This espresso macchiato at the Regina Palace Hotel in Stresa was the best cup of coffee I have had outside of home since, well, since the last time I’ve been to Italy.

Stresa is a tiny town just north of Milan, one of many dotting Lake Maggiore. It was for a 3-day conference with much work to do, but some observations could still be had.

• Do not rely on Uber, or any other ride share service for that matter. Taxi drivers are your friends. I am sure ride sharing is fine in Milan, but three drivers canceled my airport pickup shortly after accepting, when they saw I requested a trip to Stresa. This is just 45 minutes from Milan Malpensa, not exactly the end of the world, and the taxi driver had no issues taking me there.
• Actually, the third Uber driver never canceled: he asked me to cancel it myself as he was “having psychological problems”. I took a screenshot and wished him the best.
• I thought I would have an easier time scheduling an Uber ride back to the airport, but no. 8 hours before the 4am drive to the airport a driver was still not assigned. I canceled it and ask a cab driver if he could pick me up. He couldn’t, but a friend of his did, arriving at the hotel right on time.
• I knew I made the right decision when another hotel guest asked me if we could share the ride as I was getting into the car — his scheduled 4am Uber never showed up. So, I will repeat: skip ride sharing and take the taxi (or better yet the train, if not pressed for time or traveling before 6am).
• I stayed in a small hotel with the conference in a much bigger one close by, but both were, I realized, my favorite type of place: opulent turn-of-the century institutions with large marble staircases, very small bathrooms, somewhat musty hallways, and impeccable service. The Fairmont would be the closes US equivalent, though those are slightly more modern and at a lower level of service. In Serbia it is Hotel Moskva.
• The coffee was extraordinary at any place I had it, without the fussiness of r/espresso and other places which insist on recently-roasted premium beans and microgram scales for your shot. And not a paper cup in sight.
• Also: no coffee maker in the hotel room. High standards!
• This is a general recommendation for traveling outside of the US, not about Stresa in general, but never ever accept automatic conversion from local currency to USD when paying by car or withdrawing money at the ATM. Choose local currency and trust that the US bank will take a smaller cut than the locals… for the time being.
• The town was beautiful even with constant downpour, and I will look for excuses to come back.

Day 2 in Istanbul, finding out that the coffee we had been ordering from Amazon for years started out within walking distance of Hagia Sophia.

☕️ If there were Michelin stars for coffee shops, San Diego’s Bird Rock would deserve all three: worth booking the hotel away from the venue just to be close to it for your first morning cup. Outstanding.

Happy Twin Peaks Day, everyone! To go with your morning coffee and cherry pie, here is an interview with the Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino on how David Lynch’s masterpiece influenced her own show.

Three key ingredients for well-being: a good cup of coffee, a clear view of the outside trees, a trusted mouse-catcher.

The foliage may not be the prettiest, but the that cherry is a thing of beauty. At Green World Coffee Farm on Oahu last October.

☕️ Over the last two decades we have gone from Turkish, to AeroPress, to moka pots, and even to a full-fledged espresso machine. But for the last few years our default way to make coffee has been the humble pour-over.

A friend asked about the specifics so I made a quick video.

☕️ My preferred coffee making method has been freshly ground pour-over for a while now, but whenever we are out of whole beans (like we were this week), Mehmet Effendi is the standby. Taleb called it East Med coffee but of course it’s known as Turkish in most other places. Considering that it probably came from Yemen and spread around by the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman coffee may be the most precise name, but of course everyone will call it however they like (Bosnian coffee? Really?)

I have a full day of flying to look forward to so probably no big posts today, but here is a photo of where the magic happens. It’s from Green World Coffee Farm on Oahu, and it is absolutely delicious.