History of Cafes

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    Why is the cafe so historically important and why is it such a scandal

    that so many are being allowed to die off unlamented?The years after WW2 heralded a new spirit of optimism and nationalconfidence in Britain. Consumer culture became king and as a symbol of this

    progress and prosperity a new Contemporary style dominated architectureand design through the 50s and into the 60sThis was a fresh style moving on from the minimalist rigours oftheModernist movement. It represented a new vibrancy with materials likeFormica, leatherette chrome and plastic coming to the fore. The 'streamlining'cult was especially evident in kitchen interiors and the functional spaces ofcafes.The positivity of an age created new tastes and trends, with the cafe's Italian

    styling a ubiquitous cheery symbol of national regeneration and outwardlookingness. But today you have to look harder than ever to find decent, intactcafes with classic Formica tables, lino floors, proper seats and small cabinetsof biscuits and crusty rolls.Cafe family owners are nearing retirement age andthe children don't want to take over the business. Also many leases arecoming to an end for the central London cafes and the resale value of cafebuildings in the property boom is too vast to ignore.Too many have been replaced and refitted with ghastly plastic mouldedinteriors devoid of atmosphere. But those that are left are national treasures.Dating from 1802, the term caf comes from the French 'caf' (meaning'coffee' or 'coffeehouse') and the Italian 'caffe' (also meaning 'coffee'.) In 1839'cafteria' had been coined in American English from Mexican Spanish toindicate a coffee-store. But the caf has been reinvented many times over thecenturies. Here's a brief timeline excerpted from the history section of theforthcoming Classic Cafes book...

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    1600s

    y The precursors to the original coffee houses were the monasteries andinns that had offered hospitality to travellers since the twelfth century.Expansion of urban populations during the fifteenth century led to aprofusion of 'cook shops' - notably around London's Bread Street andEast Cheap - where meal prices were controlled and the public couldbring their own pies.

    y The "first coffee house in Christendom" was established in Oxford in1650 by a Jew called Jacob at the Angel in the parish of St Peter in theEast. Two years later, a Greek servant named Pasqua Rosee (seeillustration above) began running a coffee shop in St Michael's Alley,Cornhill in the City of London. Coffee houses became such popularforums for discussion they were dubbed "penny universities".

    y By 1670 the coffee house movement had overtaken - and become a keyelement of - Restoration London. By the 18th century, London wasteeming with the liquid said to resemble 'syrup of soot or essence of old

    shoes' and places to drink it in.

    y From 1675, a thousand or so coffee houses flowered during the reignsof Charles II, Queen Anne and George I.

    y By the 19th century however, coffee houses had become exclusiveclubs as a prolific press and an efficient post and transport systemundermined the function of the coffee houses as centres ofcommunication.

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    1700s

    y England abandoned coffee as the demands of the East IndiaCompany to exchange its preferred stimulants pushed the domesticmarket into tea consumption. But due to the success of the Dutch navyin the Pacific, tea became fashionable in the Dutch capital.yAs the craze for all things oriental swept Europe, tea became part ofthe national way of life and Dutch inns provided the first restaurant teaservice as guests were furnished with portable tea sets complete withheating unit.y The first tea samples reached England between 1652 and 1654 andproved popular enough to replace ale as the national drink. Tea maniaswept across England as it had earlier spread throughout France andHolland.

    1800s

    y Beginning in the late 1880's in both America and England, fine hotelsbegan to offer tea service in tea rooms and tea courts. By 1910 hotels

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    began to host afternoon tea dances as dance craze after dance crazeswept the United States and England.

    y Through this time, the English working classes largely kept to the pubbut the 19C coffee house hadn't entirely died out. A few clung on as'workers' cafs', described by one contemporary as: 'dull and humble;

    they have sallow holland blinds, drawn deep down behind sallowwindow-sashes...'

    y But in the 1880s the temperance movement tried to revive the coffeehouse scene in an attempt to divert the working man from the perils ofdrink. Modeled on the mahogany-trimmed taverns promoted by the beerindustry, 'Coffee taverns,' one pamphlet stated, 'must show there arebeverages as comforting as beer, that there are beverages to be boughtas cheap as beer.'

    1900s

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    y The coffee taverns were largely overtaken in the 19th century by smallestablishments run mainly by Arabs, Turks, Greeks and Sicilians whichhad become the haunts of 'foreigners' as well as stray 'Bohemians'.

    y Soho built on its traditional French, Italian and Spanish immigrant-centreorigins as a new generations of outsiders move into London. After WW2

    an influx of Italian families building on their long established cateringexpertise settled in Clerkenwell (Little Italy), spread West to Soho andeventually expanded all over the capital and the country.

    y Gradually, as Britain pulled through the travails of the post-war economyLondon rejuvenated. The Festival of Britain in 1951 signals anunequivocal move forward. Somehow, this feat of mass cultural re-engineering would impel the arts in Britain for the following decade anda half.

    y A greater informality of eating had begun as the first sandwich bar,Sandy's, opened in Oxendon St in 1933. Soon snack bars spreadthroughout the capital as the culture of fast-food was established.

    y In 1935 the first milk bar is set up in Fleet St by an Australian, Hugh D.McIntosh. Within a year there are 420 throughout Britain. As a furthertwist on the theme, coffee bars with a reputation for low-life and fasttimes emerged to mainstream popularity in the 1950's.

    y In 1945 Gaggia altered the espresso machine to create a high pressureextraction that produced a thick layer of crema. By 1946 cappuccinohad been christened for its resemblance to the colour of the robes of theCapuchin monks. The unique selling point of the classic caf had

    arrived

    1953...

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    y By 1953 coffee bars sprang up all over Soho. The first was The Moka

    espresso bar at 29 Frith St. Opened by Gina Lollabrigida, it became themodel for many classic Formica cafes to come.

    y The coffee bars rapidly spread to other metropolitan areas: The Arabica,Brompton Road (G.R.Cole FRSA); Bamboo, Old Brompton Road (JohnBainbridge); The Coffee House, Haymarket (Antoine Acket withE.E.Barlow ARIBA); Mocamba, Brompton Road (Douglas Fisher)...

    y The cafes attracted CND activists, jazzers, noveau existentialists,

    nascent rock n' rollers, beatnik baby boomers, Piccadilly exquisites anda whole new post-war set of UK On The Roaders who, like Gelina inMark McShane's novel 'The Passing of Evil', wilfully inhabit: 'the seedy-garish world of back-street London... restless rootless... beautiful,amoral, modern siren(s) of doom in a jungle of dance halls, caffs andpubs'

    y By the mid-1960s, 40% of the general populace were under 25. Thescene was set for a British creative renaissance as diverse art, writing,musical, criminal and sexual subcultures thrived within the burgeoningcafe communities...

    1970s

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    y In the 1970s, severe bust lead to a halving of the UK's manufacturing

    employment base. Large companies began leaving the capital enmasse. Increasingly, British industry (for so long dependent on thespoils of Empire) fell behind the leaner economies of the US, Germany,Japan and Eastern Europe.

    y Unemployment, virtually unknown in Britain in the 1950s, began a longspiral upwards, the subsequent recession accompanied by high inflationand a collapse in living standards. As proprietors found more profit in

    selling food, so the coffee bars gradually all turned into general cafes orcheap restaurants.

    y Only a couple of die-hard cafe chains managed to last out the 1960sand hang on into the 1970s: the Lyons' Wimpy Bars (established in1954) and the Golden Eggs (set up by Philip and Reggie Kaye in theearly 1960s). The Wimpys avoided gimmickry, maintaining simple duo-tone minimal interiors but the Golden Egg was: "The most controversialuse of colour in British restaurantswhere riotous colour schemes andbrilliant opaline lights have brought a jazzy mood to eating in low-pricepopular restaurants."

    y Despite their once epochal freshness, by the 1980s cafes were well andtruly off the menu. A revitalised pub culture, swarming burgerconglomerates and insidious sandwich operations pushed all aside...

    http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/History.html

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    Pakistan lies northwest of India and west of China. The country's name comes from the

    Urdu language (Pakistan's official language), meaning "Land of the Pure." It is

    approximately the size of Texas and its southern coast borders the Arabian Sea. The

    Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain ranges of northern Pakistan have some of the

    most rugged land found anywhere in the world. Nearly all of the land in these

    mountains lies above 7,800 feet. The Indus plains are in the central region of the

    country. The climate there is hot and dry. The region usually receives only about eight

    inches of rain a year and temperatures may hover around 104F for months at a time.

    Despite these conditions, the Indus plains support the largest part of Pakistan's

    population.

    Urdu is Pakistan's official language, although only 10 percent of Pakistanis speak it.

    Sixty percent of the population speak Punjabi. Other languages include Sindhi (13

    percent); Pushto or Pashtu, spoken by the Pathans (8 percent); and Kashmiri, 2 percent.

    With this diversity, and because of the role of language in cultural identity, Urdu has

    been adopted as Pakistan's national language.

    2 HISTORY AND FOOD

    The spreading of the Islam religion, starting in theA.D. 700s, forms the basis of

    Pakistani cuisine. Because Muslims (those who practice the Islam religion) areforbidden to eat pork or consume alcohol, they concentrated on other areas of food such

    as beef, chicken, fish, and vegetables.

    The Moghul Empire (from India) began its ruling in present-day Pakistan around 1526.

    Its style of cooking, calledMughal, typically includes such ingredients as herbs and

    spices, almonds, and raisins.Mughalcooking remains an important part of Pakistani

    cuisine. Foods such as shahi tukra , a dessert made with sliced bread, milk, cream,

    sugar, and saffron (a type of spice),

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    and chicken tandoori are still enjoyed in the twenty-first century. Chicken tandoori is

    chicken that is cooked at a low temperature in special large clay ovens called tandoors.

    Read more: Food in Pakistan - Pakistani Food, Pakistani Cuisine - popular, dishes, diet,

    history, common, meals, staple, rice, main, people, favorite, make, customs, fruits,

    country, bread, vegetables, bread, drink,

    eatinghttp://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-

    Africa/Pakistan.html#ixzz1DGjEWsBe

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    3 FOODS OF THE PAKISTANIS

    Pakistan is divided into four provinces, each with different cultures and regional

    specialties. For example, machli(fish) and other seafood are delicacies in the coastal

    Sind province. In Baluchistan, (the largest province) located in western Pakistan, cooks

    use the sajjimethod of barbecuing whole lambs in a deep pit. The people living in

    Punjab (eastern Pakistan) are known for their roti(bread) and elaborate cooking

    preparations. The Pathens, who occupy the Northwest Frontier province, eat a lot of

    lamb. Their cooking, however, is considered more bland than the other regions. Oven-

    baked bread eaten with cubes of meat, called nan-kebab , is a favorite Pathen dish.

    As a whole, milk, lentils, seasonal sabzi(vegetables), and flour and wheat products are

    the most abundant foods, forming the basis of Pakistani cuisine.Chapatis is a flat bread

    made from wheat and is a staple at most meals. It is used to scoop up food in place of

    eating utensils. Vegetables such

    as alu (potatoes), gobhi(cabbage), bhindi(okra), channa (chickpeas), and matar (peas)

    are eaten according to the season.Dhal(or dal) is a stew made with lentils, one of the

    most commonly eaten vegetables.

    Read more: Food in Pakistan - Pakistani Food, Pakistani Cuisine - popular, dishes, diet,

    history, common, meals, staple, rice, main, people, favorite, make, customs, fruits,

    country, bread, vegetables, bread, drink,

    eatinghttp://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-

    Africa/Pakistan.html#ixzz1DGjKS1hZ

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    FOOD FOR RELIGIOUS AND HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS

    The majority of Pakistanis are Muslims, about 97 percent. The other 3 percent include

    Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and Baha'is. Within the Muslim community, the majority

    are Sunnis, and about 25 percent are Shi'ah. The difference between these two Muslim

    groups generally lies in a dispute of authority, not beliefs.

    The two major religious festivals celebrated by the Muslim Pakistanis are Id al-Fitr (also

    spelled Eid al-Fitr), which celebrates the end of Ramadan, and Bakr-Id, the feast of

    sacrifice. Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting from sunrise to sunset. This means

    that no food or drinks, including water, may be consumed during that time. Most

    restaurants and food shops are closed during daylight hours. Breakfast must be finished

    before the sun rises, and the evening meal is eaten after the sun goes down. Children

    under the age of 12 are encouraged, but generally not expected, to fast.

    During Ramadan, Muslims rise before dawn to eat a meal called suhur (pronounced

    soo-HER). Foods containing grains

    Ground turmeric, which gives dishes a deep yellow color, ismade by grinding the

    dried turmeric root. The turmeric plant is amember of the ginger family.

    EPD Photos/Himanee Gupta

    and seeds, along with dates and bananas, are commonly eaten because they areconsidered slow to digest. This helps to ease hunger during the fast. At sunset, the day's

    fast is broken with iftar , a meal that traditionally starts with eating a date. After that,

    water, fruit juice, or lassi, and snacks such as samosas (meat or vegetable-filled

    pastries) are eaten, followed by dinner. Dinner may include tandoori chicken or lamb. If

    a family can afford it, dinner is shared with those less fortunate.

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    Id al-Fitr, or the "Feast of Fast Breaking," is celebrated after the month of Ramadan

    ends. Family and friends visit and eat festive meals throughout the day. Families use

    their best dishes, and bowls of fruit are set out on the table. Meats such as beef, lamb,

    and fish (in coastal areas) are eaten along with rice, chapatis , and desserts.

    Bakr-Id is an occasion to give and sacrifice. Abakri(goat), sheep, camel, or any other

    four-legged animal is slaughtered as a sacrificial offering, and the meat is given out to

    the poor and needy. Muslims who can afford two meals a day are expected to sacrifice

    an animal.

    5 MEALTIME CUSTOMS

    Nihariderives its name from the Urdu word nihar , which means "morning."Aniharibreakfast in Pakistan can be very filling. Nehari(stewed beef), and mango are

    common breakfast items. Sometimes a dish made of meat cooked with chilies and other

    spices is cooked overnight to be consumed for breakfast the next morning, when it is

    eaten with naan , a type of bread, orparata , which is a flat cake fried in oil. Women

    prepare breakfast and all other meals for their family.

    Pakistani lunch and dinner dishes are

    similar.Roti(bread), chawal(rice), sabzi(vegetables), and gosht(meat) are the mainelements of a meal. Chapatis or naan accompanies every meal. Rice is usually boiled or

    fried. Some rice dishes include kabuli pulau , made with raisins, and biryani, rice

    cooked in a yogurt and meat sauce. For the main dish,qorma (meat curry in

    gravy), qofta (lamb meatballs), or nargasi qofta (minced beef and egg) might be served.

    Water may be offered at the beginning or after a meal to quench thirst, but rarely while

    eating.

    Street vendors offer a variety of drinks and snacks. Chai, or tea, is a very popular drink.

    It is usually boiled with milk, nutmeg, and sugar.Lassi(a yogurt drink) and sugarcane

    juice are popular during the summer months. Another refreshing summer drink

    is nimbu paani, or "fresh lime." It is made of crushed ice, salt, sugar, soda water, and

    lime juice.Samosas are deep-fried pastries filled with potatoes, chickpeas, or other

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    vegetables and are a popular snack. Other snacks are tikka (spicy barbequed meat)

    andpakoras (deep-fried vegetables).

    6 POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND NUTRITION

    The use of child labor in Pakistan is widespread. Children not only work on farms, but in

    low-paying carpet weaving centers. In the mid 1990s, between 500,000 to 1 million

    Pakistani children aged 4 to 14 worked as full-time carpet weavers. UNICEF believed

    that they made up almost 90 percent of the carpet makers' work force. Little has been

    done to enforce child labor laws. In 1999, the United Nations got involved by setting up

    300 schools in eastern Pakistan to encourage education for children in schools, not

    trade.

    Because of overpopulation only about 56 percent of Pakistanis have proper sanitation

    and access to safe drinking water. About 19 percent of the population of Pakistan are

    classified as undernourished by the World Bank. This means they do not receive

    adequate nutrition in their diet. Of children under the age of five, about 40 percent are

    underweight, and over 50 percent are stunted (short for their age). The Pakistani

    government has established several programs to improve these conditions, including the

    Child Survival/Primary Health Care program, to reduce malnutrition and deaths due to

    diseases.

    http://www.foodbycountry.com/Kazakhstan-to-South-Africa/Pakistan.html#ixzz1DGjWQF8H

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