Moussekatel's Cafe

Serving cyberspace boulevardiers, bon vivantes, bricoleurs, and explorers everywhere.

On the Internet, coffee is the second most talked about topic, after sex. KVOE Radio news reporter
Expresso and cyberspace showed up at about the same time. Andre Codrescu
What's the story behind Moussekatel's Cafe?

Moussekatel's Cafe is named after our cat, Pamplemousse (a.k.a. Mousse), named after the great French detective Monsieur Pamplemousse, whose exploits are detailed in a series of mystery stories by Michael Bond. Also, we noticed a sleek cat making the scene in the bar at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City when we first met. Every bar, every salon should have a cat, to add elegance and sophistication. It's amazing where you can find cats...in the White House, in the Aeroflot terminal at the Moscow International Airport... Moussekatel's Cafe is dedicated to elegance, sophistication, cybermagic, good coffee, and thought-provoking ideas about cyberspace and digital creativity. Who's hangin' out at Moussekatel's Cafe? Stop by and see.

Good Stuff Cookies

By Anselmo Hollo
2 gods
2/3 cup hidden psychic reality
2 teaspoons real world
3/4 cup sleep
2 cups sifted all-purpose iridescence
2 teaspoons good stuff
1/2 teaspoon pomp & pleasurebeat gods hidden psychic reality
real world and sleep together
sift together iridescence - good stuff
pomp & pleasure
add to real world mixturedrop by teaspoon
2 inches apart - on cookies sheet
press cookies flat
with bottom of glass - dipped in sleep
bake at 400 F
8 to 10 minutes
2 dozen cookies - good stuff.

Angolemono: Lemon Soup

By John Malcolm Brinnin
To one quart of chicken broth (or fish stock) add two ounces of rice and boil until well-cooked. In a mixing bowl, beat up two eggs and the juice of two lemons. Once these ingredients are ready, slowness is all: spoon by spoon and stirring constantly, add four tablespoons of the boiling broth to the eggs and lemon. Add this mixture to the remaining broth and stir over a very slow fire for five minutes. Serves four.

Eggs Maledict

By Howard Nemerov
Instead of English muffins, Wonder Bread.
Instead of ham, Spam.
Instead of hollandaise, Kraft mayonnaise.
Eggs fried instead of coddled.

How to Make Rhubarb Wine

By Ted Kooser
Go to the patch some afternoon
in early summer, fuzzy with beer
and sunlight, and pick a sack
of rhubarb (red or green will do)
and God knows watch for rattlesnakes
or better, listen: they make a sound
like an old lawnmower rolled downhill.
Wear a hat. A straw hat's best
for the heat but lets the gnats in.
Bunch up the stalks and chop the leaves off
with a buck-knife and be careful.
You need ten pounds; a grocery bag
packed full will do it. then go home
and sit barefooted in the shade
behind the house with a can of beer.
Spread out the rhubarb in the grass
and wash it with cold water
from the garden hose, washing
your feet as well. Then take a nap.
That evening, dice the rhubarb up
and put it in a crock. Then pour
eight quarts of boiling water in,
cover it up with a checkered cloth
to keep the fruit flies out of it,
and let it stand five days or so.
Take time each day to think of it.

When the time is up, dip out the pulp
with your hands for strainers; leave the juice.
Stir in five pounds of sugar
and an envelope of Red Star yeast.
Ferment ten days, until the cloth,
sniffing of it from time to time,
then siphon it off, swallowing some,
and bottle it. Sit back and watch
the liquid clear to honey-yellow,
bottled and ready for the years,
and smile. You've done it awfully well.

Zimmer's Old-Fashioned Summer Day Mud Cakes

By Paul Zimmer
I haven't cooked anything since I whipped up a mud pie when I was eight years old. the recipe was: mix well some good backyard dirt with a half cup of water from the garden hose and a good hawking of spittle. Shape into a patty and sprinkle well with sand from an anthill, dotting with a dead cricket. Put out in the sun for half the day and then feed it to your father when he comes homes home tired from work. If he won't eat if, look disappointed, as if you plan to rob banks when you grow up because of his neglect.

Recipes from John Keat's Porridge: Favorite Recipes of American Poets, Edited by Victoria McCabe. (1975). Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press. Good stuff! Reprinted by permission. Copyright 1975 University of Iowa Press.