bother colouring it) or inside, where the delicious cakes are they make probably the best cappuccino outside Italy (I know everyone says that of their favourite café but it is true ...

I am a bit of a saddo when it comes to coffee, I actually like my filter coffee. I detest the new "single-serve" pods from Nespresso and the Senseo coffee bags etc they are just a big marketing rip-off plus laughably un-green. My morning coffee of choice is nice strong filter (from a big pot for two) with loads of whirl-pooled frothy milk.   In England, the cafetière now rules in the homes of my friends, but unfortunately most of those fair trade coffees from the supermarkets are pretty nasty. Every café and pub in the country now seems to have some form of coffee machine, and once in a while, you can get a decent cappuccino that is not buried under layers of horrid chocolate powder. On the Isle of Wight, once we got a cappuccino with a sailing boat drawn in the froth - I have to admit, I was a little bit charmed by it.