http://www.corridorkitchen.com Necessity is the mother of invention. Tue, 23 Feb 2021 23:46:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2014/05/jess-to-cubao-alexandria/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2014/05/jess-to-cubao-alexandria/#comments Sun, 25 May 2014 23:49:38 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=6367 Street-food-inspired café Jess to Cubao opened quietly last week in the former Little Indi site inside the Hardware Store, Alexandria. The café is the brainchild of Something for Jess owner Philip Ocampo, and I had been waiting with bated breath to see who would take over the space, so it would be an understatement to say that I was keen to check the place out. Something for Jess is one of my favourite recent cafés, and their reputation is such that their very particular single origin coffees and glorious (and local) constructions of ‘stuff on toast’ have made their way on to most Sydney café addicts’ wish lists, so comparisons between Cubao and SFJ are inevitable. So too are comparisons between Cubao and the space’s former tenants, zero waste wunderkinds Frank Meura and Rebecca Chippington of Little Indi/Naked Indiana. So how does Cubao compare?]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2014/05/jess-to-cubao-alexandria/feed/ 2 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/11/cafe-review-little-indi-alexandria/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/11/cafe-review-little-indi-alexandria/#comments Fri, 22 Nov 2013 03:10:57 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=6111 Is there anything more inspiring than someone who actually gives a fuck? Case in point, I’ve found myself in a conversation with Little Indi co-owner Frank Meura on the finer points of biodegradation. I think. I’m not 100% on what he’s on about, but I am k appreciating the passion and earnestness for the subject. That, and the excellent cup of hand-pumped espresso (in the form of a macchiato) I’m sipping away at. I’m nursing it in its little bowl like its a precious baby.]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/11/cafe-review-little-indi-alexandria/feed/ 3 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/03/black-coffee-revolution-get-brewing/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/03/black-coffee-revolution-get-brewing/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:35:57 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=5195 Manual brewing, alternative brewing, whatever you want to call it, it’s time to give it a go. DIY brewing methods such as aeropress, cold brew, pourover, syphon and their more well-known cousins such as French press and stove top coffee form another frontier in the exploration of coffee flavour. What’s more, they’re portable, cheap and easy to learn. ]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/03/black-coffee-revolution-get-brewing/feed/ 3 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/02/black-coffee-revolution-aeropress/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/02/black-coffee-revolution-aeropress/#comments Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:38:17 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=5087 David Ruslie, Campos’ resident black coffee obsessive, walks us through aeropress, cold drip and pourover. He says there’s a growing interest in black coffee, because, sans milk and sugar, it really allows you to explore the flavour profiles of the coffees themselves. “Coffee appreciation...it’s catching up to wine appreciation. There’s a lot more tasting notes, say with wine you have 200 tasting notes. Well, with coffee, you have 800 tasting notes, it’s really incredible.” David says. Sure, the man or woman on the street doesn’t need to know all 800 to enjoy their ‘new brew’, but it’s handy, he says, to be able to identify which flavours you prefer. You may think you’re not a black coffee drinker, but maybe you just haven’t found the right bean or the right method. This week David shows us the simplest and most portable of the black coffee methods, aeropress. There are two main ways David uses the aeropress: the ‘normal’ method and the inverted method. In both cases, he advises that you pre-wet the paper filter with a few drops of water beforehand. To be precise, it’s also worth having a digital scale on hand to weigh your coffee and water, but you can also do it by sight. ]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/02/black-coffee-revolution-aeropress/feed/ 3 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/02/black-coffee-revolution-pcold-drip/ http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/02/black-coffee-revolution-pcold-drip/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:06:36 +0000 http://www.corridorkitchen.com/?p=5000 David Ruslie, Campos’ resident black coffee obsessive, walks us through aeropress, cold drip and pourover and explains why he’s so passionate about this back-to-basics approach. “Australian coffee culture is actually milk coffee culture, and I’m trying to change it,” David tells me. Single-handedly trying to convert us from flat-whites-with-one to siphon/cold drip/aeropress? Not so much, Dave says, but he’s excited to share the precision and hands-on nature of black coffee brewing with me. He kindly offered to walk me through these ‘third wave’ or ‘fourth wave’ (whatever it is we’re up to now) methods. We’re going to start with the chemistry lab setup that is cold drip. David explains that there are two basic methods of coffee making- immersion and percolation, and cold drip is full percolation. This method involves steeping fresh, coarse coffee grounds at room temperature over time, usually around 12 hours. This results in an extremely caffeinated, low acidity, sweet-tasting cold coffee, and a brew that non-espresso drinkers often warm to. ‘It doesn’t actually taste like coffee.’ says David, which is a good way of explaining the flavour- bright, mild and tea-like.]]> http://www.corridorkitchen.com/2013/02/black-coffee-revolution-pcold-drip/feed/ 12