Turkish coffee at Kebaba

Although BOR didn't have a great experience at Kebaba, "he" and I decided to try it out for something different one night. I will admit that the fact they had Turkish coffee on the menu helped sway the decision. This was one form of coffee that we hadn't come across in our searches for "new" and "different" coffee preparations yet, so we were really looking forward to tasting it. Turkish coffee is made from extremely fine ground coffee beans mixed with sugar (if desired), cold water, cardamom (again, if desired), and placed into a special pot called an ibrik, then brought to a boil over low heat and served in small espresso-sized cups. If done correctly there shouldn't be many grinds in your cup as they settle during the brewing process. There should also be a nice thick foam at the top with no grinds in it. Unfortunately we didn't get that part of the experience. Alternatively you can start with hot water, mix in the sugar (if desired), then add the coffee and cardamom, stir, bring it to a boil, remove from heat, then boil it a bit again.

I have no idea how they prepared the Turkish coffee at Kebaba but we were told to wait a bit to let the grinds settle. The waiter didn't tell us how long to wait, so after a few minutes "he" did the first pour. Both of our cups ended up having quite a bit of grinds in them at the bottom of the cup, however the coffee was delicious! I have to say that after drinking espresso based drinks for as long as I have I find that regular coffee isn't strong enough flavor-wise for me anymore. Like today for instance...we're out of espresso beans so I decided to make a hot toddy coffee (in my Mug Revolution mug). Even though I did the typical 1 part toddy to 3 parts water (I used 2 ozs. of toddy syrup and 6 ozs. of water) it was nowhere near strong enough to quench my coffee craving. But this Turkish coffee...this was some good stuff! At the time I didn't know they put cardamom in it and I kept telling "him" that there was some sort of spice flavor that I couldn't place. It was almost like cinnamon without the "bite." He tasted it too and couldn't figure it out either. Now we know what it was as I assume they put cardamom in it. We easily could've drank the entire pot (which isn't very big), yet we didn't want to make them stay later than we already had.

While the food was decent, the prices were awesome, and the beer selection was fabulous, I would say that even if you skipped the dinner portion of the meal, going there for some baklava (something we forgot to try) and Turkish coffee would be an awesome end cap to a hard, or not so hard.