Coffee

As I was writing about getting reacquainted with chocolates I knew that it cannot not be followed by a post on coffee. If there was one thing that I missed when I was away from Melbourne, it would have to be the coffee, for I certainly did not miss the cold!

cafe latte

 

It was hard to get a cup of good espresso coffee in Malaysia, more so in Seremban. I was told once that if in Seremban, drink kopi and not coffee. Well I do like my kopi kau (thick brewed coffee with condensed milk) from kopitiams, served in a cup and saucer with about 1/8th of the coffee already spilled onto the saucer by the time the kopi gets to me. But…. they can be really good, hot or cold.

kopi

 

I am not sure what I used to do in the days before I was a coffee drinker for I have never been a tea drinker. I recently spent 2 months in India where chai stalls line the streets without having a single glass of chai. Instead, I had quite a few cappuccinos. Most of the cappuccinos where rather good too, to my surprise, definitely better than in Seremban. In Malaysia, I would go to mamak stalls(roadside cafes) and not have any teh tarik (literally – pulled tea, hot milk tea would be poured between two stainless steel mugs from an exaggerated distance, to both froth and cool the tea). Mamak stalls and teh tarik are almost synonymous, one simply doesn’t go to a mamak stall without having teh tarik, well, except me anyway.

Instead, coffee with a nice piece of something sweet. Hmmmmm if it also came with a good view coupled with good weather and not very loud people around…. ahhhhhhhhhh that’s about all I can ask for.

something sweet with coffee

 

While certainly not the coffee connoisseur, I feel like I am getting rather more discerning. Recently, when a friend from Canberra who loves coffee visited, we went to an apparently ‘cool’ cafe which is supposed to be on some top ten list for their coffees in Melbourne. It was rather disappointing, not only was the cafe so uncomfortably crowded and the service poor, but the I found that the coffee too was poor. You might say, what would I know, but 4 out of the 4 of us found the coffee to be weak and milky with hardly any coffee taste at all. Guess we won’t be going back to that ‘cool’ cafe again. 🙂

latte in hand

 

I am reminded of a story a friend had told me about his experience in Paris. In Malaysia like in Melbourne, if we wanted a cafe latte, we would just order a latte. So, while in Paris, he did the same, he ordered a latte. The waiter, he told me, looked at him strangely and confirmed if that was indeed what he wanted – a latte? Yes, my friend said. And several minutes later, he was delivered a very big glass of ‘latte’, not cafe latte just latte, milk!!!! hahahahaha So, don’t drop your ‘cafe’ in Paris or you may get only milk.

One response to “Coffee”

  1. Chen Chen

    aah….. a nice cup of cafe latte just makes the day a little better, doesn’t it?

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