Gastronomy and Coffee
A scene from a diner:
I???m alone, poured comfortably into a corner booth seat, perusing the gargantuan menu. My stomach rumbles rudely and begs for a hearty lunch. I scan my eyes hungrily over the gratuitous choices and land on the tuna melt. It???s just what I want ??? savory tuna salad and oozing orange cheddar cheese on thick wheat bread. French fries on the side. Maybe a pickle.
And to drink?
A large, steaming mug of coffee. Black, please.
I am acutely aware that this combination of food and drink may repulse many readers. How can you drink COFFEE with TUNA?, you might be thinking. How can you possibly eat a sandwich ??? nay, a pickle! ??? without the quenching benefits of a lemonade or soda?
Nope, it is coffee that I choose. Now I will confess that this is not my everyday order and more often than not I will dine with the accompaniment of some variety of icy drink that can be sucked through a straw. Yet there is something decidedly retro and wholeheartedly comforting about hot bitter coffee and a robust, rustic meal.
Gastronomy is defined by Merriam-Webster as ???the art or science of good eating???. And a large part of this is embodied as the contrasting or complementary pairing of food and drink. Yet so often we reserve this art (if you fancy yourself right-brained) or science (for the lefties) as a discussion around wine and beer; perhaps, occasionally, liquor.
People make subjective rule books out of it. Eat your freshwater fish with a crisp white wine. Make sure that blue cheese is paired with a full-bodied red. Caviar should truly be consumed alongside beer, not champagne, for optimal flavor. A nice dry sherry can bring out the flavor of chocolate.
But what about coffee? It???s so often classified as a beverage to have with food in the morning (bacon and eggs anyone?) or else segregated to dessert. But it???s pretty rare to hear someone order it to drink with their lunch or dinner. Frankly, I find this to be an unfair bias towards the hot beverage category in general ??? and the reputation coffee has as being acceptable only with particular occasions of consumption.
Coffee is bitter, but so too are many beers. Bitter tastes complement sweet ones and round out certain fatty foods. For this very reason, you might be familiar with recipes that call for rubbing beef with espresso or marinating it in a barbecue sauce cooked up with coffee. There???s more than one way to slice it (or pour it); now that barbecue season is up and smoking, I implore you to try a cup of Colombian roast with your next steak. If you can???t take the heat, try it iced. It???s a different gastronomical effect but a surprisingly satisfying one.
Granted, there are limits to what you can drink coffee with. It doesn???t have the diversity of wine or beer, and it???s surely not the thing to pair with delicate scallops or baby vegetable risotto with truffle oil. Nor will you find me swapping out the cold beer I favor with my pizza for a Starbucks latte anytime soon. Yet there is something very gruff and no-nonsense about hot strong coffee and a greasy, creamy, cheesy or otherwise square meal. I think it???s a notion worth spreading.
So I???m starting a movement. And it begins right here with this tuna melt.
