Tall latte, please (in English)

I love coffee and I can have 3 or 4 coffees per day (...even more when the occasion raises). I have some history of high blood pressure in my family so I test myself regularly but so far we haven't found any reason to be concerned (I like when the nurse celebrates enthusiastically how compensated is my blood pressure...please read my previous blog entry). So, for the time being, I keep enjoying my dosis of caffeine without any guilty feeling. In the past, I used to order coffee with milk (cafe con leche) for breakfast, a 'cortado' around 10am or 4pm and a 'cafe solo' right after lunch. When I came to the USA, I needed to do some adjustments: the cafe con leche was replaced by the latte (it doesn't matter if you order it at a Starbucks or any other coffee shop, everybody knows what a tall latte is), the Spanish cortado is called here a 'macchiato' but is not offered everywhere, so I have stopped ordering it and finally the Cafe solo goes by Espresso (single or double shot). Besides, I had to get used to the paper cup and the plastic lid, the containers that have made coffee in this country a 'mobile' drink (you take it with you anywhere and no need to stop and pause) as opposed to what it is still in Spain, an 'anchor' drink that you enjoy in a (non paper) cup and allows you to pause and sit at the coffee shop (cafeteria) to chat a bit or read the newspaper.

It is remarkable the capacity that the American consumers have to elaborate their orders of coffee (reaching ridicule extremes). I remember that in Spain if somebody was too picky ordering 'a cortado short of milk not too hot', that was a reason for general mockery. Here it is very common to order something like a "Triple grande non fat decaf iced latte" or a "Tripple Venti Decaf 120 degrees skinny hazelnut wet latte". And these are normal, regular orders, searching in internet you might find three line long orders. Exaggerations aside, when it comes to food or drinks Americans have a clear tendency to add 'stuff' and complicate the portions. Perhaps the most remarkable example is the sandwich: opposite to the simplicity of the serrano sandwich or chorizo sandwich here it is very common to add, in my opinion, way too many ingredients that just increase the number of calories of the portions and hide the main taste. Typical add-ons: tomato, pickles, lettuce, bacon, avocado, diverse mayonnaise,..



And related to the mayonnaise it comes my final comment. Recently I read an article in the New York Times on how to prepare el pan con tomate, by Melissa Clark. Toast bread, garlic scrubbed, tomato, olive oil, easy, it can't be simpler...so, no, apparently in United States it needs to be added mayo! As a Majorcan who was raised eating Pa amb Oli (the way we called the Pan con tomate in Mallorca) I couldn't help answering to such an offense with the attached twitter. It doesn't matter how long I have been living abroad, there are some things that will never change: a good pan con tomate and the typical (and useless) way we stamp our feet in Spain...