Two Breakfast Drinks That Will Rock Your World
I really hope this photo doesn’t read like one of Maureen Dowd’s Riyadh glamour shots. It’s the only one I have of Thai iced coffee, a beverage that, since my return from Thailand, has become the bane of all who know me. I talk of nothing else.
As has been well documented, I don’t like coffee. I still don’t like coffee, but I make an exception for Thai iced coffee, because it has more in common with coffee ice cream, melted, than it does your standard cup of joe. When it comes down to it, Thai iced coffee is a virgin White Russian in a pint glass, only with a smokier, more aromatic finish. Don’t worry, no caffeine is lost in the transformation.
My friend Marisa made me an iced coffee every morning I was in Chiang Mai. (She also took that photo.) Now that I’m back in New York, I make my own most mornings, using her recipe, which I will share with you here. I consider it a breakfast drink in the sense that I’ll drink one for breakfast, not with breakfast; I’m pretty sure one of these is the caloric equivalent of bacon and eggs.
Marisa’s Thai Iced Coffee
In a 12-oz glass, place 2 tsp each of instant coffee, dark brown sugar (the soft, moist kind) and sweetened condensed milk. Pour in just enough hot water to cover, and stir until it’s all dissolved. Add five or six big ice cubes, and fill the glass with whole milk. Hardcore Thais will add, in cocktail parlance, a “float” of evaporated milk, but that’s pushing it for me. N.B. I can’t explain it, but this just tastes better through a straw. So buy a box of straws.
The mornings I don’t make iced coffee, I’m probably making an iced matcha latte, my own patented recipe that I developed using the Thai iced coffee model.
Michele’s Iced Matcha Latte
In a 12-oz glass, place 1 tbs of good-quality matcha powder and 2 tsp of sweetened condensed milk. Stir vigorously until the matcha has completely dissolved into the condensed milk (otherwise you’ll get lumps), and then add 1 tsp of dark brown sugar or honey. Pour in just enough hot water to cover, and stir until it’s all dissolved. Add five or six big ice cubes, and fill the glass with whole milk. Like the iced coffee, this also tastes much better through a straw.
Seriously, people. Stop spending $4.50 on crappy Starbucks drinks, when you can spend the same amount and have either of these every day for a week.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, the skewered object that I’m holding in the photo is a dried squid hide that’s been battered and fried. Just the thing with an iced coffee. Notice also the plastic strap that the vendor has slipped over my iced coffee, so that I can wear it on my wrist and leave my hand free to hold additional food. America should really get in on that.