The alphageek applied some analysis to find a great restaurant. This process is analysis, if you count using urbanspoon to find some new restaurant to try. I have never had Afghan food before, but this was certainly a great introduction. It is easy to understand why this restaurant has an online buzz.
I decided to call in an order an pick it up. After all, I don't have a dvr on the road, and I did not want to miss Survivor. I decided to start out with Bolani, which is pan-fried twin pastry shells. One is filled with potatoes and the other with scallions. Although the pastry does not look spectacular, it was delicately fried, and full of delicate flavors. The flavors in both, were topped off with just a little bit of heat, making for a great start to the meal.

Bolani (click to enlarge)

For the main dish, I decided to try Chicken Tikka Kabob, dark meat chicken on the bone marinated in tandoori seasoning. I gave it a try, and I found that this was some great tandoori seasoning. The flavors transformed the chicken into something that one just can't get in your usual grilled chicken sandwich. The chicken was served on a pita that was almost pillow like. The pillow had absorbed the flavors from the chicken, making the pita almost a meal in itself. The chicken was served with some rice that might have been seasoned with cardamom and some cinnamon. The rice was interesting because it also had some raisins to compliment the flavors. These great flavors made the little salad that was served with the dish almost a second rate player, but it did not matter.

Chicken Tikka Kabob (click to enlarge)

In the end, this meal beat the heck out of getting something at one of those chain restaurants that are almost universal these days. Why not stop by, and give something a try? Why not join out site? You can follow us using the links on the page, or leave us some feedback below. You can follow us on twitter by just clicking the following link: Follow @ageekfood.

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Today, I will tell you one step to making a great cup of coffee. More exactly, this short and to the point article deals specifically with storing the coffee after it is prepared. Making good coffee can be one of the most complex, and individualized out there in the expanding world of food. The opposite side of the coin is the number of cups of really bad coffee that are purchased, given away, or stolen by someone at work who drinks the last drop of crappy coffee and refuses to make more.
Yes, coffee runs the spectrum of good to bad. Sometimes, the place that serves the best coffee one ever had also serves coffee that tastes like it was heated by a Bunsen burner all day, until nothing but carbon is left in the pot, and any organic organism surely must have been destroyed down to the sub-atomic level.

Here at the headquarters, we use a drip coffee machine. No, we are not going to talk the whole process, please try to keep up. The single best thing we did to improve the coffee here was to buy one of those coffee makers that drips the coffee into a carafe. No leaving the coffee on a burning heater, if you want the second cup of coffee to be drinkable. We were happy for many years, until the carafe coffee maker was recalled. Not wanting to burn the house down due to an electrical short, we reluctantly parted with the maker and purchased a similar model.

The "similar model", to use a really technical term, sucked.

When pouring, it leaked coffee everywhere after few months, and the coffee cooled off in about ten minutes. The leaking indicates the carafe is not sealing properly, and the lack of a seal allows the coffee to cool quickly. This system needed an upgrade. The credit for this upgrade goes to Mrs. alphageek. She found a great solution. We purchased the Oggi carafe that you see below.

Coffee Carafe (click to enlarge)

Simply put, this carafe keeps the coffee hot, without the application of more heat. Here is the algorithm to use this carafe.

After coffee is prepared, pour any unused coffee IMMEDIATELY into the carafe. Do not leave it on the heater for the coffee maker, or on any other form of heat. Heat is the enemy of good coffee.

I don't get any money based on where you buy something like this. We purchased ours at T.J. MAXX, but we have also seen them at Marshals as well. These stores carry cooking items at some great prices, so we always check these stores out.

If you keep reading here, we might eventually get to making coffee from start to finish. To make sure you keep up with the latest action, why not follow us on the the links on the right, or follow our facebook page, linked right here below for you. You can also follow our twitter feed at Follow @ageekfood