Oh, The Places You'll Go! (part 2) - Oh, The Thing's You'll Eat!

If you would judge a man by the food he eats, then consider me a king. Just a few days now into my trip to Israel and I've been fed salty and sweet, tough and tender. I want for neither flavor nor texture, having been reacquainted with the traditional foods of my people...the Yemenites.

I'll not list each and every tasty morsel in alphabetical, regional, or chronological order, but I will take a moment to share with you one of the finer treats I've had the pleasure to imbibe. 

As with most cultures, coffee is an integral part of the Israeli day-to-day activity. Not wanting to feel left out of the Zionist movement, the Starbuck's corporate machine has set up camp among the nomads and delivered nothing but the highest grade cookie-cutter machiatto's and vente-soy-chai-latte's with whip cream. 

For the more selective palatte, however, there remains the tried and true black (as in mud, as in soot, as in the deep, dark recesses of space) coffee with a local spice known simply as cha-wa-ij. I can't tell you what it's made of, or who discovered it, or even where to buy it, but I can tell you that it takes ordinary coffee not only to the next level, but to the next dimension as well.

"The key to making good coffee," my dad told me the other day, "is to take your time. Take care in measuring out the ingredients (coffee, sugar, chawaij). Be attentive, and even cautious, in pouring the hot water, allowing time for the slow introduction of liquid and solid so that the two can become like lovers, conjoined elements of passion, and not just roommates sharing the same receptacle. Lastly, be mindful when you sip, not of the temperature, but of the flavor."

"We are all made of ingredients, our bodies are brewed from a recipe, and just as you would not want for someone to take away your pleasure at being you, so should you not take away from the coffee's own enjoyment of it's very existence."

A cup of coffee can turn your day around, and a day can turn your week around, and so on, and so on.