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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

Posted: 15 Jan 2013 05:49 PM PST

Coffee Stain by Joseph's Slow Bar with different choices of brewing methods and single origin coffees. — Pictures by CK Lim

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — The story begins, as they sometimes do, with a little prince. (Well, most fairy tales begin with a princess in distress but with Snow Whites leading armies of dwarves or intricate Bollywood dance sequences these days, it's high time for some gender equality.)

This little prince, however, is a young man who has just completed his school examinations. While contemplating further studies in Taiwan, he decides to work time in a café and save some money. (A true Penangite at heart, industrious and prudent he is.)

Tamping the coffee grounds ensure even extraction of the espresso.

Instead of kitchen work, his boss asks him to work at the bar mixing drinks and making coffee. Soon he is creating cups of beautiful latte art that have customers returning for more. More business for the café and his boss promotes him. The little prince is now a bona fide latte prince. Everyone's happy, right?

"And then I quit," he tells me.

"You're kidding. Why? You were doing so well," I ask.

I'm seated at the bar, perched on a high stool and nursing an El Salvador. I'm chatting with Yee Siang, the barista at Coffee Stain by Joseph's new café in Parkamaya Fahrenheit 88. There is J-Pop streaming over the airwaves. Young girls in homemade Harujuku gear cluster like schools of variegated fish. I had just had ramen for lunch earlier and strolling in this pseudo-Shibuya when I smelled it.

The final drops of crema (left); the hiss of the steam wand as milk is frothed (right).

Coffee.

The hiss of a steam wand, the dark golden gleam of the last drops of crema falling into an espresso cup. We've found ourselves a coffee bar, boys and girls. Several cups later, I'm now on a first name basis with the barista (the wonders this miracle bean can do for bringing complete strangers together) and investigating his résumé (the former headhunter in me simply cannot resist).

A cup of freshly ground coffee, before brewing.

"There was only so much I could learn," Yee Siang confides, "as the café wasn't focusing on specialty coffee. There were other more focused cafés in Penang but I decided I would learn more in a new environment like KL."

"And how are you managing?"

"It's okay. Hard at first; everything's faster here. I can understand when some of my customers speak to me in Cantonese but I'm not sure if they can understand my replies," he laughs.

With his boyish charm and ready smile, I won't be surprised if history repeats itself and Coffee Stain's customers are converted into regulars. As I return for more coffee in subsequent visits, I learn more about the café's philosophy from head barista Sam Tan, who acknowledges it's very challenging finding the right people.

"In our industry — which is F&B basically — it's hard to retain staff as employee turnover is very high. Most will leave for even just a small increment in pay. We were lucky to discover Yee Siang as he did the reverse: he left a handsome salary in Penang to come down to KL to learn more about coffee. He's very serious about improving himself, which is a rare thing."

Brewing single origin coffee using the pour-over method.

Tan knows what it's like to move to unfamiliar ground and to start from scratch. She shares, "My siblings and I did not come from a rich family. When we left Kluang to work in KL, we had to begin from scratch, washing dishes in the kitchen and learning how to cook."

I'm curious about the café's name though — is one of the siblings Joseph?

The "latte prince" presents a cappuccino.

Tan grins and explains, "When my sister Sylvia was a beginner, she had a regular customer named Joseph who taught her recipes and new ways of cooking. Later when she opened our first outlet, which focused more on food rather than coffee, she named it Joseph's Kitchen out of gratitude to her mentor."

This Joseph chap must be delighted to have a place named after him. Tan shakes her head: "He never left his contact information, so this is our way of reaching out to him and saying thanks. We always keep his advice — 'Never give up on your dreams' — at heart, and it keeps us going."

Not only have the Tan siblings not given up, they have attracted others who are pursuing their passions. People like Yee Siang. From a mysterious kitchen mentor to an earnest latte prince at the start of his career, these are all ordinary people working hard to make their dreams come true.

I take another sip of my coffee. What I taste is a good and honest brew.

Coffee Stain by Joseph @ Parkamaya
Level 3, Fahrenheit 88, Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Open daily 10:00am-10:00pm
Website: www.facebook.com/coffeestainbyjoseph

* Kenny drinks too much coffee. Find out why at http://lifeforbeginners.com/cafestories

Grant Achatz releases preview of new menu ‘The Hunt’

Posted: 15 Jan 2013 05:35 PM PST

CHICAGO, Jan 16 — Vegetarians may want to avert their eyes. In a video preview of Grant Achatz's latest menu for Chicago's Next restaurant, meat and fish are in the spotlight, whether served in the bone, drained of blood or ground into a purée.

Calling it their most "ambitious" menu yet, the next instalment for the pop-up style restaurant is themed around "The Hunt", an homage to wild-game meats and foraged foods that goes one step further than farm-to-table dining.

It's a fast-moving teaser video that features savage knife work tearing into a hunk of dry-aged beef spliced with images of quiveringly-raw game meats with the bone in place served atop skinned tree bark or plated meticulously on fine dining ware, all threaded with images of a lone hunter trudging through snow, rifle in hand.

Vegetarian gourmands need not fret. In addition to the meat-based menu, Next also has plans for a vegan-themed dinner this spring, a strategy meant to attract another segment of the dining population.

Closing out the 2013 season will be a menu themed around the Bocuse d'Or, prestigious culinary competition known among chefs as the Olympics of the food world, or, as the restaurant notes, the real Top Chef.

Like a sporting event or theatre show, diners must buy tickets in advance, a model copied by Albert and Ferran Adrià at the Barcelona restaurant 41° Experience.

See below for Next's teaser video. — AFP/Relaxnews

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Selasa, 15 Januari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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