Here is something worth trying, a new way to drink coffee. It is simple, portable and pleasant and obviously an Algerian tradition.
Add a few drops of orange blossom water to it.
Rheda (I am not going to explain who he is) told me about it after I told him that I had bought some orange blossom water in Hassi Messaoud. He assures me that coffee this way tastes best at 4:30 in the afternoon!
My friend Youcef from Ghardaia brought me a little stainless steel bottle with a long neck especially made to hold the orange blossom water. Now that I know what the bottle looks like I recognised it on the counter of the coffee shop at the airport.
I actually really enjoy coffee that way...maybe not all the time, but around 4:30 in the afternoon!!! ah ah ah ah!!
I can see that this is something I will keep on having every now and then and I know that I will remember this particular well, these particular people, this particuliar area because of it...kind of neat I think.
One thing to say about Rheda: in October 1984 when the first three expats were beheaded in Algeria (one French, one German and one Italian if I recall) he was there. He said that he had supper with them and 7:00pm and covered their headless bodies at 9:00pm. He also said that he would never forget it and had to admit that in a way he was pleased that there were expats there because somebody had to die and since he was the boss at the time if there had not been any expats it would have had to be him.
The heads were stolen and it took 16 days to find them... headless bodies have a way to pop up in the islamc world...In Kazakhstan we also had to find the head of a body...Muslims cannot receive a proper burial without their heads. I suspect that it is a old superstition more than an actual muslim belief.
From coffee to headless bodies, quite a jump....the truth is that I suspect that when I have coffee this way I will often think of Rheda and think of this story.
