Monday, January 22, 2007
I'm Ruined for Regular Coffee
This weekend, Mrs. Mentok, some friends and I went out for supper to an Ethiopian restaurant. The meal included a traditional Ethiopian coffee service. If you've never experienced this, you should seek it out.
The ritual started with a bowl of popcorn, presumably to keep you occupied while waiting. They fresh-roast the beans themselves. When the beans reached the peak of roasting, when they started to crack and smoke, the cook rushed out of the back with the roasting pan and shook it around under our noses, dousing us in a thick, fragrant coffee smoke.
Then she returned to grind the hot beans and prepare the coffee. The result was a thick coffee, much like Turkish coffee, served in little cups. It was flavoured with a hint of cloves. To enhance this further, the cook set out a sort of crude incense burner, consisting of a hot lump of charcoal in a decorative holder topped with bits of clove and coffee bean.
It was the most wonderful coffee-drinking experience I've ever had. Frankly, other coffee now seems like pale, sickly, unworthy imitations of coffee compared to this.
I'm reminded of an episode of the hit Canadian comedy Corner Gas. The fish-out-of-water Torontonian thoughtfully gives out expensive thank-you gifts, such as fancy gourmet jams. But the gifts back-fire when the recipients become addicted to the high-quality food but find them to be too expensive. So, rather than feeling gratitude, the recipients feel resentful because the gifts have ruined them for ordinary things.
Have you ever had an experience like that? Do you have one or two expensive or exotic tastes (a particular brand of scotch perhaps) that have ruined you for all others?
posted by Mentok @ 8:07 a.m.,
15 Comments:
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At 10:44 a.m.,
FiL said...
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Cheese. Once I was exposed to the real stuff, Kraft slices and Monterrey Jack became anathema.
Chocolate. Cannot really stand the waxy, oversweet stuff that tries to pass itself off as the real thing. I'd rather spend more on and eat less off qualidee chocs.
Coffee. Organic fairtrade Sumatran or Cuban (sorry Hippo) - yum! Based on your mouthwatering post, I'd best stay out of Ethiopian restaurants...
Organic ground beef. The only stuff I now make burgers out of - the taste is incomparable.
Sigh, I guess I'm just an effete snob... -
At 11:00 a.m.,
Mentok said...
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I hear you about chocolate. It's perfectly true that one little square of quality chocolate will satisfy a choco craving far more than pounds of that alleged chocolate they peddle to kids.
As for the rest of your list, I'm afraid I have an ideological aversion to anything with the words "organic" or "fair" in it, but I suspect I'm needlessly depriving myself.
BTW, after the cheese discussion last week, this weekend I thought I'd try some blue cheese. The first bite was disgusting. The second bite was appalling. The third, fourth, fifth and all succeeding bites were a study in addiction. Curse you, Fil, for getting me addicted to a new form of cheese. ;-)
My sons turned up their noses at the mere sight of blue cheese:
"Eew, isn't that mold on that cheese?" they asked.
"Yes, but all cheese is mold." I said.
"No it isn't." they protested
"Yes it is. They leave milk out until it goes bad. Then they scoop out the chunks and leave them out to go bad some more."
We had cheese fondue later that night, but for some reason they seemed to have lost their appetite. -
At 11:31 a.m.,
Lowa said...
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This sounds fun and YUMMY!
Happy Birthday! I am sure your wife and three sweet boys are spoiling you rotten:) -
At 11:50 a.m.,
Dino said...
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mhhh sounds good. I am a coffee and chocolate snub - having grown up in Germany the studd they sell in the US just does not cut it. I do however like starbucks godiva hot chocolate and double chocolate chip frapuchino
hope you had a nice b-day -
At 12:00 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Tanks, goils. The b-day is past tense, this past weekend, but yes Mrs M out-did herself spoiling me. The Ethiopian supper and coffee was part of it.
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At 4:07 p.m.,
Lowa said...
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Hey, I was so focused on wishing you Happy Birthday that I must not have read all of your post??
Yes, it has happened. There is a chocolate bar from Norway called "Kwik Lunch". It is very similar to Kit Kat in wrapping, shape, texture...the whole idea, ya follow me?? However, it actually tastes incredible and any Kit Kats attempted to ingest later taste like cardboard.
Similar to Hershey's chocolate. NASTY. Any American chocolate is disgusting to me, really. Canadian is much better, but Swiss or Belgian is the best of course.
So yeah...I don't eat much chocolate anymore, unless I go home to Saskatchewan and can load up on decent stuff:) -
At 4:19 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Lowa - I have to admit that I wasn't aware there was even such a thing as Canadian chocolate. Aside from Smarties - a British brand, I believe - most of the store-bought brands I know are American. What sort of thing did you mean?
BTW, your new avatar is sehr heist as they say in German. ;-) -
At 4:28 p.m.,
said...
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Happy Birthday Mentok..
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At 4:56 p.m.,
Big Pissy said...
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Happy Birthday!!!! :)
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At 8:02 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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Happy 43 you lil fracker! -
At 10:37 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Wot? Birthday?? I missed that one...
The happiest of happy birthdays, Mentok. You are a good egg, and that's the least you deserve. -
At 1:55 a.m.,
Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...
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Happy Belated Birthday Wishes, Mentok.
Here's wishing you a super year with all the trimmings.
btw, Turkish coffee is condensed and very strong. Is Ethopian like that?
cheers -
At 2:29 p.m.,
mjrc said...
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happy belated natal day, sir. and fear not, you are still younger than some of your readers. ;-)
i was eating some cardboard-like popcorn as i read this fine post and i have to say the best coffee i ever had was in costa rica. oh, it was fine and smooth and the stuff you buy at the store--even if it says costa rican on it--just cannot compare. -
At 10:47 a.m.,
Lowa said...
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Ah, I just saw you asked me something.
I am sure most of it is British, not just Smarties, now that you mention it. BTW, did you know smarties down here are some little powdery discs similar to the candy that goes in pez dispensers?? Most odd.
I am thinking Mirage, Aero, Big Turk, Mr. Big, Mars bar, Pep, and many others. They may not be Canadian, but you sure can't get them down here:(
You also can't get any decent bought cookies, or Shreddies cereal, or Good Host Iced Tea or any kind of decent bakery item or deli meat. Lots more I could whine about, but that should dor for now:)
Ok, I am hoping what you said in German was not bad! LOL -
At 1:18 p.m.,
Elizabeth said...
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Well, I have not been able to touch street crack since I was put on real, New York cocaine...
Only teasing. It's not really a rebellion against every day foods, but if I don't go out for one elaborate Indian meal a week I might as well be sectioned.
