Cafe

I met a friend at the “Starbucks of Spain” today, a café called Café de Indias that’s pretty much on every corner. They do have Starbucks here, of course, but Indias is much more Spanish and much cheaper. So this friend is lactose intolerant, as such she can’t drink the classic Spanish drink of café con leche (that is, coffee with milk. I confess I’ve gotten quite attached to it despite my previous rejection of coffee.). So first she asks the waiter if they have soja, soy milk. He had to go ask someone if they had it because he wasn’t quite sure what it was, and he came back saying they only have whole and skim milk. She explains to him her problem. So she orders a plain café, but says she doesn’t want strong coffee like espresso (a cortado), just plain coffee. He brings her an espresso. She says it’s too strong and she asks for hot water, he asks if she wants milk. He brings the hot water. She asks for a larger cup. He asks if she wants milk. In the meantime I’m laughing and laughing because all I got was té negro.