Coffee time

I was reading a very interesting article by Mariam Nihal on Saudigazette, about Arabic coffee (or Arabian, as a commentator claims, I'm not sure about it) and this reminded of my experience with it .

First time I tried kawa, I was in the UK .
By coincidence, I met an Emarati lady I used to know through a chat, who was there for holiday with her husband, a police officer .
We arranged a meeting with her children, in a coffee shop .
Back then, I was not very familiar with some unwritten rules which regulate the man-woman relation, so when she insisted in inviting me to her flat, to know the rest of the family, I was a bit reluctant, as it was late already and I was having my flight the next day .
Then, after exchanging a few words with the husband, I understood : he was polite guy, always at the service of the family, and expecially of his wife, but he was very tough on some rules, which is why for example she had come to the meeting with her daughters .
An Arab Muslim woman (not all but many) far from home, cannot go around by herself .
And this is not just to oppress her as we in the West tend to think, but to give her true protection .
So in a way I think, this lady wanted to show me her world by insisting on her late evening invitation, and she wanted to prove as well to her husband, that also western women are good people (some have this misconception on the west, in the same way we have few others on the east) .
I remember during the conversation, he noted that for sure I was a good person as I had accepted Islam, but reminded me that wearing scarf was part of it, and invited me to do it, because I was not, at that time .

When coffee was placed on the table, at the end of the dinner, I was not even considering the idea of drinking it, as I am a great lover of it, but I am also aware of my limits .
Drinking coffee at night time, is definitely not my thing .
But then he gave me such a disappointed look, and who knows Arab men, knows also what I'm talking about, that I suddenly took a couple of sips and he smiled happy .
Some years after, I learned that rejecting food when invited to an Arab house, is really a great offense and it is taken as a sign of mistrust .
There is an episode in the Quran, when the angels visit prophet Ibrahim and refuse to take the meat, which gives very much the idea ("he felt some mistrust of them") .
It was a strange coffeee, of a yellow colour, not with the taste I used to know .
Good and strong .
They also explained me how it is done .
I was so happy to have found my way with them, that I was not even angry because that night I did not sleep at all . Just raised from bed at five am and ran straight away to the airport .
Kawa definitely is for strong people .

I had a further occasion to realize this, when few years later I moved to the Persian gulf .
I didn't bring my coffee machine there, and soon became accustomed to the American coffee .
Nescafe has a huge market over there .
I became so addicted to it, that even now that I'm back to Europe and to my old habits, I keep doing well with it .
On my first Ramadan, the lady who helped me in the house, left the dinner ready in the kitchen, with coffee as well .
She explained it was extremely energetic . It was good both for the beginning of the fast and at the end, as it helped to go through the day without eating and at the end when just tired .
Drink it madame, she said, all Arabs drink it and like it too much .
And so I did .
Back then I was not aware of the fact that given my family history with gastro-esophageal reflux, I was doomed to it .
And so I started having palpitations and burnings for some days .
I was thinking about heart problems but when I went to hospital, the doctor smiled and understood the problem immediately .
He said that reflux was the main cause for people going there on the first days of Ramadan .
Taught me how to prepare the stomach well before fast, what and how to eat after, and most important, that it was maybe preferable for me not to drink kawa, which he explained, was a kind of bomb for my stomach .
So I had to quit almost completely that lovely aromatic coffee and every time I visited friend I just brought as excuse some patologic condition in order not to disappoint them .

But really I miss Arabic or Arabian kawa .