Today’s food outlets operating in Ann Arbor under the Zingerman’s banner include a Creamery, a Bakehouse, a Coffee Company and The Roadhouse, a popular restaurant/bar. Zingerman’s partners also make candy, publish books, cater and run food tours

With mottos that include “praise the lard,” and a company policy that celebrates bacon, Zingerman’s defies diet trends. Instead, Zingerman’s hunts the world for the best of the best, and doesn’t care a wit about calorie content—it’s not what is good for you at Zingerman’s, but what is good, flavorful and top quality that counts.

Guess you have to be there (Ann Arbor) to indulge in the full monty, but you can sample some goodies by mail order. For example, Zingerman’s fabulous Hot Cocoa Cake is available in the Ann Arbor deli and Bakehouse, by mail order, and, now, even in your own home kitchen as Zingerman’s shared the recipe below. Praise the lard!

Zingerman’s

HOT COCOA CAKE

Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

Shortening and flour to prepare cake pan

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons instant espresso or instant coffee crystals

2 tablespoons hot water

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs, at room temperature

3 egg whites, at room temperature

5-1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Sifted confectioner’s sugar, optional

Grease and lightly flour two 6-cup fluted tube pans or one 10-inch Bundt pan and set aside.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Put flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Stir to combine.

Put espresso in a small bowl. Add hot water and stir to dissolve espresso. Stir in vanilla and set aside.

Put butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, beating constantly. Add sour cream and beat until well combined. Add eggs and egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Alternately add flour mixture and espresso mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until ingredients are just combined. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pan or pans.

Place in the preheated oven and bake until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes for the small cakes or 50 to 55 minutes for the larger cake.

Cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pan and set on a rack to cook completely.

If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

IRISH COFFEE

Put a spoon in a heat-resistant glass, goblet or clear mug. Pour very hot water into the glass over the spoon (the spoon will absorb the heat). Pour out the water (it was just to warm the glass). Now fill the glass about three-fourths way with strong, hot coffee. Add about 1 teaspoon sugar (many prefer brown sugar) and a generous shot Irish whiskey; stir to dissolve sugar.  Here’s the thorny part: very lightly whip heavy cream (the cream should have just a little body, about the consistency of custard). Raise the spoon to the top of the coffee and pour cream over the spoon onto the top of the coffee. The cream should stay in its own separate layer.

I confess, I’m confused. I have been corrupted by Starbuck’s overloaded coffee terminology and can barely get my mouth around the 10-word drink options; I don’t even have the ability to order a “tall” when “small” seems so okay.

In Italy, coffee terms are more manageable (sort of). Although different places write their coffee menu in different ways (sometimes), as far as I can tell, when ordering coffee in Italy, the following will get you what you want (maybe).

 A QUICKIE GUIDE TO COFFEE LINGO–ITALIANO 

Un caffè: a strong as sin, electric jolt espresso. (This is the basic coffee in Italy.)

 Caffè doppio: a double espresso.

 Caffè macchiato:  an espresso “stained” with a tiny amount of foamy milk.

 Latte macchiato: steamed milk “stained” with a small amount of coffee.

 Caffè marocchino: espresso with a little hot milk and a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

 Caffè e latte: steamed milk mixed with espresso.

 Cappuccino: espresso served in a large cup with a head of steamed frothy milk (said to be named because its color resembled a Capuchin friar’s habit—or the hood of the habit resembled the hood of the drink or…well, you get the picture).

 Caffè corretto: espresso “corrected” with a shot of liquor (grappa, Sambuca, Cognac, etc.).

 Caffè lungo: espresso made with more water run through the machine.

 Caffè ristretto: espresso made with less water run through the machine (WOW!).

 Caffè freddo: Chilled coffee (don’t expect ice).

 Caffè con panna: espresso with whipped cream.

 Americano: espresso diluted with hot water.

 Caffè con zucchero: espresso with sugar (sensa zucchero without sugar)

I once watched an episode of Roseanne, in which Roseanne (Mrs. Conner) went into the bedroom that her daughters, Darlene and Becky, shared to tell them goodnight. Ignoring Becky, she sat on Darlene’s bed, looked at her intensely and said something like: “You know you are my very favorite child and I love you more than anyone else in the world.” After a pause, she moved to Becky’s bed and repeated the same words to Becky.

Last time I posted I said that most locals considered Sant’Eustachio’s coffee the best in Rome. Today I’m saying most locals consider Tazza d’Oro’s coffee the best in Rome.  Okay, let’s cut to the chase. Both are great. Both coffee bars are located near the Pantheon and both serve a multitude of customers with Tazza d’Oro larger and a bit heavy with tourists. But Tazza d’Oro wins the competition when it comes to their specialty Granita di Caffè, an icy, slushy coffee concoction served with a mound of thick, rich whipped cream. COFFEE LOVERS CANNOT LEAVE ROME WITHOUT TRYING A GRANITA AT TAZZA D’ORO.

Then again, if Rome isn’t in the near future, you can make a reasonable granita at home.

COFFEE GRANITA

Pour 2 cups hot espresso over 1/2 cup sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. If desired, add a teaspoon or two of flavoring (vanilla is one of the secret flavors used in some Italian coffee bars). Refrigerate mixture until it is cold, and then transfer to an 8-inch metal baking pan. Place pan in a freezer. Stir with a fork every 30 minutes until mixture becomes slushy; this should take from 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (While stirring, break up any large chunks that might form.) Transfer slushy mixture to a bowl and beat with a fork until crystals are a little smoother and more uniform, about 1/2 minute.  Freeze until granita firms enough to be scooped, about 1/2 hour.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Yield: 4 servings.

SANT’EUSTACHIO IL CAFFÈ

Many places in Rome make good coffee, but Sant’Eustachio (in the Piazza Sant’Eustachio near the Pantheon) wins local accolades for being best of the best. Here is the quintessential Italian coffee bar/ shop that does everything right including purchasing beans from a variety of free-trade growers, roasting the beans over a wood-burning fire and brewing the coffee with water sent to the city by an aqueduct built in19 B.C.

COFFEE LOVERS CANNOT LEAVE ROME WITHOUT TRYING COFFEE AT SANT’EUSTACHIO’S. 

That said, coffee drinking habits in Italy are quite distinct and distinctly different than in the States, so when in Sant’Eustachio do as the Romans do. First, order the coffee and pay at the cashier. Then head to the bar (which can be two to four people deep) and hand the receipt to the barista who will serve the coffee to you. Of course, two minutes in Sant’Eustachio and you can figure out the system yourself, but what you may not know, because it is so different from other countries, is that Romans generally drink standing at the bar and gulp the intense brew rather quickly. Words of warning: in Italy, coffee consumed at a table generally cost more and Sant’Eustachio serves its coffee sweetened, so when ordering be sure to specify no sugar if you can’t abide the sweet stuff.

This family-run shop roasts, packages and sells a special coffee cultivated in the mountain area of Mexican state of Chiapas.

Ermilo Juarez, owner Cafe Optima De Chiapas

Although you can’t tell a coffee from it’s package, you can glimpse the quality that goes into Café Artesanal by the coffee’s leather-looking cardboard containers made by orphans, widows, seniors and other’s who might find trouble finding jobs. The shop has a small coffee bar where you can taste the coffee and the artisanal brew is surprisingly served at Casa Denis, a casual, been-there-forever, authentic Yucatan restaurant indowntown Cozumel. I say surprisingly served, as the coffee is quite expensive and Casa Denis is not.