Coffee under the canopy......

   On Scott Street Newcastle.
Teas and coffee. Industrial chic?  Originally many of these corners in the city were the site of a hotel.

Beer drinking is overtaken by change of old routines and by coffee drinking.                               Coffee from Timor Leste can be found sold by friends of that newest little nation to our north.  Their economy relies on oil export alone.  Their economic wealth is tiny.    In the past we witnessed their struggles and a referendum and the bullying tactics then they were done over by unfriendly neighbours with wholesale destruction of the infrastructure .       Australian policy towards ownership of off shore oil is almost as bad in cheating Timor Leste out of their oil resources.  It is our responsibility to hand over the oil developments that are within the domain of Timor and withdraw claims of ownership of the seas in question.   

Warm solar power. 

Coffee in the morning sun is the only place to be when the breeze becomes truly chilly. 

The political dialogue could be improved a whole lot.  Scrapping the carbon tax will save us x billions a day in energy costs mantra.      Instead, say something useful and pertinent to climate change policies.  Suggest we will pay dearly for our polluting energy consumption.  It is up to us.  There is no quick fix.  But, with our politicians as conservative anti-intellectual hayseeds how can you expect any good climate change policies?

Coffee shop, new breed, raw, Maitland road, Mayfield East. Peppertown with heavy metal designs.

From Mister Abbott, a word that is new to me: hypothecate. Goes with: give -security, -bail, go bail, pawn, impawn, hock, spout, mortage, impignorate etc.

 A local doctor is to go to Fiji to work on a surge in Dengue Fever because a new strain of Dengue has been a  serious problem there.
The incidence of Dengue is growing mostly in the warmer countries. Is spread by female mosquitoes and is flu like and can be fatal.
This month in Townsville, mosquitoes infected with a bacteria that prevents the mosquito from transmitting the disease have been unleashed in a trial according to ABC news. 

Coffee and sweet treats and more, all fresh, from a new venue in King Street with green paintwork and a few doors from the corner of Watt Street. Sweet treats and condiments are literally baked right there and are very morish. 

That our economic survival is based on cupcakes was one of Julia's theories and more importantly is that of a coffee led recovery. A newish cafe next to Jim's in Tudor street combines both strategies. Sooo energising!
Adios adios adios adios adios.......

Kinda unique retro Coffee stand, believe imported from the UK.
Below, youngsters and non-violent protests have been seen before this.
Believe sub-editing has gone off shore and the big city dailys have axed numerous leading journalists and others.

Coffee cups on a little table with a drawer used, as I understand, during coffee making Ethiopian style.

Turk Kahvesi. Turkish coffee. The coffee is prepared in a small, long-handled (?metal) pot tapering in at the top into a pouring lip, and called a jezve. The purist (and they all are in Turkety when it comes to making coffee) would grind the beans to a fine powder just before brewing using a brass coffee mill.
When offered a cup, you will be asked if you like it sade (unsweetened), orta (moderately sweetened) or sekerli (very sweet).
Turkish coffee, ideally is made one cup at a time, or three at the most.  Mesure one dimitasse cup cold mater into jezve and add 1 heaped teaspoon powdered Turkish coffee and sugar if desired - a level teaspoon for orta, a heaped teaspoon or more for sekerli. Stir and put on medium-low heat.
When coffee rises in pot remove from heat immediately, and spoon froth into cup.
Return pot to heat and cook until coffee rises again.  Remove, fill cup.
Some prefer to heat coffee 3 times in all, though twice is sufficient, particularly if only making 1 cup.
With the repeated heating method, a little froth is spooned into each cup each time it is removed from the heat, as a good cup of kahve must have a creamy foam floating on top.
Decorated ceramic Ethiopian coffee pot.

Elektra Crema Cafe

modern but in sixties style machine, in Leura, NSW at the Wayzgoose cafe, back when. Formerly a printing

works and home of The Mountaineer newspaper, wayzgoose has a particular meaning

which is spelled out in the last image.

...tea ranks with abdug, a yoghurt drink, as Persia's [Iran's] principal beverages. The samovar is an essential item in every Persian household.  Tea is taken in small, slender glasses and served with lumps of sugar.

To drink it in the Persian way one must hold the lump of sugar between the teeth and sip the tea through it. 

The sugar can be conventional cube sugar or small 'cushions' of clear white toffee....

Arrive in Newcastle and on leaving the airport either feel right at home or somewhat jaded on seeing a brand new Maccas outlet. However, Lamb [ham]burgers have arrived.  Now, would they be a local phenomenon?
And the idea for the McCafe service originated in Australia, I understand.  The car park is equipped with free air to pump up the car tyres again on the traffic returning from Stockton beach and the sand dunes just down the end of the road.  Is this in competition with the service station on the other corner?  No stone unturned.

This last coffee pot is in the style that I have seen local Italians use in the past - as do many other people.

.... One aspect of Arabic life is their hospitality, and the single food with which this is expressed is coffee. 
There are certain rules to observe.  First, do not refuse a cup: to do so is an insult to the host.  
Your cup will be replenished a second time and a third, and more if you do not indicate to the host that you are satisfied.
A simple little jiggle of your empty cup from side to side indicates that you have had sufficient.
Only a small portion of coffee is served - a third of a cup is poured each time and the handle-less cups are very small.
It is always served unsweetened and flavoured with cardamom. 
Taking three cups of coffee is expected of you rather than just one...

I have no idea if this info is up to date.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                      Returning to teapots and bizarre tea cosies.

One for the road before farewells! 

...Despite the permanent smell of burned bacon grease and the likelihood that Ruth or Lillie would get the orders confused, Clary's had a loyal breakfast and lunch clientele.  People sauntered in...greeted one another from table to table, or from table to soda fountain, and every word was overheard and passed along later...Patrons...might include a housewife, a real estate broker, a lawyer, an art student, and perhpas a pair of carpenters doing work in a townhouse down the street.  One might be heard to say, "All we got to do today is seal up that doorway between her bedroom and his," and news that a marital Ice Age had

decended...would be common coin by the end of the day.
The man....always ordered the same breakfast: eggs, bacon, a Bayer aspirin, and a glass of spirits of ammonia and Coca-Cola.  But he didn't always consume it.  Sometimes he just looked at it...Then he would either begin to eat or get up without a word and walk out the door. The next day, Ruth would serve him the same breakfast and go back to her perch at the end of the soda fountain to take a drag on her cigarette and see what he would do. I, too, began to watch.

Extract, a non-profit review from Berendt: John Midnight in the garden of good and evil Vintage 1995

A night cap. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

...A Sichuan teahouse is a unique place.  It usually sits in the embace of a bamboo grove or under the canopy of a large tree.  Around the low, square wooden tables are bamboo armchairs which give out a faint aroma even after years of use....a lid is sunk loosely onto the cup, allowing the steam to seep through the  gap, bringing out the fragrance of the jasmine or other blossoms.  Sichuan has many kinds of tea, Jasmine alone has five grades....Older men spend a lot of time there...The waiter has a kettle of hot water which he pours from a couple of feet away with pinpoint accuracy.  A skillful waiter makes the water level higher than the edge of the cup without it spilling over.
Customers go there to read, to meet and chat. There is often entertainment - storytelling punctuated with wooden clappers.
Perpaps because they had an aura of leisure, and if people were sitting in one they were not out making revolution, teahouses had to be closed...Pack up!  Pack up! Don't linger in this bourgeois place! No more chess playing! Don't you know it is a bourgeois habit?

Another cup. 

....in Naples - they had a curious encounter.  A stranger hearing them speak in English asked whether he might join them over their coffee....there was something familiar....he kept them charmed by his wit for more than an hour before he said goodbye.  They didn't exchange names even at parting and he left them to pay for his drink which was certainly not coffee....they realized...the stranger was Oscar Wilde, who not very long before had been  released from prison..."'How lonely he must have been to have expended so much time and wit on a couple of schoolmasters on holiday." It never occurred to him that Wilde was paying for his drink in the only currency he had.

 Scotties, Newcastle East. Splendid on Sunday, following a 'force 10' gale the day before.
Another lame post - what have I got to lose?
The prissy coffee culture is widely enjoyed while charitable organizations report how they cannot cope with the increse in requests for food for the poor and the working poor and for those down on their luck in this 'lucky country'.  Responsibilities are shifted to charities.  The two speed economy is a problem. We can do much better than this.
 

Coffee

Coffee making ceremony.

Single origin coffee from Sumatra made a very smooth offering at Lotus.  Another time, a run-of-the-mill drink of coffee in Sumatra was served in a glass with the coffee grains in the hot water and a lot of sweetened condensed milk added at additional cost. Brewed coffee of good flavour was served at 'progressive' places on that island - the largest island.
Will the price of coffee go up is what we are expected to ask.  Eureka! Today, carbon pricing began and the federal government has introduced assistance for some people to offset any flow on effects but cost is what it takes to control carbon emissions. Cut back on the Lattes!
May all your days be well air conditioned!

New regulated retail tariffs for electricity are increased. PowerSmart Home with EnergyAustralia have these rates from today 1 July 2012.
Peak 2pm - 8pm on working days including GST 52.547 cents/kWh.
Shoulder 7am - 2pm & 8pm -10pm working weekdays and  7am - 10pm weekends and public holidays. 21.340 cents/kWh.
Off Peak all other times 13.090 cents/kWh.  

Domestic rates for those without a PowerSmart meter also available. All the rates are in The Herald, Saturday.

Coffee shop. A kooky coffee shop in St Kilda complete with an early kooka(burra) gas stove as a prop. Vocab: Kitchen stove or cooker.

dejabrew  Is coffee the new opium?
Religion is the opium of the people.  The tennis superstars from the Russian bloc wear a gold cross on a neck chain. Curious. Postmodern. What does Putin wear?

At Toronto on Lake Macquarie. And poster art.