they strain the milk here

I was at a luncheonette last night. They're everywhere here - small places that serve lunch, coffee, and and exotic juices from local fruits (mango, passion fruit, others whose names I don't know) which are very popular. This place is right up the block from me and serves as a luncheonette, food market, bar, and general social center. Almost every place that serves any kind of food or drink here serves beer. Places that look like cafes won't have coffee (this from experience) but they always have beer.

At this particular place they tend to serve beer in what looks like 20oz bottles, and they have these little mini-cooler things (similar to the kind of thing fat American guys hold their Budweiser cans in at the beach, a "coolie") which they put the bottles in to keep them cool. They drop them in the cylindrical main part of it and put a cap on it that leaves only the mouth of the bottle exposed. And of course each mini-cooler is an ad, labeled with a particular local beer. The really budget beer here is called Skol, and I think I saw it in the supermarket for something like $1US for a six-pack. There's also something called Schin (I think) which looks like it might be a little better.

But last night I went up to the counter and asked for a coffee. Normally here it's served black, in small cups similar to espresso, with the option for a lot of sugar, which is how most people take it. Unfortunately it's not really espresso, just regular coffee which is relatively strong but, to be honest, in the available small quantities doesn't really do it for me. There's a sugar substitute here which is also very popular, which is a clear liquid in a bottle and is available at any restaurant. I haven't ever tried it because it looks pretty gross, and one of my friends recently put too much in his coffee and he said it was awful.

The woman at the counter asked if I wanted it with or without milk, so I asked for it "com leite". She then proceeded to strain about 1/4 cup of milk into a small coffee cup, and then filled it with the traditional 1/8-cup or so of black coffee. I immediately understood what the straining was all about, based on my experience here. The milk always has chunks in it. I guess this is from it lying around in tropical heat (which really isn't that bad right now) for anything more than a minute or two. Every time I've had coffee in the pousada here, there's been chunks. Small ones, but chunks nevertheless. I'll admit, it took a bit of getting used to. But they'd have to do a lot more than that to come between me and caffeine. Bring it.