"bialetti coffeemaker" news and stories

This recent post about Starbucks - as with most posts about Starbucks - caused the typical coffee cacophony over price and quality. Although I happen to like Starbucks just fine, I certainly appreciate a good homemade cup. Unfortunately, quality espresso machines are pricey and people rarely use them enough to meet their ROI ('Fess up: How many of you have a schmancy DeLonghi at home, but still go to Starbucks every day?). As a veteran barista (of both indie and corporate coffeehouses), I've come up with a stock of supplies to help make gourmet coffee at home.

Espresso drinks:

• Moka pot (like this one from Bialetti): Many Italians still brew their espresso the old-fashioned way -- on the stovetop. The pot steeps espresso grounds in boiling water until the bubbles force the creamy coffee into the top of the Moka. Pour it out, and there's your shot.
  
• Milk Frother (like this one from Aerolatte): This bad boy has a high-speed whisker that whips any kind of milk into foamy shape. (For a cappuccino, use half steamed milk/half foam; for a latte, use mainly steamed milk, with a layer of foam on top).
  

Everyday, as I work through my collection of food blog feeds, I keep a running list of the posts that I think are interesting or could become a prompt for a blog entry. I turn many of them into posts here, but I always have a few leftover at the end of the day. Towards the end of the week, I've got a whole bunch of unused links hanging around. Today I'm giving those orphaned links another chance at blog-life.

Serious Eats writes about a recent article in Dwell magazine about iconic kitchen items, ranging from the classic Peugeot Pepper Mill to the angular Bialetti stove top espresso maker (I love mine).

Still on the topic of cooking gear, Baking Bites points readers in the direction of an article over at PC Magazine that lists the 10 Weirdest Cooking Gadgets. I think that the Zero Gravity Spice Rack looks pretty darn nifty.

Yumsugar offers advice on how long things should be kept in the fridge and reminds us to label items with the date on which they were opened so to be better able to judge when things should be thrown out. I have to admit that I am often lax in the fridge purging department.

I admit that I am a novice when it comes to fried foods (making them that is, not eating them) but Elise's post on Simply Recipes for Buttermilk Fried Chicken has me seriously contemplating giving it a shot.

Last weekend my sister sent me a link to the website for Jungle Jim's, an enormous international market in Fairfield, OH. They carry more than 100 varieties of honey, have a section of the store named for Robin Hood and actually offer tours of the store for those who can't navigate the place on their own. It makes me want to plan a vacation around visiting that store (Ohio isn't that far from Philadelphia).

I am both curious and scandalized by the idea that one would use brie as the cheese in a quesadilla. Doesn't that seem somehow wrong? And yet, somehow it also seems so very right.

photo by Marisa McClellan