Nescafe Ritual

Nescafe Ritual, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

In Ecuador it is difficult to find a brewed cup of coffee. Most people drink the crystals. Needless to say, I´m addicted to coffee and, like addicts of other stimulants, I´ll migrate to whatever is availiable and resembles coffee if that´s all there is which means I´ve been drinking a lot of Nescafe. Incidentally there is a Nescafe skyscraper in Guayaquil so it seems I´m not the only one. Strangely, there are some old, and classy buildings in Quito that are traditional and old style where you order a Humitas (sweet corn tamale) and sit with a fresh brewed cup of coffee. We went to a place that looked like it had been there for a century and sat down. On the table there were some napkins, sugar and a small crystal bottle of black liquid. I guess because I eat a lot of Chinese food it registered in my peripheral vision as a soy sauce bottle. We ordered coffees and were quickly served two cups of hot water with a cup of hot milk. After a few puzzled moments passed I asked about when our coffee was going to arrive. The server just gestured to the bottle of black liquid which after mixing it with my hot water and milk turned out to be some of the finest Nescafe concentrate I´ve ever had. We are in Cuenca now and have found a place with real brewed coffee but it´s interesting that I was finally starting to develop a taste for the stuff when I was finally able to get the real thing. Nescafe! Its not that bad!