On December 15th, I mysteriously lost access to my main blog, SilverTiger on Wordpress, and for that reason I for the time being transferred my blogging activities to here.
Almost as mysteriously as I lost it, I regained access to Wordpress yesterday and am returning my main blogging activity to my main blog, SilverTiger. Please follow me there.
Though it may be a subjective view, it seems to me that Christmas is proceeding at a very low-key pace this year. Many shops already have SALE splashed all over them, perhaps hoping to pick up trade in the expected last-minute rush.
Last night, on the way home from work we stopped off for coffee at Costa in Eldon Street, behind Liverpool Street station. There are usually quite a few people in the cafe around this time but today it was unusually quiet.
We made a leisurely start today and then set out to look for breakfast. Should we go to one of our usual places or seek out somewhere new? We decided to walk along Upper Street to see what might turn up.
In Upper Street is a Cuban restaurant and bar called Cuba Libre. It was closed so there was no chance of finding breakfast here but we did stop to take a photo of the plaque recently affixed to the wall above it. This is in memory of the popular Lancashire singer Gracie Fields who used to stay here when in London.
We found Cafe Gallipoli open for breakfast. As the name suggests, it’s a Turkish cafe. It’s called Cafe Gallipoli Again because it is one of a pair in Upper Street. Did we have the Turkish breakfast with olives? No, we had cheese omelette with mushrooms and chips.
The interior of the cafe is richly decorated with Turkish ornaments and furnishings. There are lamps everywhere.
After breakfast we went for a little walk. St Mary’s is the parish church and its characteristic spire is a local landmark.
Behind the church is the Little Angel Theatre and we went thither to photograph the plaque on the wall memorializing John Wright who founded the puppet theatre in 1961.
Behind the church is the graveyard but as is usually the case in London, this was converted into a public garden in the Victorian era.
Some of the larger tombs have been left in place and all the gravestones have been moved and stacked against the wall. Most are now hard to read.
There is a drinking fountain here which was donated in 2001 by the Brewers’ Company but which is obviously much older than that. I have no idea of its history and am still investigating. It is of a curious design because it sends the jet of water downwards – most inconvenient for human drinkers – to where a plastic bowl has been placed for dogs to drink from. Turning the knob on the right produces water but unless you hold it, the water stops after a few seconds. To get the photo, Tigger twisted the knob then ran away while I clicked the shutter!
At the end of the church building, these false windows and the guttering above provide perches for pigeons. (Did I mention that I am fond of pigeons?) The other name for pigeon is rock dove because the ancestors of our feral pigeons lived among rocks and cliffs. This is why they feel at home on narrow ledges on city buildings.
In Andersons Square, we found the gate to this gated community open, so we went in for a look. It seems to be a clean and pleasant enough environment but well outside our price bracket.
I was intrigued by this glass roof indicating an underground facility of some sort. But what is it – a swimming pool, a gymnasium or a winter garden? I have no idea.
The garden in the centre of the square is decorated with a small pond. Watching over the whole is a bronze angel. We are not short of angels in this quarter of Islington. In fact, angels have become something of a cliché.
The gate leading to Essex Road was open and we left by that route. For once, we didn’t feel like going on a longer expedition and returning home seemed a good option. My last photo was of this face on the wall of The Old Parr’s Head, once a pub and today a clothing store.
Despite my ongoing problem with Wordpress (see SilverTiger), I decided that I needed to replenish my stock of tea and therefore took time out to do so. I like my tea and it is my main tipple. Not just any old tea, you understand, but good stuff, tea with quality to it.
At the moment, my usual tea is a blend known as Russian Caravan, because it is supposed to have originated in the caravans of merchants carrying tea from China to Russia, the land of the samovar. As in most cases, however, the simple magic of the story is no longer reflected in the reality. If you buy ready blended Russian Caravan, you usually don't know what you are getting as very few vendors specify what ingredients they include. When they do, you discover that every merchant sells something different and there is no consistency. For example, some add oil of bergamot (this is what gives Earl Grey tea its characteristic taste), something I greatly dislike.
The solution, then, is to buy the ingredients and mix them yourself. A good blend for Russian Caravan is the following: Formosa Oolong, 2 parts; Keemun, 1 part; and Lapsang Souchong, 1 part. The latter is a smoky tasting tea and is what gives Russian Caravan its tangy "lift".
There used to be a lot of specialist tea and coffee shops but they are becoming less common these days. Whenever I come across one on my travels I ask them whether they sell online and if so, note their details. Buying online incurs extra cost for postage and packing, though, and I therefore prefer to go to the shop myself if possible. There are a few specialist tea retailers in London but the one I visit most often is the Tea House in Neal Street, Covent Garden. It is a small shop but has a good range of teas, already conveniently packaged. I would prefer one of those shops where the tea is kept in big decorated canisters and poured out into the scales but these too are becoming harder to find.
Back home, I open the packets and tip out the tea into a convenient receptacle. Currently it happens to be a round tin that once held chocolates. The tea can then be stirred to mix it thoroughly. The teas I use are have fairly large leaves and you need to treat them gently so it's best to stir with something narrow such as a rod or the handle of a serving spoon.
All three teas are classed as “black teas” and are fermented. Each has slightly different sized and different shaped leaves. The Oolong is quite “woody” with a lot of light-coloured stalk visible. It’s also the most expensive of the three and is often drunk on its own.
In the above photo, all three teas are in the chocolate tin and have been partly mixed, using the handle of the spoon. You can see the light-coloured “woody” bits in the Oolong.
Once the tea is mixed, it can be shovelled back into the packets it came in, and these can be closed by rolling their tops and securing them with sticky tape. The toffee tin makes a good storage bin where the tea can wait patiently to be used.
For daily use, I have a large tea caddy with an air-tight lid. It can be replenished from the chocolate tin as necessary.
I brew tea either in a tea pot or in a mug with a large filter basket. In both cases, the tea has plenty of room to move as it should. The tea pot has a wide unobstructed spout because large-leaf tea will simply clog up the silly filtering holes that some tea pots have. The tea can be poured from the pot through a strainer to catch any leaves. In the case of the mug, the finely meshed filter can be lifted out, taking the leaves with it.
All the different ways of making tea produce slightly different results and slightly differently tasting tea. It's best to find the method your prefer and stick with it unless you are adventurous and like variety. The important thing is to make sure that the water is boiling before pouring it on the tea. Many cafes and even restaurants these days make tea with hot water from the espresso machine. This is disastrous because the water is kept just below boiling, as this is the right temperature for making coffee. It is, however, the wrong temperature for making tea and the poor result is only to be expected.
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