Coffee, tea and sweets and snacks. A few photos.

mmm-yoso!!! is a compilation of  food.   All sorts of food,  whether prepared in the home or purchased outside the home.  Cathy is COMC(Cleaning Out her Memory Card) today.

Hi.  I just wanted to share some nice moments I have had by taking the time to sit down with friends and share snacks.  
Open Face sandwiches (salami, Havarti, chopped liver all on whole grain) with hard boiled eggs and coffee.  With Mrs. P, who is from Denmark.
Olive assortment, salami, a sheep's milk cheese with olive oil and crackers with Mr.& Mrs. D.  There was wine involved.

A selection of baklava from Babi's Bakery, which had been in El Cajon but has closed.   The Kanafa is on the left.   The top is orange colored shredded filo topped with chopped pistachios.  The filling...the heavenly filling... is a *very* soft sheep's milk cheese, Nabulsi.  The cheese  is mixed with or has a pour over of a simple syrup which is flavored with rose water.  Subtle and heavenly.  The wheels of pistachio filled baklava were excellent. Neither of these items was too sweet.  Another bakery has taken Babi's place and I will be posting on it soon. 

 
Mrs. B made me an assortment of cookies for us to have with tea, and extra for me to bring home to The Mister. The cookies were made with real butter as well as lemon peel and orange peel and almonds.  Mrs. B knows I don't crave chocolate.
Mr. C and I met at Yogurtland in Mira Mesa.  I like the tartness of the yogurts here.  Bonus! the spoons are biodegradable.
Breakfast  aebelskiver with Mrs. P.  Similar to a small popover, this round pancake is simply topped with sugar. (This Mrs. P is from Copenhagen.)

I met up with Mr. S  for a coffee and chat in person and not online.  Starbucks has recently begun selling "Starbucks Petites".  Very small servings of sweets, each less than 200 calories, each $1.50.  This is the peanut butter mini cupcake, 180 calories.  There seems to be  a lot of frosting in proportion to cake.  It's good and the size-two or three bites- is more than enough to satisfy any sugar cravings I may have.  
Mr. and Mrs. P are French.  This is a photo of the remnants of what was left after I stopped by for what I thought would be a brief visit. Always traditional, there was a salad, bread, stew, wine, coffee and sweets.  
Caffe Vergnano 1882, an international Coffee Shop, has just opened their first stand alone shop in California, in Hillcrest, on the West side of 5th close to University. Most Caffe Vergnano locations are inside other stores and not stand alones.  Walk inside, and you feel as if you are in Italy.  There are small snacks and excellent coffee.  
I met up with Mr. S a bit more than a week ago and he snapped this photo of a medium cappuccino with the stenciled logo (and the other cup is a double shot topped with a 'kiss' of milk foam, a macchiato).  Just ordering a coffee here gets you one of the wrapped "biscoffee" cookies you see on the plate.  A post about the varied snack selections available (pastry with Nutella, panino, fococcia)  is being 'researched'.  

 
Here is a Caprese salad The Mister made for us the other day.  Burrata from Trader Joe's, tomatoes and basil from our yard, all topped with olive oil, salt and pepper and sided with some seedy buttered bread from Charlie's Best.  Again, with some wine...as an afternoon snack.

In compiling the items for this post, I realized how fortunate I am and what a variety of  friends I have.  Of the above visits, only two people I shared a coffee and/or snack with were born in the United States.  I am glad we know how important it is to stop and take the time to share time...an easy way to share is with food.

I hope everyone will have a really good weekend.

Comments

[caninecologne]

(emits high pitched fangirl scream!) OMG! TOKIDOKI!!!! must go to Yogurtland for those cups!spy Donutella, Adios Star, and Ciao Ciao! i wonder if i can get an extra cup there?

nice spread of snacks for your and your friends!

food is a great way to share culture (whether it's your own or not).

[Nate]

That Open Face is calling out to me!

[ed (from Yuma)]

Nice post. It's so great sharing food with friends -- particularly if they are sharing their food.

I am a little weirded out, though, by the heart and crossbones logo on the yogurt container. Kindof a mixed message for me.

[Food detective]

That coffee looks good. There is this chocolate that I got from my friend who went to France. The label is 1882 or 1892? It's really good with coffee.

[Cathy]

I knew you'd notice the Tokidoki, cc!
The Mister and I eat open face sandwiches only, Nate. It seems fancy, even just for lunch at home...
It was a Tokidoki October/Halloween theme for their figures, ed. Old photo from last year.
The coffee is made pretty and is really good, FD. 1882 is a very popular brand in France, Italy and London.

[caninecologne]

hi c - so after lunch, i got those it's it ice creams at vons. one cappucine and one mint. on the bottom like u said they would be.

also went to the nearby yogurtland. the nice gentleman working there said the tokidoki was promo only last fall, but he did however have 2 tokidoki shirts leftover that he could sell to me. it has the character donutella holding a yogurt with the yogurtland logo (you can see her on the side of the cup). so cute! so of course, i bought both of them (one for me and one for tc). the dude was probably glad to get them off his hands.

hi ed - the heart and crossbones is the 'tokidoki' logo. it's a japanese inspired brand by an italian, simon legno. his designs are on shirts, purses, shoes, etc. fyi. :)

[Cathy]

So glad you found the "It's It" ice creams, cc. I will be on the lookout for Tokidoki paraphernalia from now on, and am so happy you found something at Yogurtland. I'm learning more about Tokidoki every day.

[Sandy]

I have those Tokidoki spoons from a Yogurtland visit (Irvine store) from a couple of years ago. I don't know if there's a way to find out when they do the promotion.

[Cathy]

I'll be on the lookout. There are a lot of Yogurtland locations. Caninecologne was fortunate to find the two tshirts at the SDSU location.