Brewing coffee in the morning is a variety of chicken and egg situation: you should really drink some before you attempt the tricky business of making any, especially if your "gourmet" coffee-making contraption looks like the engine of a custom-built Ferrari with a nuclear reactor stuck on the side, as mine does.
I knew it was probably overkill to buy any coffee maker requiring professional installation, but my brief vacation in the Caffeino region of Italy had convinced me that an automatic drip mechanism was unacceptable, even if I did grind my own beans at dawn and clean-out the filter after every pot. And so I imported the Molto Confuso espresso machine from Famiglia Korea of Milan.
I was forced to rearrange some cabinets, move the oven and buy a smaller fridge so that the Molto Confuso would fit into my kitchen. It was a tight squeeze and eventually I decided to demolish the breakfast island in order to create room for the milk steamer and plastic tubing extensions. The delivery men also told me that I should probably replace the floor tiles with reinforced concrete, otherwise the Molto Confuso might sink into the foundations of the house.
Ultimately, I guess I'm reasonably happy with my coffee-maker, even if its constant chugging and gurgling does trouble my formerly peaceful slumbers, leading to yet another chicken and egg type situation: my bleary-eyed self wouldn't need to drink coffee in the morning if the machine that makes it didn't keep me up all night.
Ah! So your kitchen is an oasis in the barren desert of coffee-culture that the United States of America are!
Posted by: Laurent | March 09, 2011 at 03:36
It is. but unfortunately there is no room left to actually get into the kitchen to enjoy it.
I have often wondered why American is so terrible at hot drinks. We also suck at flavored chips (crisps).
Posted by: american fez | March 10, 2011 at 09:42
It is strange, yes. It isn't necessarily the coffee itself, it's just not using enough of it. I could get decent coffee in the grocery store in Holly, for instance.
Posted by: Laurent | March 10, 2011 at 15:29
"the Molto Confuso espresso machine from Famiglia Korea of Milan..." - LOL
Posted by: Austen | March 20, 2011 at 18:53
i went to the same school as patrick. i remeber those girls from my school who wrote in. they were white trash...i always felt so bad for them.
Posted by: Newzealand Pandora | March 09, 2012 at 20:00