On Tuesday 28 Aug 2007 3:24 pm, Gautam John wrote: > My own three-item checklist for a good cup of coffee: not burnt > or bitter; syrupy consistency; layer of coffee foam at least 2mm > thick.
Ages ago when I was newly married and living in England - my wife and I got into the car one day in the rainy cold Northwest of England and drove for 2 days across France and Italy to Rome, with no plan or booking. After a prolonged search we found a room in Ostia outside Rome and rode on a train into Rome in the evening. We were dog tired and bleary eyed and we sat down at a table in a sidewalk cafe and asked for an Espresso each. The waiter soon appeared and set something down in front of us that made the two of us forget all our tiredness and hunger and burst out in fits of laughter. We had never ever seen anything like that in our lives. I had to call the waiter back and ask him if this was really what we had asked for. It was a tiny cup, about one third full of what appeared to be decoction - and this was indeed what we had asked for to banish our tiredness and hunger. I guess it did the trick though - even before we drank the stuff. shiv
