A Cup of Sami's Coffee

Yesterday afternoon, when The Great Plotnik walked into Samiramis to buy fresh pita bread, he noticed Sami in earnest Arabic conversation with a balding, stocky man who was buying coffee. There is a sign in front of Samiramis that says "Fresh Ground Coffee," but Plotnik, loyal to Martha and her Brothers, has never paid any attention to the sign. Sami then turned to the venerable wooden bins in back of the cash register, in which various whole bean coffees are stored, took a scoop of this, a scoop of that and another scoop of something else. He put them together into the coffee grinder and ground them to a very fine powder. As the grinder whirred away, Sami and his customer smiled a secret kind of smile that portends great pleasure.

You don't sneak smiles like that past The Great Plotnik. He had to have some too. "What blend did you use?" he asked Sami when it was his turn. "Oh, half French roast, half Kenya, and a handful of fresh cardamom," Sami said.

"Yes," said the customer, still standing in front of the counter, though Sami had already bagged his coffee, fifteen bags of pita breads and two containers of Lebanese Lebna Kefir. He brought his fingertips to his mouth, made a smacking noise and smiled that smile again. "Once you taste this, you never gonna drink anything else."

"Do you brew it in a regular pot?"

"We use the..." he said an Arabic word to Sami who pointed to the old Greek-style long-handled brass coffee cookers for sale behind the shish-kebab skewers. "Put in sugar and boil, boil, boil." Smack, again with the fingers and lips.

"Sounds good, I'll take half a pound," Plotnik said, and Sami ground it all up. $4 bucks plus 75 cents for the package of pitas.

Last night, Plot and Duck ate zaatar chicken, bulgar with feta, cucumbers and tomatoes, hummos left over from lunch and the fresh pitas, but this morning Plottie, after non-basketball (only four guys showed up), finally made a cup of Sami's coffee.

SMACK! Plotnik's fingers to his mouth. He wishes his readers could share this taste. SMACK-O! It's coffee all right, but that cardamom gives it an afterburn of spice and sweetness. Plot just brewed it in his black coffee cup using a small #2 coffee filter, and then poured in a small dollop of half-and-half. He is, right now, smiling the secret smile.