My Aching Head

A Queenstown Coffee Institution: Motogrill

Motogrill is one of those places where the first time you walk in there, you don’t actually feel like you belong. The staff probably won’t look up from the newspaper they are reading, or break from the conversation they are having with the 3 guys leaning on the counter. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t being unfriendly or rude, work may not actually be why they are there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’d be the same if I were them. There isn’t a problem with getting a coffee though, you will get it and it will be good. It just won’t be the all smiles and how can I help that you will get at Starbucks, and don’t get me started on Starbucks.

Which leads me to the next point, the food. The Motogrill steak sandwich may be one of the best lunches in Queenstown, it is definitely not overdone. Served on toasted bread, seasoned with parsley (It might not actually be parsley) and complete with partly melted cheese,tomato and lettuce it is everything you could hope for in a sneak sandwich, and let me tell you, I’ve hoped for a lot of things in a steak sandwich. The pasta salad is another favourite of mine - beans, spiral pasta, chicken, tomatoey sauce and some shaved parmesan. One of the things about everything at Motogrill is the size. They definitely aren’t skimping on the portions, which on a hangover is exactly what you want.

All of this is great, but there is one glaring problem for Motogrill to be the ultimate cafe for a hangover cure, this is of course the fact that Motogrill is closed on Sundays. Now I know that the staff are snowboarding on Sunday’s or recovering from their hangover and who am I to blame them? But seriously guys, you get us addicted with your awesome steak sandwiches and then refuse to open and serve us scrambled eggs and cappuccinos for breakfast on a Sunday.

Tags: breakfast, cafe, coffee, Queenstown
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Can I get a Chai please?

This post was written by Bruce Thurlow, normally he writes about the Black Keys or about nothing in particular over at Mr Dingleberry.

For some people a basic act of survival is having a cup of coffee each morning. Especially after a big night out. And it becomes more of an act of survival when that coffee does not meet expectations. Being in a rush at home and swallowing a couple of tar-like gulps of instant coffee with not so hot water ain’t fun. Just like coffee, bad tea comes in many shapes and sizes. More so when you’re paying for it. Or for that matter when you are offered a cuppa from a work colleague or house mate and there’s nowhere to hide and refuse.

When I once lived in a share house and was interviewing prospective house mates, I didn’t bother with the basic “Are you employed?” questions. I went straight to, “How do you make a cup of tea?”.  Having someone demonstrate making a too-milky cuppa with the tea bag still immersed with the string dangling limp over the rim of the cup is as unsatisfying as any experience I know. And I’ve had a few.

Recently I’ve been drinking a lot of tea, mainly in cafes between job interviews. Where once I could put up with with a tea bag of English Breakfast in a pot, now days I’m an unrepentant Chai drinker. More of a Chai snob actually. Chai, of course, roughly translates as ‘tea’ in Iran, India and Turkey and surrounding countries, invariably the spiced or masala milk tea style. This is my weakness - that sweet/spiced aromatic lure of some place Other than where you are now that invades your consciousness. I traveled India some years ago and the hollah of tea for sale from the Chai Wallah (seller) at train stations was a sweet greeting for the ears. The Wallah would tilt the large urn of spiced masala tea strapped on his back and pour the tea into a small clay cup which you would throw away after drinking from it. I never had a bad cup.

Some years later, the Chai craze hit the Western world and it became a plague on otherwise respectable cafes driven by a consumer who thought they tasted something “new” and “original”. Something instant coffee drinkers also said about “granulated coffee” many moons ago. Chai for profit-taking cafes can simply mean a rough jumble of tea, sugar and a smattering of “flavours” in a powdered form.  It’s the stuff you drink at Starbucks (or once did before they defaulted on any consumer credibility they once held). You know when you drink it; “powdered” tea will never be the real deal.

Yesterday, however, I saw how it could and should be done. I had a Chai at the cafe Journal and upon a functional serving plate came: a pot of hot milk and divine leaf Chai (not too spicy, not too sweet), a spare pot of hot milk to refill the tea pot, a small amount of honey on the side, a tall glass with long spoon, and a leaf strainer with drip tray. I got three and a half full cups of Chai for $4.00.  The previous day I paid $6.00 for one glass at Soul Mama that was more hot milk with honey than any semblance of spiced tea. No refills. Lest we forget.

So, next time you consider a coffee for your morning fix, rejoice in a Chai for that sorry head of yours.

Tags: breakfast, chai, Cure, tea
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Albert Swearengen: Coffee, Whiskey and Bacon and Eggs

Further to the Drink Planner’s post on the drinkiest shows on television, I’ve got a few observations on Deadwood. I have only recently started watching it (pretty much all the way through.) Al Swearengen is the character throughout that you don’t know if you are supposed to like him or hate him but one thing is for certain he has got the right idea about a few things. You will only ever see him drinking 2 things, coffee and whiskey, coffee in the morning and whiskey pretty much whenever else. I’d say he wakes up with a fair hangover (though he doesn’t often show it) and a couple of times he has been seen eating or ordering bacon and eggs, clearly a man that knows how to handle a hangover.

Tags: deadwood, television
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The Shandy (or Radler)

I must confess, I’ve got a real penchant for beer and I think it’s pretty good just as it is. That and we have a definite policy here at My Aching Head of trying not to shirk your responsibilities to the booze when you are drinking it, this is to say there’s not much room for light beer or half nips. However, there is a definite need for these types of drinks for drivers and children. All that aside, the original idea of the radler was brilliant, as my Bavarian (not German) friend delighted in telling me a genius bartender realised that he was running out of beer and decided to start selling it watered down with lemonade to cyclists - as though it was what was intended all along. The Wikipedia article on Shandy covers this and more, I’m particularly impressed with the section on the turbo shandy, a staple of some of my more fund-limited friends.

So I’m telling you stuff you probably already know,and having read the Wikipedia article already you will know that radler is German for “cyclist” but as one of my good friends (also from the aforementioned southern region of Germany) taught me, “shandy” is the German word for “shame”. Quite fitting really as shame is the emotion you should be feeling when drinking a shandy.

All of this is pretty harsh really, but it’s not all bad, a shandy can be very refreshing of a heavy morning and probably won’t have the effects of pushing you over the edge back into a drunk state. Secondly, there is a Monteith’s beer in New Zealand called Radler. This is a very crisp clean beer with a twist of lemon flavour yet it isn’t watered down at all, weighing in at 5% this is a perfect beer for a summer’s day (well, not quite as perfect as a Monteith’s Summer Ale).

Tags: beer, lemonade
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Cafes: Breakfast brings the Cure

As far as curing a hangover there are few better remedies in the morning that Coffee and Bacon. As I’ve discussed previously, there certainly is a skill to frying up a good breakfast but that skill notwithstanding most of the time you are probably best to leave it to a trained professional. Now what I mean by a trained professional is someone you are going to pay to cook you up a feast. What I’m trying to say is that you’ve basically got 3 options of a heavy morning:

1. The hair of the dog that bit you
2. Sort yourself out something to eat
3. Pay someone to help you out with some food

Anyhow, I’m a huge fan of the 3rd option but my wallet isn’t yet that doesn’t stop me. There is a list of cafes as long as my arm that I’m planning on reviewing here on this site for starters the list is:

• Sassafras, Paddington, Brisbane
• Motogrill, Queenstown
• Bob’s Weigh, Queenstown
• The Parkhouse Cafe, Toowoomba
• Fat Boys, The Valley, Brisbane
• Joe’s Garage, Queenstown

Tags: breakfast, cafes, food
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