Saturday, February 14, 2009

Caffeine.

This is one of my new best friends.  Don't judge me for befriending a machine, she speaks the only language I need:  Caffeine.  A side note:  Romance languages assign sexes to all objects animate or otherwise.  This makes for very interesting conversations between myself and my new Portuguese friend (not the pastry, an actual human).  The coffee machine is a She, and vacuum cleaners are male.  Anyway, I have become fast new friends with this machine for a few reasons.  The first is that she speaks in signs, not french, not english.  There are really only two buttons, "strength" and "amount."  Second, she is a free source of caffeinated goodness.  
Before leaving NY I had a full fledged addiction to coffee from Starbucks.  I weaned myself off, not because I didn't want the coffee but because I wanted the two dollars every day.  I replaced it with tea made in my office.  At one point out of the blue I decided to see if I could stop drinking caffeine all together.  I have absolutely no idea what drove me to this, but I just wanted to stop the addiction.  After a few days of pounding head aches I was clear.  Fast forward to my third twelve hour day in a row and I need some coffee.
I stared at the machine for about five minutes before someone came by to give me an idea of how the dials worked.  It is a genius machine that everyone should have.  The dial on the left controls the amount of coffee/espresso you want.  The dial on the right controls how strong the coffee is.  After the Italian in the office leaves the left dial is turned way down the right dial is turned way up.  It is basically hot espresso syrup.  After I leave, the left dial is turned all the way up and the right dial is turned way down.  I also use the "double cup" button at the top.  This is the American/Irish coffee.  I sometimes have an issue with bitterness in coffee and kill it with a little milk.  This is never the case with my new best friend.  The machine makes coffee that is almost sweet outta the tap even without sugar.  
This machine has become a necessary part of my morning and day.  It is a money saver because I no longer purchase coffee and I still get my needed caffeination.  Though, I've learned that Brussels is one of the only places I've been so far that doesn't have much of a "take away" coffee culture at ALL.  I have only found two shops that will sell me a coffee to go, and it is not a coffee, it is an espresso.  I actually crave a large cup of coffee from anywhere... even Dunkin Donuts.  Alas, this will not happen until I take that trip to Antwerp, Paris (which is known for having the nicest Starbucks in all of Europe) or Rotterdam.  
Tomorrow I will be heading around to do three things:  Buy some quail, find the best pomme frites and Brussels and go to a Belgian brewery.  I will surely blog about one of them tomorrow in addition to the promised update on my personal development.  I have a request of you guys.  I want some help writing posts once every week or two.  This can happen very easily.  I just want you to email me questions you have about things I've already talked about or things you want me to talk about.  scott DOT corey AT gmail DOT com.

2 comments:

  1. We (not sure who we is?) should do a comparison with you with the pomme frites. We (again... I still have to find the other person(s)) will go to the Belgian fry place on 2nd Ave take pictures and eat them and compare. I just want an excuse to eat fries. Is that so much to ask for? We can talk about dipping sauces and such.

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  2. Ask for americano when ordering coffee...

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