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Hier ist die Zeit stehen geblieben. Ein bisschen zumindest. Der Interieur ist gediegen, das Personal trägt durchgehend Dienstbekleidung in der Art einer Uniform und es wird keine Musik im Hintergrund gespielt. So weit, so gut. Aber deswegen kommt niemand in die Holländische Kakaostube. Vor allem ist man hier wegen der Torten und Kuchen. Deren Auswahl ist groß und eine sieht besser aus als die Andere. Die Entscheidung fällt schwer aber mit einer Sahnetorte ist man immer gut bedient.

Sahne-Creme-Torte in der Holländischen Kakaostube in Hannover (Eigenes Werk. Lizenz: CC-BY-SA.)

Die Torten werden am Tresen geordert, dort wird einem ein Bon überreicht und anschließend sucht man sich einen Platz. Dort nimmt das Personal dann die Getränkebestellung entgegen und kommt mit beiden wieder an den Platz.

Heiße Schokolade mit Sahne in der Holländischen Kakaostube in Hannover (Eigenes Werk. Lizenz: CC-BY-SA.)

Satt und zufrieden kann dann beim freundlichen Personal sogar mit Karte bezahlt werden. Wenn es die Temperaturen und das eigene Wohlbefinden zulassen kann auch draußen vor dem Kaffee Platz genommen werden.

Alles in allem eine Institution in Hannover dessen Besuch sich immer lohnt.

A nice small place to sit on the street and have a view on St. Lamberti church and people strolling by. The staff is very friendly.

A nice cafe with two outdoor seating areas, one with a view to the cathedral. The staff is very friendly. Unfortunately, the food includes muffins only as a vegan option.
The toilets are at the same level, but probably not accessible by wheelchair because of narrow doors.
In principle also a nice place for working, sockets are scarce though.

Not perfect, but best network I’ve come across until now.

I liked it here. I ordered a Vegan Scampi Pizza, mostly for the novelty value, because I had never seen vegan scampi. Interesting. Looks-wise 100% on point, taste-wise not bad. The scampi seem to be made from some sort of mushroom and so have a bit of a mushroom feel. As pizzas go, this wasn’t a bad one. As always, the cheese wasn’t all there. I really do wish there’d be better tasting vegan pizza cheeses, but alas… I’d come here again, though, because the restaurant is nice and the menu has a lot of options. It’s a good place if you’re looking for a somewhat more upmarket Italian restaurant.

Vegan Scampi Pizza

I walked past this a few times on my way to other places in this neighbourhood mall and I always thought it’s your typical Arabic coffee-shop type of establishment with the usual, mostly meat-heavy, menu. Today, I stopped to have a look at the menu and I was surprised to find a fair few vegan options, so I stayed for dinner.
Among others, the menu featured a vegan Impossible burger, a dish with no-chikn vegan chicken, several salads, and vegan bolognese sauce for pasta.
I settled for the burger, which was okay. It looked good, but was bit dry. The fries that came with it, though, were very good. I feel that I might have picked the wrong dish or simply the wrong time. I’ll give this place another shot, although because there isn’t much to chose from vegan-wise in the mall.


Vegan Impossible Burger with Fries

Shakespeare and Co really has come a long way over the years in terms of vegan options. I remember when I first came to the UAE and went to a Shakespeare and Co in Dubai, there were just 1 or 2 choices. These days, the menu has lots of clearly labeled vegan dishes. I had the vegan breakfast today, which is basically two slices of bread - one topped with avocado cream and pomegranate seeds and the other one with tofu scramble. Both were nice. The location of this outlet is on the ground floor of the WTC Souk away from the hustle and bustle of the main areas, so you can enjoy your breakfast in peace.


Vegan Breakfast at Shakespeare and Co in Abu Dhabi

This is a down insulated air sleeping mat for colder times.

The pack is not too massive for a winter sleeping pad, and it comes with a good looking repair kit. (Own work. License: CC-BY-SA.)

With an R-value of 5, this sleeping pad is good well below freezing temps. Tested at around -7C, though not directly on snow. Slept well, so the essentials are in check.

The mat opened but not filled. The stuff sack doubles as a “wind sock” pump. (Own work. License: CC-BY-SA.)

My only complaints are with the stuff sack. It’s possible to roll the mat and get in that way, but in practice this is really hard with your fingers numb. I would recommend just stuffing the mat into the sack.

As is visible above, the sack also works as a pump. It’s nice that you don’t have to buy it separately, but it’s also not as good as a traditionally shaped pump sack. Gets the mat filled though.

All in all this is a decent winter sleeping mat.

Web-database’s are great, but they never tell you the whole story, ironically for any given subject there are often a number of these and combined together would give fuller picture, however these databases usually are not linked together.

Wikidata is very good at holding links to various database but cross-referencing isn’t fun so people don’t do it.

This is where “wikidata for web” comes in, it automatically recognises what you are looking at in a webdatabase and shows the links it has in a side-panel just making them “a click away”

As well as being a tool for consuming data it makes it very easy to “give back” by making linking very easy to do, simply search for what the page you on should be linked too, and if you find something, one click will join them together.

This is really great tool and I am constantly surprised no one has taken the idea and rolled in directly into the browser.

Art books about video games tend to be authored by collectors and enthusiasts, often lacking a critical outside perspective. Never Alone: Video Games as Interactive Design accompanies an exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art of the same name.

In the book, the organizers of the exhibition explain why they selected the specific titles they did. Richly illustrated with screenshots and printed on glossy black coated paper, each featured work is given space to look its best in a static format.

The book is divided into three sections, The Input, The Designer, and The Player, which loosely serves as a way to offer a different focus when discussing each title.

For example, the book explains how sandbox games like Minecraft and SimCity come to life through player actions and emergent behaviors in ways their designers could never have predicted.

The books makes good use of space to immerse the reader in each title’s visuals. Depicted here is “Monument Valley”, a gorgeous mobile game. (Credit: Ustwo Games (Monument Valley) / MoMa. Fair use.)

Occasionally, the book offers a perspective on how games can perpetuate real world biases, as in the ridiculous cast of characters that comprise Street Fighter II, based on national and ethnic stereotypes (the “Yoga Master” Dhalsim was literally named after an Indian restaurant; his name translates to “lentils and beans”).

Among the 35 games are classics from video game history (Space Invaders, Tetris) and lesser known titles that have explored new possibilities of the medium (the Memento Mori mini-game Passage, the minimalist rhythm game Vib-Ribbon).

It’s a fine selection, and the only fault I can find with the book is that it’s a bit short (just under 140 pages) and a bit expensive (the official sales price is just under $40 as of this writing). With those caveats in mind, I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the art and design of games.