h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just popping in on some of the recent arrivals, to say 'hello', 'welcome aboard', offer you a or & some ...*rummages in his knapsack, for the zip-loc bag*...possibly some ? Sadly (I too am somewhat of a fan) there is no grilled cheese sandwich smiley, but if you want to use icons like the coffee, chocolate, etc - just type smileys into the search window, that'll take you to a long list of them (with easy instructions.) And, you needn't memorize them or anything, as you can refer back to the list from time to time.

Actually, I like my grilled cheese sandwiches with thin slices of onion and/or pickled banana pepper, or a bit of pizza sauce (in my case, with a good sprinkling of chili powder.) Anyway, feel free to click on my underlined nickname above this message, to visit my space. As you'll see from my introduction I share (somewhat) your culinary interests...& is a major interest. So, best of luck with the coffee shop venture. Adios!

Greetings to you "jazzedupcurry",
Foodwise we have a lot in common.
I love dark chocolate…especially Fannie Mae. I don’t know as much as I should about dark chocolate. I do envy the great chocolate that they have in Europe…good chocolate is not oily like American chocolate is. Chocolate in the USA easily makes one sick after eating more than a little.
I like curry but not when it is too strong. My most memorable strong curry odor incident was at my old university. I was part of a group of students that spent approximately an hour trying to find out who was making enough that people were getting sick to the stomach and thought that they were getting carbon monoxide poisoining…in the end we almost had to call the police to find it, but the person stopped cooking and all was well.
I used to put thin slices of onion in my grilled cheese as a child…yummy. I never thought of your other ideas though. Banana peppers are a prime part of my diet…lots of submarine sandwiches…so I am sure I will love combining the banana peppers and onions.
I also have never thought of pizza sauce…or any additional sauce…on my grilled cheese. I am sure that your liberal dosages of chili powder make it taste excellent
Coffee is great…the atmosphere that comes with coffee is great.
I added your “Brew and Cue” link to my ongoing list of friendly atmosphere restaurants…I am in the researching,researching and more researching stage of my coffeehouse venture right now.
Thanks for the smiley hints…so much better selection than most emoticon menus.
To quote an old Elvis song: “I think I’m gonna like it here.”

Thank you for the nice welcome!

Good to get a prompt reply Andrea, & great to find out that we've got things in common - honestly, I had contemplated opening a coffee shop..., but the area I live in (& where I'd really prefer to stay), is quite 'coffee saturated'- in fact I've nicknamed it 'the caffeine quadrant' or 'java junction', so I'd face some very stiff
competition - both Starbucks & our Canadian chain Second Cup. So I have a few suggestions, & bits of advice to offer on the topic, & would be pleased to share them with you.

Good to get a prompt reply Andrea, & great to find out that we've got things in common - honestly, I had contemplated opening a coffee shop..., but the area I live in (& where I'd really prefer to stay), is quite 'coffee saturated'- in fact I've nicknamed it 'the caffeine quadrant' or 'java junction', so I'd face some very stiff competition - both Starbucks & our Canadian chain Second Cup. So I have a few suggestions, & bits of advice to offer on the topic, & would be pleased to share them with you.

Good to get a prompt reply Andrea, & great to find out that we've got things in common - honestly, I had contemplated opening a coffee shop..., but the area I live in (& where I'd really prefer to stay), is quite 'coffee saturated'- in fact I've nicknamed it 'the caffeine quadrant' or 'java junction', so I'd face some very stiff competition - both Starbucks & our Canadian chain Second Cup. So I have a few suggestions, & bits of advice to offer on the topic, & would be pleased to share them with you.

*rolls eyes*

*rolls eyes*

Just thought I'd drop by since I hadn't heard from you in awhile Andrea. Felt I should mention (although I'm sure you've probably done it) that you should have a look at both The Second Cup & Timothy's sites on/in my space. Also thought I could pass along some sites that you may or may not be aware of;

First of all (and, a bit of a warning - this one & a few of these are 'populated' by some real coffee purists), there's the CoffeeGeek website @ http://www.coffeegeek.com

And it's sister site, coffeekid @ http://coffeekid.com

Something local I felt like throwing in, it's a cyber-cafe in the city here @ http://www.bohemia-cybercafe.ab.ca

Another one based on Canada's west coast-coincidentally, north of Seattle, coffeecrew @ http://www.coffeecrew.com

An interesting one based in eastern Canada, with a neat interactuve coffee timeline, the Van Houtte site @ http://www.vanhoutte.com/en/index.asp

Oh, & The National Geographic site (thats right, 'Natio...'!) @ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coffee/

An American site, Smellthecoffee @ http://www.smellthecoffee.com

Oh gee, something interesting to finish. Did a word search on coffee, & among other things, kind of got a glimpse of Athens' Cafe scene @ http://www.athensguide.com/cafes/

In the USA,the West Coast is where there seems to be a coffee shop on every corner. It is still a field with room for expansion though. Only 14 percent of people are into specialty or gourmet coffee right now. There are only 7000 coffee shops in the USA as opposed to 64,000 pizza joints.
I am sure you could still open a successful coffee shop...just find and fulfill a need that Starbucks and Second Cup have not...this of course would take research.
I am writing a research paper on Starbucks over the next few months...for a marketing management class...I will let you know if I find anything useful about what needs they don't fulfill for their customers. I should find something useful...it has to be a 15 page paper!
Thank you for the ideas.
Andrea

Wow...a lot to look at...I only got through some of the links in your intro...I love links...You can never have too many links (computer or sausage).
Thank you.
Andrea

I can gradually pass on a fair number more...of the computer links, thatt is...if only I could get someone to send me Chorizo sausage links, or hot Italian sausage links !

I love chorizo...my father always made it with eggs and tortilla all mixed together when I was growing up.

After searching...I would agree that it is very hard to find good chorizo links. It is even sometimes hard to find actual chorizo links in marketplaces.

Have you come across this one yet?
http://www.bitsyskitchen.com/mexican55.html

jazz-
it has become obvious to me that your food taste covers not only curry...but all things spicy

haven;t heard from you in a while...how are you?

for the link Andrea...its one I hadn't come across. Actually I'm having some problems (major problems) with my computer...I'm temporarily using one at a drop in center I go to. I'm fine though, keeping fairly busy & getting outside more. Just recently had some nice Wine Chorizo - I assume wine used in the curing process. More recently made up a wickedly hot curry. Hope you're doing well, have a good weekend & I should be back reasonably soon certainly, periodically until my own computer's up & running again.

Oh, also got a great deal on a Bialetti stove-top Moka Pot! ~Some excellent there...only trouble is, it just makes 2 little 'demi~tasse' cups . But it is exceptional !

Hello again Andrea, had my computer locked up with a nasty virus over the summer (ok, it needn't have been all summer, I just got disgusted & left it...a bit too long.) I had been poppiing in via another computer occasionally, but I now have 'the beast' cleaned out & operational again, thought I'd let you know. How've you been? Any memorable related experiences lately?

Actually, on the topic of , I don't know if you discovered it but that CoffeeGeek site ( http://www.coffeegeek.com ) I'd sent awhile back has Discussion forums broken into both topics & regional categories, including sections of the U.S. Just clidk on 'DISCUSSIONS' near the top of the homepage.

Oh, Andrea, just had to pop back with a suggestion for the name of your venture. Something that I think gives personality (in an at times faceless world), implies more than just coffee, & a cozy place to enjoy it - just a suggestion " Andrea's (etc) Alcove " . I'm still wondering how that came to me so fast...must be that morning caffiene buzz!

"Just thought I'd drop by since I hadn't heard from you in awhile Andrea. Felt I should mention (although I'm sure you've probably done it) that you should have a look at both The Second Cup & Timothy's sites on/in my space. Also thought I could pass along some smiley - coffee sites that you may or may not be aware of;

First of all (and, a bit of a warning - this one & a few of these are 'populated' by some real coffee purists), there's the CoffeeGeek website @ http://www.coffeegeek.com

And it's sister site, coffeekid @ http://coffeekid.com

Something local I felt like throwing in, it's a cyber-cafe in the city here @ http://www.bohemia-cybercafe.ab.ca

Another one based on Canada's west coast-coincidentally, north of Seattle, coffeecrew @ http://www.coffeecrew.com

An interesting one based in eastern Canada, with a neat interactuve coffee timeline, the Van Houtte site @ http://www.vanhoutte.com/en/index.asp

Oh, & The National Geographic smiley - coffee site (thats right, 'Natio...'!) @ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coffee/

An American site, Words I Seek @ http://www.wordsiseek.com/espresso-machines/

Oh gee, something interesting to finish. Did a word search on coffee, & among other things, kind of got a glimpse of Athens' Cafe scene @ http://www.athensguide.com/cafes/ "

Great post by you. I really loved it.