Black coffee

I’m not sure when exactly it started. I mean, I love coffee. I’d been drinking it since I was 10 years old. It was the way my mother woke me up for our early morning trips from Bulacan to Manila. Mother’s idea of coffee is mild, because it was basically a watered-down, instant coffee mixed with very little sugar, but served almost boiling hot. This is probably one of the reasons why I’ve been hyperacidic since I was 12. And why I can only drink piping hot cups of coffee.

Of course, these days I’ve acquired the taste for brewed coffee. I don’t use those pretty coffee presses, no matter how expensive they are. Because the coffee these presses produce is, in my opinions, severely lacking in taste so using them is ultimately pa-cute only. I have an old but trusty coffeemaker, which I got for Christmas 3 years ago. For the coffee itself I alternately use Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese coffee. Vietnamese coffee is really strong. Laotian coffee is more earthy in flavor while the Cambodian coffee is the subtlest of the three, but its flavor remains unique.

I also love having coffee outside, preferably with friends. When Ted was here, we used to have coffee in various places, trying their offerings and going back to those we liked. Same with Joy Oh, before she went to Ulan Bataar. One stall in the Russian Market has good iced coffee. Fresco serves good latte, even if their food is largely a hit-and-miss affair. Java’s capuccino is quite good as well, infinitely better than their pastries. I like the latte in The Shop, plus their smoothies. A warning, though, don’t try their virgin coconut shake: it’s awful.

For the last months, Daden and Mai have been my sort of regular coffee companions. Vic and Serey Phal are two other people whom I regularly meet for coffee. Two different age groups mean differing tastes. Well, not quite. With Vic and Serey Phal we always go to the ‘old reliables’ like Fresco and Corner 33. Meanwhile Daden and Mai (and more recently, Yhen), we venture in many new places like Chow, Metro Bar, the coffee shop of Le Quay Spa whose name I can’t recall now, the coffee shops of Cambodiana Hotel and Intercon, and NGO-run coffee shops like Yejj and Friends, among others.

Recently we discovered Scoop, located just outside the Intercon. First impressions? The interiors look more like a club than a coffeeshop. However, once you sink into its scoop-shaped chairs (keeping with name, perhaps? I’m not sure), the comfort makes you want to yearn for some coffee to further enhance the feeling. We’ve been having coffee there for weeks now. An advantage of the place is it’s so close to the girls’ offices. Not my house. However, I don’t mind traveling to it. We also made another discovery. Scoop serves excellent food as well.

Once, while feeling exceptionally bored, we decided to try having dinner there. We were asked to sit on the other half of the coffeeshop, which was apparently the dining area. Flush, white chair and blue lights. Daden, Yhen, Mai and her boy Ethan, and I were soon sitting comfortably again. The menu doesn’t offer a lot of choices. But we were very happy with what we ordered. I had some grilled chicken, Daden got pan-fried sea bass while mai and Yhen got some bak kut teh. Plus the food were presented beautifully. I mean, the bread basket alone was a conversation piece in itself already. Just look at the photos (I wish the photo quality is better, but it’s okay… this is not a food blog, after all) below.

That particular evening, as we were enjoying some cheerful post-prandial chat, we saw someone pass by. Someone all of us know. Dressed in simple shirt and shorts, she carried two plastic bags filled with grilled chicken and what-not. We rushed outside and kindly asked if she would pose for a photograph with us. I am not easily star-struck (and I’ve seen her many times before, when I worked for ABS-CBN many many years ago) but with her humble demeanor, I couldn’t help admiring her. So much so that I failed to take my camera from my bag. I only relied on Yhen’s camera.

Fortunately, the photo turned out okay. Care to venture a guess on who she is?