(photo by wm. christman)

Indeed. Right now.

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(photo by wm. christman)

10 quarts, no waiting.  Well, as much "no waiting" as bread will allow. Stay tuned for more additions to the new "lab".

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(logo courtesy of Sandy's Chocolate Laboratory and Sandesh Reddy)

When I tell people I'm going to India, everyone says "ooh, how neat, you'll get to eat a bunch of great Indian food!". Well, not to burst anyone's bubble, to me India (actually the city of Chennai or Madras to the Brits) ain't all that. To spare you the excruciating details, let's just say this city is not one of my favorite places to go for a variety of reasons. Food-wise, however, there is some outstanding Indian food here but 2 or 3 days of two meals a day consisting of nothing but curries and dosas and tandoories gets tedious real fast.

On my first night here (which includes 24 hours of travel time, going to bed at 6 am, plus all that jet lag), my co-worker and I (full disclosure: the co-worker in this case, is my manager Irina, who is quite cool all around, pretty fun to travel with, and wee a bit of a chocoholic) were expecting an evening of fine supping at one of the restaurants we went to on the last trip.  But what her friend Kaushal found for us was anything but ordinary for Chennai.  And from the moment I saw Sandy's Chocolate Laboratory and Delicatessen, I knew it would be like Alice falling down the rabbit hole...

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A good day down the tubes... (photo by wm. christman)

I like coffee houses with attitude. I especially like those that reflect that attitude through the clever design to their menus and interiors, and how they handle and treat their customers. Usually, those type of places have folks running them that are very knowledgeable but not arrogantly so. And because these places usually have a rabid interest in serving kick-ass (delicious) coffee beverages, their coffee and roasting skills also reflect the care and attitude.

However, attitude alone is not substitute for good service. And attitude for the sake of having one or trying to prove that you are somehow "hipper" than everyone else by being arrogant, treating your new customers like shit, and generally acting like idiots because you "know better" is even worse. Enter San Jose's Barefoot Coffee Roasters.

Barefoot Coffee Roasters have been around for several years and have become one of the better independent coffee roasters in the Bay Area. I drink their coffee through three or four different, and not affiliated, coffee houses. Their coffee has been consistently good so I have no particular beef with that. In fact, I support businesses like this but find myself less inclined to do so after the treatment I received this morning at their store on Stevens Creek Blvd. in San Jose.

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I'm not a fan of chain restaurants, in either diner or fast food varieties, so maybe this is just me pissing in the wind. HOWEVER.....

Of all the dumbshit food combos that have blanketed the news lately (A KFC Double Down, anyone? Your delicious heart attack is just moments away!), this one struck some sort of nerve enough to wonder if the aim of all of this is to try and turn us all into (even more) dumb beasts.

What I'm referring to is IHOP's new "Pancake Stackers" that are "delightfully layered with creamy cheesecake..." Yeesh. Why? Aren't pancakes with some maple syrup and a side of bacon or sausage ENOUGH anymore?

Apparently not because IHOP's press release states that they'e topped [their pancakes with] "with one of America's favorite flavors -- cheesecake". Jesus, what's next? A deep fried, beer'n'salt battered slab of back bacon to go with IHOP's take on what makes America's taste buds tick?

Let's take a look at the IHOP scoreboard: Taste Buds 1 , Still Beating Heart 0. Way to go IHOP!

(Thanks to slashfood for the article link for this post.)

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(photo by wm. christman)

12 pounds of pork belly means it's bacon curing time!

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(photo by wm. christman)

This rather stuffed bread rack was the result of just one day of bread production in the CIA's test kitchen. The light next to the enormous deck ovens is already dark-ish in the daytime and even more at 8:30 in the evening when this shot was snapped.

(Although you really can't see them, the cool hand-written script on the masking tape labels for each of the bread is courtesy of the super-cool Melissa Landa...)

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