Road Testing A Gourmet Camping Coffee Maker
A guest post from my brother on a French press for the outdoors
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For Anyone Who Drinks Coffee Outdoors
When you’re a journalist, you get offered all kinds of free stuff, from snacks and alcoholic beverages to kitchen equipment and gear. I don’t accept very much of it, but once in a while, something strikes me that might be interesting to you. That was the case here, and I had the perfect person to test it for me.
The BaseCamp Coffee Press from BruTrek is designed for people who want a good cup of coffee outdoors, whether they are camping, attending a concert or just sitting on their deck. Unlike your typical glass carafe, it’s hefty. I’ve never seen a coffee press as sturdy as this one.
You can read a full description on Amazon, but for starters, this puppy has “a double-wall, vacuum-insulated stainless steel body, and a threaded no-spill locking lid.”
I turned the BaseCamp Coffee Press over to my brother Frank to review, because he spends a lot of time outdoors. He’s a long-time Scout leader, he’s always on his bike and he loves to be on his deck, grilling and dining. He also is meticulous about coffee and a big fan of RoosRoast in Ann Arbor, one of our terrific local coffee roasters.
Here, with photos, is my brother’s review.
“It's a durable, easy to use and capacious French press that does the job well. It works like any French press - coarsely ground coffee is poured into the vessel, which is then filled with water just off the boil (the user needs to provide a means for boiling the water, such as a camp stove or electric kettle).
After giving the mixture a few stirs, the lid is screwed on with the plunger in the raised position. Four minutes later, you slowly press the plunger down and the filter screen pushes the grounds to the bottom of the pot. Flip up the spout cover, and pour your coffee. It makes up to 32 ounces of coffee at a time.
The double-wall vacuum insulated vessel keeps coffee warm for an hour or more. The filter is more than a mesh screen; it incorporates a permeable plate that keeps grounds sediment to a minimum.
While intended for outdoor camping, it's more suitable for car camping or motor-home camping rather than backpacking, due to its size and weight (empty, it weighs nearly a kilogram, or 2 pounds 3 ounces). As such, it can also find a home in your kitchen or for backyard brunches.
Its appearance is rather utilitarian - a plain grey cylinder with a sturdy handle. And it has the same drawback as other French press coffee makers - it's messy to clean. For those who have never used one, the coffee has a richer taste because of the extended extraction time, but the grounds form a soggy mess in the bottom and the spent grounds have a tendency to go everywhere.
Cleaning the filter on the plunger usually requires running water. A bonus, I suppose, is that coffee grounds make great fertilizer, so there should be nothing wrong with burying them at the campsite.”
Thank you, Frank! And thanks to BruTrek. Let me know if you own one or buy one. I think it could make a great item for college students, or a car trip.
A Sweet Farewell In New York City
Throughout the 2000s, I made regular trips to New York City to visit the headquarters of the New York Times. I went often enough that I became a regular at a few restaurants.
This is where I developed the habit of sitting at a restaurant bar to dine. I made friends with bartenders at a couple of places. They looked out for me and sometimes introduced me to other regulars.
One of the people I met was an editor at a major photo agency, and since I worked in the news business, we immediately hit it off. On my next trip, he invited me to join him for dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar, the now-defunct David Chang restaurant which was then at the peak of its popularity. For dessert, he said, we would go to Chikalicious.
I walked in the door of the tiny storefront and immediately fell in love. The owner, Chika Tillman, had been a pastry chef for the restaurant at Sotheby’s auction house. She founded her little spot in 2003 with her husband Don.
It had a 22-seat bar and a scattering of tables. Chika modeled it after the izakaya restaurants in her native Japan. Only instead of food, she focused on sweets.
Each guest received a pre-dessert, and then Chika or her assistant would prepare the equivalent of a main course. One of her most popular items was Fromage Blanc Cheesecake. Today, people are familiar with light and fluffy Japanese and Korean cheesecakes, but hers was a revelation two decades ago.
After that course, guests got a plate of assorted sweets, like little truffles or housemade marshmallows. She had a liquor license, so you could order an after dinner drink or a glass of champagne.
When she started, the menu cost $12 - what a single dessert in an upscale spot costs now. She told New York Magazine that she didn’t think it would last more than six months. Instead, Chikalicious endured for 21 years, and was one of my most precious NYC spots. I took several dates there, and if they didn’t like dessert, that meant we had no future.
Chika and Don have decided to close the dessert cafe at the end of the summer. As Chika said, “I don’t want people to look at me and think, She should retire.” The Tillmans will continue to run an online store and there is a spot where people can come and eat crepe cakes. But the full experience will be over, and yet another piece of my New York disappears.
A London Visitor — And Assistance For Families
Things are always changing in New York, of course, and a well-known London name is crossing the pond to do a pop up. Dishoom, known for its modern Indian food, will be in residence at Pastis this month.
Reservations opened on Resy last week for events that will run from Aug. 19 to 23 and from Aug. 26 to 30. You might have seen Dishoom on the London episode of Somebody Feed Phil. It is a favorite place for groups, and especially for brunch, where you can try a variety of dishes to pass.
There are 10 locations around London and Edinburgh, if you can’t get to Pastis.
Meanwhile, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and London Mayor Sadiq Kahn have teamed up to open Felix’s Multi-Bank. It’s like a food bank, but it offers all kinds of products beyond food, from diapers and baby food to toiletries, according to The Guardian.
Multi-banks are a growing trend in Britain. The first one opened in Fife, Scotland, and there are others in Manchester and Swansea. “Thousands of families are set to be helped by the new scheme in west London, overseen by the Felix Project, which sources surplus from the food industry that would otherwise go to waste,” the Guardian said.
Participants can come to the multi-bank and shop cost-free for their needs, as they would at a food bank.
Brown said he hoped that the effort would fight child poverty, and urged Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, to take additional steps. Two more such multi-banks are set to open by the end of the year.
Reusable Cups Reach Major League Baseball
If you attend baseball games, you know that there’s an enormous amount of trash generated by concessions stands. Generations of us kids had had fun smashing paper or plastic cups and hearing the sound echo on the concrete.
Now, the Arizona Diamondbacks want you to turn in those cups instead. The team is the first in Major League Baseball to test reusable cups. according to KJZZ. They’re available in the team’s All You Can Eat seats, where the price of a ticket includes hot dogs, chips, soda, popcorn and peanuts.
The team is trying to cut down on single-use products and encourge sustainable practices. According to Amilyn Pierce, the DBacks’ vice president of government affairs, fans can throw their reuseable cups into a receptacle from team partner Bold Reuse.
The organization picks up the bin, takes it to a wash center, cleans and sanitizes the cups, then returns them to the team to be used the next night. The program is set to run through the end of the 2024 season.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
Local businesses lined up to get on camera when Good Morning America came to Ann Arbor last month. But, how did doughnuts from the Washtenaw Dairy wind up on the set in New York? Read my story for the Ann Arbor Observer.
Just a heads up: I am pausing the CulinaryWoman podcast. I enjoyed producing it, but not many of you were listening. I’m happy to bring it back if you want to hear it again.
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