Coffee At Mangal

I had the best coffee of the year, so far, at a restaurant but I almost didn't.

I met up with a couple of friends of mine in East London and we had a long relaxing day together mostly sitting in a public garden and talking about life and current affairs.

We then decided to have something to eat. We originally wanted to go somewhere "Latino" and had a choice of three restaurants to pick from. I fancied the Cuban place, but neither that nor the others had seats available for three of us, being Friday night.

We finally walked past a Turkish restaurant serving a "Meze" cuisine and all agreed on that one. Besides, they had the space for us, even though they politely asked us to leave in the end since we were taking too long to finish our food haha. Long story.

Anyhow, after the meal, which was delicious and plentiful, I asked if I could have coffee while my friends had deserts. The first waiter said something like "sorry, we only have Turkish coffee", in a discouraging tone. Hmm, ok. A few minutes later, I decided to have the coffee anyway. I love Turkish coffee, I drink it all the time. The second waiter I called over also said the same thing in the same discouraging tone. It was as if they didn't want to me to have it. I get it, they probably didn't think I'd like it and didn't want me to waste my money. That was kind of them in a way, but I think there was a bit of "judging a book by it's cover going on".

They finally brought the coffee with a glass of water. It was at that point they kindly encouraged us to be hasty since there was a long queue waiting to eat. Fair enough. I downed the coffee in two gulps. It was the best coffee I'd had so far this year, but sadly I didn't get to enjoy it slowly. I also almost didn't get to taste it, had I allowed myself to be discouraged.

Peace & Love,

Adé