Eat, drink and be merry

We had a delightful meal tonight here. Swabian cuisine at its best. If you are ever in the Tübingen area and want to experience local traditional dishes, that is the place to visit.

And for the first time ever I home roasted some fresh green coffee beans. What a glorious cup of coffee they made. The first picture is of the Ethiopian raw Mokka beans. I'm grateful that the local coffee shop imports them for a few African immigrants living in the area (they've come out a bit blue in this picture for some reason??)

The second picture is taken after about 10 minutes of roasting, together with some of the freshly grounded coffee powder. I wish you could smell it through the internet as it has a heavenly aroma.

For an interesting aside on coffee and official papal activities, have a read of this. One of the points notes: 'Dervishes--mystic devotees of Islam's Sufi sect--consumed coffee at all-night ceremonies as fuel for achieving religious ecstasy'. Funny: I use coffee as fuel for achieving decent exegesis after I've woken up, when I'm so tired I can't even remember my own name.