caffeinated musings in a steamy climate

I sat in a cafe fairly close to the jetty drinking some of the strongest coffee of my life— they happened to have the drink I fell in love with in Chiang Mai at a coffeeshop named Carrot-- a very particular drink called “The Dirty”. 

As far as I know, it’s 500 shots of espresso with a thick layer of magical heavy cream on the bottom and cocoa powder on top. This version, they served with a cinnamon stick, which I promptly put to the side. 


That day, being blisteringly hot, I had an inkling that I wanted to go to an air-conditioned cafe and write, but which one? Castaway, my norm, overlooking the uber-turquoise sea and with better than average nom-noms, but generally giving eating— not fancy coffee--- vibes. 


AND THEN, on my stroll, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a photo of my beloved


MY “Dirty” 


This place is also called Sanae Lipe, and in my neighborhood on Alberta Street in PDX, just a couple of doors down from me is the new-ish Sanae Thai Restaurant, which I haven’t been to, but it does look good, and strangely enough has a similar vibe to this, the pictures of the dishes on the wall, even the font of the name is similar…




I came in and sat and ordered, and looked at the food photos around-





The Egg Benedict actually looked good to me, but it was also confusing, because in the photo, there were clearly two poached eggs. In the background, what are those gently greens posing in a bowl? Are they collaborating avec random peppercorn mill and salt shaker? 


Low key not sure if that was referring to how the greens that came on the dish were dressed or that the Egg Benedict came with an arugula side salad. 


Not sure at all.


——————————————————————————————————————————————


At some point, a button on my brain clicked on- left brain - right brain - both?

The recording feature started when the Kakao Talk logo started circling, I heard the all too familiar sound, and I could hear myself thinking as if I were on speaker phone.


My voice sounded louder than usual:

“This drink might take all afternoon to drink. One sip, feels like a jolt of energy. Also SO YUMMY!”


Also, though, I could hear a sense of excitement in my inner voice that hadn’t been there in a long while. As I closed my eyes, I could feel myself zone out a little, and I was there at the ticket gate waiting.


I felt, as usual, a sort of out of body kind of feeling and then suddenly an in-body sort of feeling and I could feel that I had caught a cold. More than anything else, I kind of felt like I wanted to take a nap. 


I have never been a napper, but I kind of want to become one.

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