Greek Coffee: For men only!

Coffee, cigars and rum go togther like priests and choirboys. Indeed the brothers are known to have a tipple now and then. Oh and some rum, cigars and Belgian beer as well, lol...
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Capn Jimbo
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Greek Coffee: For men only!

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Think I'm kidding? Think again...


When I grew up, the several Greek Festivals were very popular. They were run by the Greek Orthodox Churches to raise money, and boy did they! Homemade desserts, Greek wine and coffee and line dancing. Plus all the t-shirt, fine jewelry and wool Greek fisherman's hats galore.

Across the street from the church was a Greek coffee shop. And guess what? Men only. Really. It was a place for older Greek patriarchs to sit, drink the strongest possible Greek coffee and talk politics for hours.


Strong men, and stronger coffee...


To make Greek coffee, a large amount of near powdered coffee and sugar, cover with water in a traditional small Greek pot (the "briki") with a long thin attached handle. Stir to mix, then the mixture was allowed to came to a boil, and just before foaming over would be quickly removed ofrom the gas flame, and allowed to settle, then back to the flame. This was repeated two or three times, then poured into the usual expresso size demitasse cups (no filtering at all) and buckle your seatbelt! Strong you ask? Yes. Good God, yes. Yes!!

You sipped away until you got a mouthful of the gritty muddy slurry on the bottom. The real men even drank a bit of this. The process is absolutely traditional. Here's a great link that shows the traditional process...

http://greekfood.about.com/od/mezethesd ... ee_all.htm

Don't think you'll see any at Charbucks any time soon, lol...
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bearmark
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Turkish Coffee

Post by bearmark »

This is very similar to Turkish coffee. I'm not sure that it's reserved for men only, but:
In some regions, your fortune is told by the placement of the coffee grinds left in the cup!
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Oh it's Greek all right...

Not the coffee, but as for the coffee shops back then. Men only. Half my family was Greek and you're gonna have to go with me on this. The same was true when I lived in Montreal for a time. There were bars that - again - were men only. Of course that was at the time of the Vietnam War and before the birth of Rachel Maddow.

Even then I found it quaint, but there is something to be said for the Wild Boys (ask da'rum about this one), lol...
Hassouni
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Re: Turkish Coffee

Post by Hassouni »

bearmark wrote:This is very similar to Turkish coffee. I'm not sure that it's reserved for men only, but:
In some regions, your fortune is told by the placement of the coffee grinds left in the cup!
It is Turkish coffee. Can't believe I didn't see this thread before. Here's my tutorial, halfway down this post on my eGullet foodblog on Beirut: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/142066- ... try1866962[/i]

...(about 4/5th's of the way down the page)




*******
Capn's Log: Hass, yes indeed, quite a link. It took awhile to find the part about making Greek/Turkish coffee - for others it's about 4/5th's of the way down the page. Entirely accurate and inviting. Thanks.
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