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 magic, 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? I was generally going to Castaway for coffee, mostly for the view- the uber-turquoise sea and a cool breeze, but Castaway strangely had no fancy coffee drinks.

 

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 - one egg?- actually looked good to me, but it was also confusing, because in the photo, there were clearly two poached eggs. In the background, what is that glimpse of greens? Posers in a bowl? Are they shaking with the salt and peppercorns?


I tap tapped on my laptop, and enjoyed the Lipe street view.

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