Difference - What are we so frightened of?

There's a famous coffee shop found in the souqs of Khan al-Khalili in the Islamic quarter of Cairo called Fishawi's - It's open 24 hours a day and all they appear to sell is tea, coffee and Sheesha (a water pipe used for smoking). The only question the waiter asks after he has identified that you want a coffee is "do you want sugar in it?"
All Cairo seems to pass through their doors - I say doors only in a metaphorical sense as it has no doors; in fact the only way you know where the coffee shop starts and ends is when the chairs run out! Like so many shops in the Souqs they exist in one of the many alley ways populated by hawkers and panhandlers.
The waiters will proudly show you an ancient photograph of the old King Farouk in his dark glasses, who used to frequent the place. What can you say about Fishawi's? It's so .........Egyptian!
It's the distilled essence of Cairo; King's have been deposed, Presidents have come and gone, but Fishawi's like the Pyramids of Giza has always been, please God don't let it disappear.

Then there's the Coptic quarter, the part of Cairo that came before Cairo even existed. When Byzantine Rome became a Christian empire and before the armies of the east brought Islam. Here stand the great Christian Coptic churches, side by side with the Islamic mosques - each respecting the others tradition yet each determined to maintain their own identity.

Finally there are the kilometers of bland anonymous-looking high rise flats, typical in its own way of suburbia that surrounds any of the great cities of the world. Yet even here in this apparent anonymity, people crave recognition. Many of the porches from which hangs so much washing are painted in vivid colours; some in single colours, others using quite complex designs. So everywhere you look over the eons of time humankind has always wanted to leave a mark - a plaintive cry, "remember me!"

All of which makes Cairo airport like so many airports around the globe such a depressing place - a synthesis of global mono-culture. Where Coke, Cappuccino, Pizza, Pasta and French fries dominate the menus. A sanitized, stainless steel and plastic society. One that subjugates individuality. Where now is the confidence in our own cultures; our own traditions; our creative addition to our world?

Is it no wonder therefore that despite being better educated, having more opportunity than any previous generation, so many in our society reject what is on offer and seek to disfigure and disrupt.

In Jersey where I live we don't appear to be able to trust our own people to even deliver such key projects as a design for our waterfront or our own tourism website. We like so many cultures today are frightened of being different - taking a chance; in turn our own society becomes indifferent.

Rather than being indifferent to our own cultures we must get back to celebrating them. Celebrating the creativity of each and every individual from whichever culture that goes to make the human race such an extraordinary force.

Long live Fishawi's and those who strive to be different.

Coffee pods and machine set up in Food Service environment

Coffee pods as opposed to capsules are playing an increasing part in low volume outlets, they're clean, they ensure a consistent cup of coffee and require very little training to use.

What though has not been very much analysed as far as I can see is the change required to the set-up of the traditional two group espresso machine. I refer to the pump pressure, the temperature setting, the group head and the type of inserts needed in the group handles to maximize coffee extraction.

Some manufacturers are now providing special group heads for pods, two that have come to my attention are Nuova Simonelli and Fracino, both systems work well. However it isn't just a case of simply changing the group head and all your troubles are over. It's vital that the "basket" in the group head is the correct depth to take the pod, either a single or double. Too shallow and the water struggles to get through the pod, too deep and the water rushed past the pod without picking up any flavour.

On top of this if you don't change the group head to a pod version, this in turn will impact on the type of basket you can use in the group handle.

Now assuming that you've sorted out the above two points, it's vital that the pump pressure and machine water temperature are correctly calibrated. My experience is that the pump pressure can be reduced to around 8 bar, or at least a bar lower than for conventional loose group coffee. Don't ask me why, but too high a bar pressure will result in the water passing through the pod too quickly.

Finally, I believe average pressure in the water boiler needs to be set a little higher for pods. The fact that the water has to get through the paper wrapper means that there is a definite loss of water temperature when the water eventually hits the coffee. The problem I believe here is that paper is not a very good conductor of heat.

All of the above do need to be tweaked in varying degrees to optimise the quality of the drink that ends up in the cup and are vital to ensure that the consistency you are looking to achieve through the use of pods isn't wasted.