From: c.CRepin@ic.ac.UK (Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond)
Subject: What to drink in a M.E. meal
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:07:25 GMT

someone recently asked what to drink with a M.E. meal. An answer was
provided that mentioned Turkish coffee. I'm affraid that I wouldn't
recommend the consumption of Turkish coffee WITH the meal, but
consume it only AFTER the meal. There are many reasons for this:

1. if you were to consume a large amount of Turkish coffee, you'd probably
stay awake for a week.
2. the strong coffee during the meal would kill any taste of the great
food you'd be eating.
3. a M.E. meal with Turkish coffee as main drink would simply not be
authentic.

Q. What to drink with a M.E. meal

A. Well, there is a main question so ask before even answering that question:

Are you or your guests muslim or non-muslim.

If you were non-muslim, then the following may be consumed:

1. arak: Lebanese drink. Pretty strong alcohol. Mix it with some water to
have a glass of grey-coloured drink. It is served in small glasses because
one may get drunk pretty fast with that.
2. wine: there are a number of wines which are still available in the M.E.
I don't know if they are available outside the M.E. You may also want to
look at wines from Algeria or Morocco.
3. beer: Beer has been drunk in the Middle East as far back as the ancient
Egyptians and Mesopotamians. Here too I don't know if you can get hold of
Lebanese beer (for example).

If you were muslim, then suggestions are as follows (by the way, non-
muslims can also drink this ;-) ):

1. juices. Juices are consumed during meals in the M.E. It ranges from 
Orange juice, to apricot juice, grape, mango, strawberry etc.
My favourite juice is carrot juice.
2. mineral water. That, I'm sure, you can find wherever you are.

I would also suggest Laban Aeraan (don't know how to spell this !) which
is a sort of yoghurt drink (salty) with a mint leaf inside. I don't
really know how to make this; all I can say is that it's nice.

After the meal, you may want to have the previously described Turkish
Coffee or a mint tea.

For mint tea, you may use either indian tea, or chinese tea. You may
use either fresh mint or dry mint. The only requirement is that the
mint leaves are not crushed. I'ts also better if a bit of twig remains
with the mint.
If the mint if dry, then I suggest the following:

1. put the mint in the tea pot by itself, and pour a little bit of
boiling water over them. Roll the teapot around. The aim is to have
the mint leaves be covered by a bit of water and to warm them up.
2. pour the water out of the tea pot
3. put the tea bags (or the required spoonfuls of tea) in the teapot
4. fill the teapot with boiling water
5. wait for 5 minutes (until you can smell the mint from the teapot)

you may now consume the tea.

You'll find drinking mint tea a great way to refresh your mouth and stomach
after eating much, and especially when eating Baklawa (Lebanese type of
sweet) which is very sweet. Each guest can use any amount of sugar in the
small tea cup. I use 2 tea spoons. Some khalliji (gulf) friends of mine
are unhappy with anything less than 5 teaspoonfulls of sugar.

Good luck for your meal, and ENJOY !

O.


-- 
Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Digital Comms. Section, Elec. Eng. Department
 Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BT, UK
       Internet/Bitnet: <ocl@ic.ac.uk> - Janet: <ocl@uk.ac.ic>
WARNING: Please send any reply to above addresses, NOT to FROM-field !!!