I had breakfast duty the
I had breakfast duty the next morning. Rombulana, an intelligent woman who had the other top bunk in the room, had lent me her hand-held alarm clock so that I might wake up in time.
I made my way to the upstairs kitchen, having no idea of what I was supposed to do, and feeling a little nervous. Luckily, Signette was awake to introduce me to my duties as a breakfast provider, and Schraffus, a young, bearded, almost-gentlemanly Canadian (born to an Italian family, though, and speaking fluent Italian) was also present, being as it was his duty to set up lunch.
It was a good thing he was, because his help proved essential in making the breakfast coffee. Have any of you ever seen an Italian coffee-maker? It is a pot, shaped like an angular steel hourglass with a weight problem. The bottom section is filled with water, the ground coffee is put into a metal filter, and when it is heated, the water rises through the coffee and sprays out through a spout into the upper half of the coffee pot.
Coffee brewed this was is rather stronger than American drip coffe, with the flavor being somewhat more intense. Schraffus showed me how to tap down the coffee very lightly with a spoon, warned me against washing out the pot with soap and water ("Otherwise every pot of coffee you brew after that will taste of soap!"), put on a pot of milk to heat up, and most importantly lit the stove burners.
I was glad to have gotten out of that duty - although I have come to like gas stoves I still am chary of lighting them myself. I didn’t even have to admit to being afraid of them, he just did it automatically on his own! A small escape but a lucky one, that made me happy.
It is, in point of fact, espresso. It is a good way to make coffee. My only coffee maker is one of those things.
August 3rd, 2002 at 9:14 pmI saw a little cappucino maker in Florence! Wish I’d gotten it.
August 3rd, 2002 at 9:22 pm