Travels with Ale: My Proustian Moment
I love coffee! I have always loved coffee. It goes beyond caffeine addiction and the list of habits- good & bad- that make up who I am. My father, Marie Edgar Franck Lanoix, was assassinated in Haiti by “Poppa Doc Duvalier” when I was three years old. He was indeed a distinguished and remarkable man. The family shared many stories of his greatness. Still, I’ve also had the incredible and uncanny experience on several occasions where I would introduce myself to a Haitian I had just met, and they would look at me in disbelief and respond: “Lanoix? Are you related to Franck Lanoix?” I would nod yes, and the person would put their hand on my shoulder or take my hand and say: “If you grow up to be half the man your father was, you are destined for greatness!” Moreover, I have many newspaper clippings from Haitian & Cuban newspapers describing his accomplishments and their praise of him, in addition to lovely and personal letters from the President of Italy, where my father was an Ambassador.
As you can imagine, his was a difficult act to follow! I spent most of my life trying to live up to the myth of my father and didn’t find my own voice until my 40’s. Based on the many pictures I have of him, he loved to dress elegantly, so I developed a penchant for (and at least trying really hard!) looking dapper. He spoke five languages, so I learned five languages. He was a musician, so I studied Jazz piano. He was a womanizer as a young man, so I naturally did the same. All it required was for my mother to say that my father wanted one of his children to be a doctor, and I, being only 10-years-old, raised my hand and asked her to sign me up. I was literally trying to be my father!
So what does all of this have to do with coffee? My mother also told me that he drank at least ten espressos and smoked two packs of unfiltered Chesterfield cigarettes daily. I never followed suit by smoking but did pick up the habit of drinking coffee. It was without question so much more than just a caffeine habit. Like Proust’s Madeleine moment in “Remembrances of Things Past,” it was a Proustian relationship that kept the memory of my father alive. This was further reinforced when I started reading about Paris’ Golden Café Society Age, where Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Cocteau, and others shared espressos and libations to art and the legendary artists they would become. I was so inspired that I did all my studying while an undergraduate at Columbia University, and then at Stony Brook Medical school in cafés- such as the Hungarian Pastry on 111th & Amsterdam in New York City- and sipped espressos all day long.
Every Haitian, Dominican, and Puerto Rican (and most likely throughout Spain, the Caribbean, and South America) household has the coffee maker pictured above, so I grew up seeing it everywhere. The Haitians traditionally drank their coffee in a Demi-tasse (tiny little cups) in the same manner as their French colonizers. They would fill half the cup with sugar and then add the coffee. Some Haitians added milk to their coffee. However, the significant difference from American culture was that you never, ever serve/add cold milk! I drank my coffee black because this was the way my father drank his coffee, but heating the milk was a game-changer! This was my introduction to coffee!
Over the years, especially after finding my voice, I learned to love coffee from a French Press and particularly love Americanos (half espresso & half boiling water). Even now, sipping coffee every morning serves as my Proustian Madeleine Moment, for which I am grateful. When my wife Ale and I embarked on our world-travel adventure, we considered how we would make coffee in the AirBnB’s where we would be staying. They all provided a coffee-maker and filters, but we didn’t find this appealing as it reduced our divine ritual of drinking coffee to appeasing a habit.
The first step was to find the coffee maker. We searched high and low in Madrid, where we found our sacred Baleatti (pictured above) at “El Corte Ingles.” We had previously assumed that all these coffee makers were the same but learned that the Italian Baleatti was the original, the Rolls Royce! Note that this is not a complicated machine but holding the Baleatti was itself an experience. Unlike many of the others that were on sale, the Baleatti’s weight and balance were perfect, and how the top screwed onto the bottom was so precise and smooth. Now we were ready to embark on our adventure.
I can’t begin to describe the pleasure of making espresso in the Baleatti every morning and sharing a Proustian Americano with my love Ale as we stared out to the Mediterranean Sea. Que Beleza!
However, we discovered that every restaurant, pastry shop, and corner store on the Canary Islands and Greece served the most fantastic coffee. What a delight! There was no “Barista” pouring mucho attitude into my Americano, no thermometer to measure the water temperature, no scale to precisely measure the number of grains they put in the portafilter, and no special grinder for handpicked beans that were shit out of some Indonesian animal’s ass, polished, and blessed by the Pope. Whoever happened to be next to the machine scooped up the coffee into the portafilter, and often with love and a smile, expressed espresso into a cup without any fuss. However, they would have a good laugh at our expense when we asked to put cinnamon in the Americanos! I tried to explain that this was the only way to drink an Americano, but no one was buying it. I considered asking for a “Ricardo.” When asked what a “Ricardo” is, I would explain that adding cinnamon is an ancient secret of posh societies worldwide dating back to Ancient Greece, discovered in recently deciphered ancient scrolls. Haha! Don’t be surprised when you find “The Ricardo” on your local Barista’s menu- you heard it here first!
What’s even more impressive is that this black nectar of the Gods only cost 2 euros, rather than the exorbitant prices in New York. So many blessings!
The author was born in Haiti and has lived in New York City for the past 54 years. He is a practicing emergency physician who has dedicated his life to the healing arts and the exploration of Consciousness and creativity.
He just self-published his second novel “Love in the Time of Coronavirus: 20/20 in 2020” on Amazon. His first novel was “The Twin Flames, the Master, and the Game,” & is also available on Amazon.
He & his wife are presently on a world-travel adventure that he is writing about in his blog “Travels with Ale.” For interesting & thought-provoking content, & to be part of the adventure, check out his website: RichardLanoix.com; follow him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/richardlanoix/) & Facebook (@RichardLanoixAuthor· Author)
