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Tuesday April 11, 2006
Last Tuesday Ever*
- Miami Beach scrapes together the cash to refurbish its historical city hall.
- The Brickell thing fell through.
- Most of the instructions online for making Cuban coffee are either too complicated to follow, or just plain wrong. So it’s good to see that Gus nailed it. He says, “[y]our espresso maker can be a fancy machine, or just a pot on the the stove,” which is exactly true.
- Arriola’s quitting! No he’s not! Yes he is! No he’s not! Oh, whatever . . .
- C’mon, all you dirty hippies: come together.
- What’ver.
- Oops! HA!
- Frances does 2nd Saturday.
- Dan Richter was on Topical Currents yesterday. He’s got a column in the Herald, but more importantly, a website called the Watchdog Report, which looks very interesting.
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Am I the only one that doesn’t understand why this is the last Tuesday ever?
nope – the site isn’t ending. all shall be revealed in a couple of days!
Anyone have nominations for the best cuban coffee in Miami? I’m no particular authority . . .
I always buy my cuban coffee at David’s cafe on 11th and collins. (that may be more due to convenience than the zOMG THIS COFFEE IS SO GOOD factor.)
I just used the phrase “cafe Cubano” here in NYC by mistake and got read the riot act by a Domincan who owns the restaurant. Seems he lived in Miami for a time and got heated everytime someone calls espresso “cafe Cubano”. I tried to calm him saying we’re all Latin but he kept right on. I got Cuban pissed, (or is it Latino tempered?) and told him to “J*dete y aprieta el c*lo”, which IS a particularly Cuban use of Spanish… His coffee was really good and I’m sorry now.
I’ve gotten cafe con leche at the David’s on Lincoln; not bad, but i think unreasonably more expensive then anywhere else.
If cohen were here right now, he’d insist that Cuban coffee is NOT the same thing as espresso. He claims to hate espresso and love cuban coffee. While I like both, I agree that the cuban coffee process (as described by gus) results in something qualitatively different then just sweetend espresso.
Cohen may be right about Italian espresso but the process used by trust me first hand; Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans (I was going to make a joke there about poverty/DR/and platanos but people are thin skinned) are the same. I don’t know about other Latams.
Tell Cohen to stick to gifilte fish! Just kidding! I’m soo sorry, feeling politically incorrect, but it’ll pass. (Get out of me Devil!)
Put the pitchforks away!
what a delightful little conversation starter about cafe cubano. carry on all.
NO, NO AND NO. Coño, pierdo la paciencia, cojones virgen de mi alma!
OK, Cuban Coffee is so NOT espresso. You can make Cuban Coffee from a sock, whereas Italian always needs a hi-falutin’ machine … (that’s ‘macheene’ in Cuban) ...
I am going to chill out and post the definitive method tomorrow after work, ok?
Manola, you’re bad! Not the sock! They’re not suppose to know about the sock. It is so perfect to use though. It’s funny b/c i’m used to being able to say cafecito as interchangeable to what Yanquis call cafe cubano and Cafe Americano or American coffee talking about that horse piss. (I’m actually more partial to a cortadito. I tell myself the milk makes up for all the sugar and caffeine.) I don’t know what I would be able to do with the phrase “cafe cubano” when they don’t understand that I need un cafecito! I said espresso the other day and got that bs, complete with a lemon peel! So that’s why I was an ass to that guy. (Lo siento my Dominican friend.)
oh shit, look here:
Joe Arriola Kicked Out Of Seat At Heat Game
I don’t know if I could ever leave Miami, due to my addiction to cafe cubano. I had a Bavarian friend visit a while back, and after a 3am stop at a walk-up on Collins Avenue he went back to Germany jonesing for that sweet, sweet poison. The first taste is always free, yes…
Oh, and espresso is not the same thing. Every time I try to “take the edge off” in some high-falutin’ joint with that Italian stuff I am disappointed. Plus the server turns up his nose when I spoon about three tablespoons of sugar into the cup.
But what is this nonsense about cortaditos? Hah! Milk is for babies. I order a colada-sized cafe cubano when I need a boost. Mmmm…. I think I need to stop at Coco’s for breakfast this morning.
I’ve been off the coffee about a month and a half. At the panel the other day, someone busted out with a colada, and I did a couple of shots. Hence my unjointed ranting. Yum!
And Germans make the best beer, and Italians make the best pizza, and the Japanese make the best sushi….yada, yada, yada
Alesh, you definitely were not unjointed. Nor did you rant, not really. ;)
But that colada was gooood. I blame it for my opening remarks.
i think cafe cubano (and “latin espresso” in general for lack of a better term) is roasted differently than italian espresso. it smells sweeter and more caramel-y, even before adding tons of sugar.
i always think it’s funny that they sneak this fact in spanish on the packaging. on my bag of cafe bustelo at home it says “Cafe Bustelo, por su sabor, aroma, y calidad, es el preferido por la gran colonia hispana en todos los Estados Unidos,”* but in English, it says, “Cafe Bustelo is a blend of the finest coffees in the world…a dark roast coffee specially roasted for demi-tasse or Espresso.” it’s like, “you silly anglos will never suspect that this isn’t the finest european espresso! esto es cosa de nosotros! jajajajaja!”
another way that cafe cubano is superior to espresso, in my opinion, is the tradition of the colada. all you need is $2, a styrofoam cup, and a bunch of little plastic cafecito cups and BOOM—a cheap, portable, communal coffee experience. can you bond with a random group of people over one 8-oz. cup of italian espresso and some tiny plastic cups? on a street corner? in an office? NO!
*awkward translation: “Cafe Bustelo, for its taste, aroma, and quality, is the brand preferred by the great Hispanic colony throughout all of the United States.”
That was deep Denise. Yeah, you got cultural and shit on us. Like that. (SMILE!)
Really though, it’s true. I have had those moments when working in largely Latino workplaces in New York, LA of course Miami, where ever La Raza Cosmica is to be found a plenty. Just made me feel so happy, downright thankful to be Latino. Or was that the caffeine buzz/sugar rush (and the salsa on the office radio)?
The little Versailles cafés at MIA – concourses D, F and down in E by Customs – great, great coffee. The daily mid-morning and post-lunch coladas from any of the 3 directly led to what is today a raging addiction that threatens everything I love.
Only way to drink Cuban Coffee is by the colada, specifying no azucur. Hand back the silly little paper cups. (Sheesh. The hell good is a droplet of coffee?) Find a place to sit down and enjoy it where you can have a short cigar afterwards. Best coffee on god’s green earth: why oh why ruin it with all that crappy sugar? Butch up! I want something sweet, I’ll suck my own finger.
Man, Steve, you must have some hair on your chest!
Okay, anything not to work…
Here is joke but also a true story. A great aunt calls a rocking chair “silla cubana” or “Cuban chair”, something that I have heard a handful of Cuban Americans do. “What’s the difference’, I asked, “between a ‘silla cubanoa’, a silla mecedora (the real words for rocking chair) and a rocking chair?” My aunt’ s reply, “A silla cubana rocks better.”
Caffiene loosens my tongue in a manner similar to alcohol. I stayed away from the pre-panel colada. God only knows what would have happened.
Must give props to the cuban coffee at Bird Bowl. It is the first I ever had, and therefore close to my arrythmiac, caffeine-saturated heart.