Coffee

Can anyone imagine an Italy without coffee. Of course not! The place would grind to a halt. It would almost be like a science fictiony movie with a time warp. People would be striding through thick air. With coffee, though, there’s a lot of hustle. Besides, the bar (our cafe’ ) is the center of life everywhere. It’s the social club, extended living room as well as the quick stop to toss back a shot of espresso. Of course Italians don’t think of their coffee as espresso, it’s just coffee. Everyone else’s coffee is different and maybe even a little suspect. Cafe’ americano? It’s just watered down espresso. I haven’t seen it for awhile (OK at least in the teens of years) but I have been amazed to see a jacketed waiter walking down the street carrying a tray with a number of espresso cups  and a little napkin “hat” on each of them.  I guess the little hats are  a futile attempt to keep the coffee warm since such a small cup of coffee cools quickly. I’m of the school that drinks it right down – two sips at most for an Italian sized coffee.

But let’s move on to the apparatus for Italian coffee. I could go into the world of espresso machines; from the big brass hammered decorations of old machines to the crisp new gleaming high tech ones at cafe’s or bars now. But I won’t other than the photos above. The thing that more interests me is something for my home. So I go with the moka’s. They make great coffee. Sure, they don’t have that nice crema on top but it tastes great, is cheap and as easy as, well, una torta.

I have a few mokas that I really like and some cups as well. One of the nice things about acquiring things of whatever sort is that they then forever evoke memories of time and place. That always seems more so when the object is imbued with something special because of the circumstances of having it in your hands. Be it a long held desire or a sudden fascination, it is wise to give in often enough to have evocative items to look at, hold and use. So back to the mokas. The first one is a small one bought somewhere in Liguria – I think in Santa Margherita Ligure. In any case it’s lovely and the perfect size for that quick hit before going out somewhere after a hard day of doing whatever. The second one is my everyday one as you can kind of see. I’m not sure where I bought this one – maybe in Emiglio Romagna. I know that I bought one there. Whatever. The third one I bought here over 20 years ago and the final one is the masterpiece. After loading it up you should then place two Italian sized espresso cups under the two spouts for coffee. Beautiful! But it doesn’t work worth merde. Quick aside : I thought that it was “caca” rather than “merde” to say “shit” but the Italians went for the French according to my dictionary. Anyway the thing has never worked for me. I tried it three or four times and gave so. So now I consider it an artwork: The Tree of Coffee.

Making coffee is a snap in a moka. I do it every morning. It’s richer tasting than any drip or press coffee that I’ve had. I wash it out and reload it with coffee and water in literally a minute or two while I’m in the kitchen doing other things. I guess that I’m assuming that my readers all are familiar with making coffee in a moka. If you’re not, send me a comment and I will elaborate. There’s not too much craft to it. Since I make a big espresso I have two cups that a favor. The one on the left is the usual daily one but I get such a good feeling from the one on the right. Both are both gifts from the ex but still lovely D. I also have some terrific espresso cups usually only used for guests after dinner. These I bought at Biordi in San Francisco. A great place with  superb quality and extravagant prices.

I’d also love to see interesting mokas or espresso cups for that matter that you might have or know about. Send me a photo and I’ll post them.

P.S.  It’s been a long time between posts. I’m glad that my life has settled down a bit so I can get back to more frequent posts.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Culture, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.