Stinky Cheese and Everything Inbetween

Friends, readers, countrymen, this is a tale of what happens when a chef, a teacher and a student get together.

This tale starts out like most others. We meet our adventurers in a dark alleyway drinking the elixir of the gods:

This concoction they call espresso would near force the intrepid connoisseurs to embark on another journey to lands they had already been to before. One man from the lands of the pyramids declared they conquer the lands of Waters upon Silver, which was one piece of land joined to the deserts of Lost Angels. From the ranks of many, two answered the call for they had been joined together by the laws of man in holy matrimony. The time and place was set to the dawning of the weeks end and this is when the story truly begins…

First the 3 adventurers set out to meet a well known friend who could provide the travelers with much needed Elixir:

This yielded much wealth to the travellers and they succeeded in acquiring the plentiful and much needed life-giving liquid from the 49th parallel of Middle Earth:

For 2 of the 24 hours of one day they stayed there gathering strength and substances after which they embarked to their true Mecca…Intelligentsia. Upon arrival the clan was met with a beast of a line to purvey the manna of the gods, but they soon vanquished it with the blessing of patience and bathroom breaks. Once they had acquired the liquids and baked goods they sat to feast and be merry:

The one adventurer from the pyramids exclaimed “This Americano is the best I have tried as of yet!”

Which was met with great joy from the other two. After the feast was done they walked out of the tavern and stumbled upon The Cheese Store of Silver Lake. Which offered up some of the finest cheeses known to man. The adventurers dined upon Blue, Cheddar, Robiola, Chocolate Stout, and a cheese which was supposed to taste like Red Leicster:

The feast was pronounced delicious by the travelers and to their surprised a well known figure appeared before them and began to talk. It was an actor from a television show the three were all fans of. The actor is known as Cutty on the show House. (All fancy talk aside we met Cutty and she was freaking cool because she actually talked to us first not the other way around but she didn’t want her picture taken which was understood by all of us so she let us take pictures of her dog which was alright with us)

Cutty's(from House) Dog

After the feast they all decided to travel to the Paupers Elixir Hut, a.k.a. Lamills Coffee shop, but they were all sadly disappointed by the service and overall quality of the elixir. The Chef Heroine of this tale decided to embark on a chocolate journey but was sadly disappointed when the chocolates were not what she had meant to acquire and in fact they had run out of the one she wanted which prompted the shop to not acquire any money from her on behalf of the chocolate. The adventurers were then brought the coffee elixirs which were honestly the most disgusting things they had had in a long time. The “micro foam” was lacking seriously and their specialty drink “Coffee and a Jelly Donut” literally made the adventurers sick to their stomachs. (Once again all fancy talk aside, Lamills was horrible and we were treated very very very rudely and they acted like we didnt matter and were treated so. In fact after Emily got the wrong chocolates and was then told not to pay for them but then charged for them. So we tell the waitress this and she goes off and the manager comes over and basically makes us explain ourselves when it was HER employees that screwed up and gave her the wrong product several times. None of us will ever be back and honestly, its so freaking pretentious in there that no one should go in there. Go to Intelligentsia instead, its cheaper and the people are alot nicer.)

Coffee and a Jelly Donut, This thing causes Stomach Aches. No lie.

Finally the adventurers embarked onwards to home with bellies full of goodness and cheese. The french would declare this a “Bon Jour” but we just called it Saturday. Bon Chance in all your coffee endeavors, Bon Chance.

The Best Laid Plans…

Wednesday, the 9th, was supposed to be Latte Art day but, like most plans, we ended up putting it on the back burner to visit an ERACEIE member who wasn’t feeling the best. This actually turned out to be an absolute blast and allowed us to drink some awesome coffee, smoke some awesome tobacco pipes and divulge in even awesomer conversations.

We first met up at our normal meeting place but soon departed to Redlands to meet up with Mike Colston and visit Augies once more. Chris decided to purchase this lovely ensemble:

TRES CHIC

After we left the very fancy store where Chris got his clothes, better known as K-Mart, we finally arrived at Augies where we were very warmly welcomed by Mike and crew. Coffee purchasing was underway now and we started off with some sandwiches and delicious espresso:

After the heavenly drinks, Mike, Emily and Justin thought it would be a great idea for me and Chris to go head to head and do Coffee Bombs, basically its 12oz of milk that you drop a shot of espresso into and chug. I was none too excited about that…..

Alas, the competition went on and Chris was crowned victor.

When the debauchery was over we decided to take the party out to the alley-wayand fill the air with good conversations, coffee, beer, and tobacco. Emily and Chris actually got some pipes and we all got to look like British Railway Tycoons:

Throughout the night we made plans to go the culinary mecca, pay for Mike to be in the barista competition and visit England once more.

All in all the night started like this:

And ended like this:

Augie’s Coffeehouse

This last Wednesday was a change of pace for the revolutionaries. We met at Augie’s Coffeehouse in Redlands to have espresso drinks (pulled by ERACE member and Augie’s employee Mike Colston), and a few accompanying sweets. I simply don’t get to post food pictures here often enough, so here are some lemon-lavender madeleines:

Or how about some triple-chocolate biscotti dipped in a capp? — heaven!:

Augie’s is such a funky, down-to-earth joint — always full of hip locals and good conversation. Here’s a little glimpse of the interior:

Mike treated us to his Black & Tan creation — a crazy concoction whose contents are still a bit of a mystery to me. Jason definitely enjoyed it:

Other highlights included an introduction to the Coffee Carbomb, getting to meet the Colston Clan, and contributing a little ERACE IE touch to the napkin wall art behind the bar. Good times! We hope to hold another meeting at Augie’s in the future — and hopefully more of you can join us (Redlands isn’t that far away, it just seems that way!). Until then…

VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN, MIS AMIGOS!