After our second sessionals, I and my friend Nimi(yea, the same person who was with me during the crow shitting incident {refer earlier blog}) decided to have lunch outside…. We had a delectabe plate of chopsuey and chicken hawaiin salad with coleslaw….
And finally for the grand finale we ordered pot coffee….Not that we knew what it was,but it sure sounded aristocratic enough to end a well ordered luncheon…. As both of us waited for a steaming cup of coffee,the bearer placed 3 small silver jugs and 2 ëmpty” cups in front of us….
That was an unexpected shock for us whose normal Nescafe coffee doesn’t taste like it ought to when we make it….And how in the world should one make “pot coffee”???
Nimi couldn’t help exclaiming loudly “I thought we asked them to make the coffee and bring not put the ingredients in front of us”….(which the bearer heard and responded with a slight chuckle!)
We decided to try our hand at the pot coffee too…I assured her it was simple enough and promptly divided the the rich ebony colored luscious fluid into the two cups….Then we added the milk and sugar…stirred and tasted..YUCK!
Nimi tried to make things seem brighter by telling hers was “okay”..(yeah,I tasted that,,,it was worse than mine!!!)….I figured out that mabbe lack of sugar was the reason for the bitter taste…we dumped the white powder only to end up with a worse tasting liquid…Nimi thought it must be the milk that’s missing…Since the cups were filled to the brim we had to painfully swallow half the bitter contents to pour in more milk…Well.that didn’t help either!So finally all the 3 jars were empty and a bitter-sweet ‘éspresso’’stared laughing at us from the two cups….
The news must have spread among the chefs that there were two girls fiddling over a cup of coffe…’çoz a dozen of them kept passing by our table and giving us sympathetic looks which we responded gracefully with a smile and drank under the pretension that it was the most exquisitely made coffee on earth….We couldn’t drink more than one fourth the cup and ran out after stealthily wrapping up those coloured sugar coated jeera sweets (which they give with the bill)in a tissue paper…we had to munch on them for an hour before the exotic taste of our “pot coffee” left our tongue…Atleast now we know one way how not to make a cup of pot coffee…..
How to make good pot coffee (from personal experience)
Ø The dark viscous liquid provided is “not” for two cups and should be put in a minimal qty into the cup.
Ø Add milk and sugar…Keep stirring and tasting at intervals and add the appropriate ingredients…Don’t overdo the whole thing…
Ø Lastly,even if it turns out bad,drink it with an air of grace as if nothing has gone wrong…
Ø And don’t foget to be thankful to this great soul who taught you how to brew up a good cup of pot coffee(after ordering it from a restaurant of course!)