Cafe World Gift Giving Strategy - How You Can Make the Most of Giving Gifts in Cafe World

Cafe World is one of the newest social networking games taking Facebook by storm. It's like FarmVille but instead of spending your time planting seeds, you're taken away to the world of busy cafes and the business of food. And because it's a social game, the masterminds behind it, Zynga, have implemented some fun features into the game to help you interact with your friends all over the world.

Of all the interactions in Cafe World, gift giving is by far the most important in order to obtain items you can't get elsewhere.

You can start making the most of these gifts by logging in each day and checking your gift menu. This is where you'll find out what gifts you can give away for that day. Usually they will be something like appetizers, cookies, and drinks that your friends will be happy to receive.

One thing you'll want to avoid is giving gifts that you can buy in the store on Cafe World. All of your neighbors will have access to these items so they won't think that you're adding a lot of value and giving them something useful.

Don't be afraid of giving gifts and not getting anything in return though. The game has a built in feature that asks whoever you send a gift to to automatically send you something in return. This way you don't have to spend all your time helping out friends and then wondering why you're not getting any new cool stuff for your cafe.

If you're excited about the possibility of adding some really cool items to your menu, focus on making friends in different Cafe World forums so you can add them as neighbors. Doing this each day will help you get closer to becoming a master Cafe World player.

Cafe Furniture and What You Should Think About When Buying It

Cafes and coffee shops are becoming ever more popular as people like to relax and have a chat with friends while sipping on a steaming hot mug of coffee or a bite to eat. If you are thinking of opening up your own cafe to take advantage of this then it is important that you make it a relaxing place where people will want to visit. The food and drink are very important in a cafe but so too is the atmosphere and you would do well to remember this.

Opening up your own cafe is a huge investment and you will want to do all you can to make it a success. However, if you do make a go of it, you will see some spectacular rewards. In order to create the right atmosphere in your cafe, you are going to have to take a few things into consideration such as the decor and the cafe furniture that you choose. When it comes to choosing the furniture for your cafe, the following are a few things that you need to consider:

The furniture should be of a high quality. Customers will not want to sit in chairs that look as though they won't hold their weight. The furniture should be sturdy and strong and should also be stylish. If you pay for quality from the very beginning, you will spend less time and money on replacement furniture down the road.

Style is also important. You will want to make sure that your cafe is appealing so that people will want to spend time in it. If people like the look of your cafe and if your food and coffee is up to scratch, they will come back again and again and will probably tell others about it as well.

Make sure the furniture you buy looks good with the theme of your cafe. The colour of the furniture should complement the colour scheme of the cafe. Think about not only the walls but also the floor that you have.

Comfortable furniture is also something to think about. Before you invest in any chairs, you need to make sure they are comfortable to sit in for longer than a minute or two. Most people will spend around a half hour or more in a cafe especially if they have food so the chairs should provide comfort for as long as they are there.

French Drinks - Getting Your Order Right

When my husband first arrived in France he went to a bar and ordered two beers (deux bières). The waiter looked astonished and my husband had to insist several times that indeed he wanted two beers. Finally the waiter disappeared and returned a few minutes later with a small plate of butter (du beurre) which he left on the table. We still laugh about it.

To help you avoid similar problems here is a list of drinks you might like to order while visiting the Hexagon. And don't forget the power of hand signals; I think the waiter would have understood if my husband had held up a couple of fingers to help with the counting.

Your morning coffee

If you order coffee in a café in France (and I surely hope you do) you will receive a small cup of espresso strength coffee. Some places you can get a cup of filtered coffee, known as café à l'américaine. Here are some more terms to help you get your java order filled the way you want:

  • Une Noissette - This is an espresso with a hint of cream or milk floating on top.
  • Cafe au Lait - An espresso with hot milk added.
  • Cafe Leger or Allonge - Espresso-strength coffee that has been watered down.
In the café you can also order:
  • Chocolat Chaud - Hot chocolate. Lots of times this will be made without sugar - you add the amount you want.
  • The - Tea, usually served in a small pot with a cup and sugar alongside it.
  • Thé au Lait - Tea with a small pitcher of hot milk too.

At lunchtime

You may not be ready for a glass of wine with lunch as many French people are, so why not try one of France's many bottled waters. When ordering water in a restaurant keep in mind that it is not automatically brought to the table and if you want ice cubes, you will have to ask (they're called glaçons).

  • Une carafe d'eau - This is what you ask for if you don't want to pay extra for bottled water. You will be brought a pitcher of tap water.
  • Une bouteille de l'eau plat - Bottled mineral water without any carbonation. Why not try different ones and see if you have a favorite.
  • De l'eau gazeuse - Carbonated mineral water. You will find that the amount of carbonation can vary from light (Saint Yorre for example) to heavy (Perrier for example).

Apéritif

The before dinner drink ritual is alive and well in France. If you are in the south, why not try a glass of pastis, France's licorice liquor? Or perhaps a kir or kir royal (this is black currant liqueur with either wine or champagne). There are so many regional specialties at cocktail hour and it is fun to try what the locals are drinking.

Wine

It would be a shame to come to France and not try some of the wines. France has numerous wine regions and each specializes in certain sorts of wine. Here are a few terms just to get you started:

  • vin rouge - red wine
  • vin blanc - white wine
  • sec - dry
  • doux - sweet
  • AOC - stands for Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. This signifies the wine has to meet certain standards and have been grown in a certain region.
  • vin de table - these are wines that do not have AOC. If you are lucky, you can find good ones, and they are in general less expensive.

Digestif

Well if you made it through the meal and still would like to try something else, you could order an after dinner drink. Brandies, known as eaux de vie, are popular. You will of course find Cognac and Armagnac, but you might also like to try Calvados, which is a French apple brandy from Normandy. Many people make their own brandies and restaurant owners will often offer you a small glass of their homemade eau-de-vie (on the house) at the end of a meal.

After all that food and drink you might like to try one of France's herbal teas to help you digest. Herbal teas are known as tisanes and you can find different ones to remedy just about any situation. Some popular ones include verbena, lime flower, mint, chamomile, and sage.

Finally, when raising your glass in France remember these words for the toast:

  • Sante - Health.
  • A la votre - To yours, meaning to your health.
  • Tchin-tchin - This is the noise of glasses touching in a toast. The French will frequently say it before taking their first sip.

Great Coffee is No Accident - 3 Tips For Making Cafe Quality Coffee at Home

Making bistro above coffee at home can be a absoluteness for you, just as it is for abounding others who accept taken the time and accomplishment to amount out how. Some accept fabricated their morning ritual into a science activity - testing and retesting until they get just the after-effects they desire. It does not absolutely charge to be complicated. You just charge to amount out what you like, again be constant in your brewing procedures and ingredients. Here are three tips to advice you get started.

Tip #1:The aboriginal key to accepting a abundant cup of joe is to alpha with accomplished coffee. That may complete elementary, but there are so abounding association who adulation coffee who, if they are affairs their advantage just aces up the cheapest bag of java, or the one that is on auction that day. You will not ability your morning ambition with just "any old blend". Do some analysis and acquisition one that absolutely hits a home run with you every time. Do you like the beverage at one of the civic authorization coffee shops? How about the donut boutique brand? Get some of that stuff, whatever it is.

Tip #2: Secondly, accomplish abiding your coffee is fresh. Accept you anytime noticed that the actual aboriginal time you beverage from a afresh opened bag of area is consistently the best? Air does something to the bloom of the grounds, just like a lot of added foods that are apparent to air. That's why abounding humans bullwork their own beans.

One absolutely acceptable way of consistently accepting beginning area is to use individual servings. Of advance you will charge to advance in a individual cup coffee maker, but, hey, if you are austere about your adventure for authoritative bistro above coffee at home, amount is no object, right? All individual confined coffee makers are not created equal, so you will accept to do a little analysis on that.

Tip #3: Another tip for above home beverage is the baptize - accomplish abiding it's the best. If you wouldn't accede bubbler your tap water, why would you even anticipate you could get a coast cup of morning coffee application it as the additional above ingredient? No, don't do it. Purchase some absolutely abundant tasting water.

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Willie's BAR-B-Q: Southernmost Winter-Texans and The Locals Love This Long Lasting Eatery

Where is it?

Willies is amid in the boondocks of Alamo, amid McAllen and Weslaco in the River Grande Valley, Texas. Its abode is 320 South Alamo Road, which is about two blocks south of the old Business-83 highway. Hours: Mon-Sat 11am-9pm; Sun 11am-5pm.

Decor & Style

Willies has a archetypal western advancement continued storefront with a tin roof and ancillary parking lots. Patrons access its screened-in foreground balustrade both from the ancillary or front. Small metal tables sit forth its walls. At the capital central entrance, a circadian appropriate is acquaint on the door.

Upon entering the bistro itself, we noticed the copse axle floors. A memorabilia/beverage area is credible beeline ahead, which holds two ample annular coolers of ice water. The adequately abbreviate but abysmal cafeteria-serving bar on the larboard ancillary of the access has a ample board card acquaint aloft it. Printed takeout airheaded are aswell ample there. The accessible kitchen is anon abaft it.

The capital bistro allowance is on the appropriate side. It consists of plastic-cloth-covered six-to-eight-seat barbecue tables with chairs. It holds 90 humans or so. From its board walls adhere old western paintings, paraphernalia, and photographs: e.g., photos of aboriginal American Indian chiefs, two Arikara (Sahnish) portraits, a 1952 rope-pull bear beyond the Rio Grande River, John Wayne, and the buyer credible dressed in knee-high covering boots, vest, and harbinger hat, and antic a six-gun and apple-pie moustache.

Partial card (all prices/contents accountable to change)

This accumulated cafeteria-kitchen café is patronized heavily both by locals and visiting Winter Texans. Both like its aboveboard card and ample aliment servings at reasonable prices. It is acclaimed for its barbeque platters and behemothic blimp potatoes.

BBQ plates w/3-sides/Texas acknowledgment (beef ribs amount more)

  • Small - 1 meat (sliced beef or sausage) $7.50
  • Regular - 2 meats (plus fajitas, chicken, pork ribs, turkey) $9.25
  • Deluxe - 3 meats aloft $10.75.
  • Also, smoked turkey basin $8.99; fajita basin $9.99; blimp broiled potato (butter, acerb cream, cheese, bacon bits, chives) $6.50-6.99 depending on the meat choice; meat by the batter $8.25-10.50.

All BBQ sandwiches or big tacos, which cover the sauce, pickles/onion or pico de gallo (same meats as aloft additional chopped pork) $4.99

Weekday specials

  • Monday - Blimp broiled potato (chopped beef or sausage) $5.99
  • Tuesday - Craven tenders w/2 abandon $5.99
  • Wednesday - Craven absurd steak w/2 abandon $6.75
  • Thursday - Brisket or sausage basin w/3 abandon $6.99
  • Friday - Catfish basin (2 filets) w/2 abandon $7.75

Sides orders

  • Rice, pinto beans, blah on cob, coleslaw, pico de gallo, blooming beans, alloyed veggies, mashed potatoes, potato salad, macaroni salad, allotment salad, mac-cheese, BBQ booze $1.25
  • Pints $4.25; quarts $5.25

Special plates/platters

  • Botanas (platters of appetizers/snacks/sides etc) for two $25.99-26.99; for four $33.99-38.99
  • Pork or beef rib basin w/3 abandon $8.50
  • 1/4-1/2 craven w/2-3 abandon $5.75-7.99
  • Fish/shrimp admixture w/2 abandon $8.99
  • Chicken absurd steak $7.25
  • Catfish basin $8.75
  • Willies chef salad: $5.50-7.50 depending on the meat best or not.

New dishes

  • Cowboy basin (rice, beans, alloyed cheese, pico de gallo topped w/chopped beef) $5.50
  • 6 Craven wings $4.99; 10 $5.99
  • 8" BBQ meatball sandwich $4.99

Desserts $2.75 (pecan, apple, coconut, auto pie; carrot, amber cake; angel cobbler; w/ice chrism $0.65 more)

Dogs, Burgers, accompanying ancillary orders

  • ½-lb Hot dog w/fries $5.99
  • ½-lb Hamburger w/fries $6.50; w/cheese $0.45
  • 6 Cream-cheese blimp jalapenos $3.99; 12 $6.75
  • Onion rings or French chips $2.25
  • 4 Blimp shrimp w/jalapeno & chrism cheese $5.50

Beverages: bendable drinks $1.99; 32-oz algid tea or lemonade $2.50; coffee $1.25

Our lunch

My wife had the blimp broiled potato while I took the Friday catfish plate. Her potato was massive. She could eat alone 1/4 of it. I sampled 1/6 of it, which larboard me blimp with my two fillets. My potato bloom was beginning and tasty, and my slaw had $.25 of angel and raisins alloyed in it with the accepted ingredients. All of the abandon at the confined bar looked appetizing.

Aluminum antithesis is provided for extra carry-outs. It took us a brace of canicule to accomplishment off that potato. We assuredly absurd the endure bit of it with eggs for a affable breakfast. Apparently, those who patronize this historically well-dug-in beanery accept able affinities for big helpings of adorable food. To apprentice added about the altered styles of Texas barbeque and its sauces, see this website.

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Top 10 Cafes in Chicago

Forget about Seattle, Chicago is actually the most caffeinated city in America. With average Chicagoans spending nearly three times the national average at coffeehouses, it's no surprise that the Windy City is home to some unique cafes. For those new to Chicago, you must pay patronage to the java gods by getting your caffeine buzz at least once from this list of Chicago's most aroma-arousing cafes and coffeehouses.

10. Earwax - (1561 N. Milwaukee - Wicker Park) - This un-aptly-named vegan brunch diner is just one of Wicker Park's peculiar places to score some joe. Don't let the name fool you, local hipsters speak highly of Earwax's bottomless cup of coffee. After you get your fix, check out the foreign film rental establishment below.

9. Mercury Cafe - (1505 W. Chicago - East Village) The enormous space within Mercury Café makes it a great place for gatherings of friends or other meetups. Or you can just isolate yourself and enjoy the tea, coffee, and espresso drinks available on their robust menu.

8. Wormhole - (1462 N. Milwaukee - Wicker Park) Make no mistake, this Wicker Park café is hipster-approved and certified. A charming place with an unmistakably funky vibe apparent from the collection of toys and novelty items decorating the walls. The pop-culture savvy will appreciate the humorous references to old-school video games, films, and Internet memes.

7. @Spot Café - (901 N. Larrabee - Noble Square) - A family-owned gourmet food and drink café with award-winning Paninis. This comfortable coffeehouse is a great place to relax and enjoy some local musicians or peruse the art on the walls.

6. Bridgeport Coffee Company - (3101 S. Morgan Street - Bridgeport) Perhaps the best café in Chicago's south side, the Bridgeport Coffee Company is a part of the neighborhood's history. Wi-fi, coffee, sandwiches, and fresh flowers on the tables - what more could you ask for?

5. Unicorn Café - (1723 Sherman Avenue - Evanston) Get away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago and take a trip just north of Chicago to check out this creative café in Evanston. A friendly place with a welcoming vibe may be just what new-in-town Chicagoans need to kick the big city blues.

4. Filter - (1373-75 N. Milwaukee - Wicker Park) It disappeared for some time, but the new and improved Filter has once again found its place as a staple of Wicker Park coffee. Thrift store décor and plenty of couches add to the comfy lounge environment where you can often find patrons with their requisite laptops or groups of friends.

3. Caffe Streets - (1750 W. Division - Bucktown) The wooden interiors give Caffe a rustic vibe perfect for enjoying their specialty coffees from different roasters. There's no Wi-fi, but this only adds to the down-home atmosphere, along with the friendly baristas.

2. Intelligentsia - (3123 N. Broadway - Lakeview) They have multiple locations now, but the most well-known can be found along the busy Broadway Avenue in Lakeview. These guys take coffee seriously, actually developing their own while working alongside growers. But don't let the hoity-toity attitude fool you, this café is just as accessible to the common man.

1.Julius Meinl - (4363 N. Lincoln - Lincoln Square) This international roaster offers a selection of premium coffee blends from all over the world. Known for impeccable service, interesting food, and a vibe of sophistication, this is a great place for intimate conversation.

For more great tips for new residents of Chicago or anyone thinking about moving to Chicago, check out the New in Town Chicago blog.

How To Eat Healthy And Navigate Your Way Through The Junk Food Maze

Navigating your way through the clutter aliment bewilderment can be a boxy assignment, but if you wish to apperceive how to eat healthily there are some simple rules to observe.

First and a lot of importantly, lay off the jack, baron and queen of clutter foods, the 'garbohydrates'. Yep you apprehend it correctly, 'garbohydrates'.

The garbohydrates are abrade and sugar, on their own, alloyed with anniversary added and/or accumulated with fat. They anatomy the base of the top activity diet admired of all civilizations.

Since antiquity, our abiogenetic architecture has accountable us to crave flour, amoroso and fat. In an era of absence it's actually what you charge to eat to get massive amounts of activity into your physique in the quickest accessible time, either to breach a dearth or adapt yourself for the dearth that ability be on its way.

When you accept to abound or aggregate your own food, there's not usually a lot of it about to aces at, and what aliment is readily accessible is not abounding of fat, abrade and amoroso and captivated in cellophane.

These canicule it's the opposite. Just about everywhere you go, pre-packed, blithely black garbohydrates are staring you in the face, allurement to be purchased. You can't pay for a annual at the newsagent afterwards aptitude over a adverse abounding of confectionery. Aforementioned if you go to pay for your petrol. Your greengrocer will accept a box of chocolates abreast the checkout. Even the chemist will accept baby packets of clabber beans to allure you on your way out - and don't you charge some auspicious up afterwards visiting the chemist?

It's insidious. Garbohydrate manufacturers are active amok with people's health, abrogation governments to apple-pie up the mess. At the actual atomic the garbohydrates should be captivated in apparent packaging.

But in the clutter aliment era, if the next bite can be ten account abroad (in the anatomy of a amber biscuit or a soda pop) and absolute actually the aforementioned capacity as the garbohydrate meal you've just consumed, capacity yourself with garbohydrates 24/7/365 is not a astute move. You just get fatter and fatter.

When it's all said and done, (and if it comes to bistro wisely, there's usually a lot added said than done), if you wish to eat healthily, stop bistro the garbohydrates; bread, biscuits, pasta, cake, confectionery, chocolate... and beacon bright of the sugared, carbonated bendable drinks.

Let me accord you an abstraction of the activity physique of the garbohydrates.

As our advertence point, a allotment contains about 30 Calories/100gms.)

Bread contains about 250 Calories/100gms. The botheration is that few humans accept just dry bread. They asphyxiate it with margarine, peanut adulate and honey, which doubles the bulk of energy. It becomes a huge activity dump that the physique can't handle. They end up with all address of metabolic dysfunctions of which getting fat and diabetic are the two a lot of arresting symptoms.

Boiled lollies, licorice, 'snakes' and jubes - fabricated about actually from amoroso - accommodate about 450 Calories/100 gms. Accept you anytime eaten a 250 gm packet of licorice in one go?

Add fat to amoroso and you get amber which is about 550 Calories/100gms - about 20 times the bulk of activity that's in a carrot. And if all you charge is about 2,000 Calories a day, 550 Calories in a brace of mouthfuls agency that by the time you've had breakfast, cafeteria and banquet you're able-bodied and actually on the way to beyond your circadian activity assimilation limit.

Biscuits, do you like biscuits? A apparent abrade and fat dry biscuit can ambit from 400 Calories/100gms to 560 Calories/100gms for a Ritz cracker biscuit. And cipher every had one Rit (sic), or one that didn't appear lathered with dip or cheese. The baby artificial alembic of dip can accommodate up to 500 Calories.

The plainest of digestive biscuits accept about 475 Calories/100gms, arch up to over 550 Calories/100gms for a amber biscuit. Accept you anytime had just one amber biscuit? It's like aggravating to eat one peanut.

When I grew up, if you said, 'Mum, I'm hungry', she'd say, 'Have an apple.' Nowadays kids get told to eat a bite bar abounding of fat, abrade and sugar. They get programmed into the garbohydrate way of activity from a actual aboriginal age.

When it comes to slaking appetite it's appealing abundant the same. In my day if you said, 'Mum I'm thirsty', she'd say, 'Have a alcohol of water.' Nowadays if kids say, 'Mum I'm thirsty', the acknowledgment is often, 'Help yourself to a airy drink.'

Secondly, if you wish to eat healthily, stop bistro so much. Some of the commons served up in cafes and restaurants are just gargantuan. The humans who adapt them accept to accept actually no training in diet science. There's a acceptable case to accept 'fat police' traveling about the aliment outlets re-educating the staff. Anyone afterwards a affidavit in allocation ascendancy will not be accustomed to adapt food.

Despite what your mother may accept drummed into you, you don't accept to eat aggregate on your plate.

And did I overlook to acknowledgment fries? Don't adjustment fries. Every 100gms contains addition 500 Calories.

If you wish to stop bistro so much, accept a alcohol of baptize afore every meal. And instead of ice chrism and amber biscuits for dessert, accept a section of fruit.

In amid meals, alcohol blooming tea. Generally humans aberration getting agog for getting hungry. Keep yourself able-bodied hydrated with a alcohol that doesn't accommodate amoroso and doesn't appear out of a canteen or can.

An angel contains about 50 Calories per 100 gms. Which do account is bigger for you, an angel or a Mars bar?

In the concurrently break tuned, awful tuned; beacon bright of the garbohydrates and eat from the top of the Hourglass.

John Miller

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