One of my roommates, Maria, is Greek. She has another Greek friend named Elena (although she'll scoff at you if you call her Greek.) She is actually from an island off of Greece called Cyprus (Chipre, in Spanish). She found a Chipriota restaurant in Fuengirola and wanted to get everyone together to go eat.
On Sunday we loaded up on the Metro to go to Fuengirola. The restaurant didn't open until 8:30 so we thought we'd have some drinks. We hung out in a cafe by the sea and waited for the sun to set and the restaurant to open.
The restaurant had sampler menus set up by the number of people. We were 9 people so we ordered 7 menus and a bottle of white wine. The first few dishes were plates that I have seen before. Salads, hummus, cucumber and tomatoe salad. I was in heaven. I like Greek food. I said this also and was scolded. Then came more food. Greek food that I have never seen before. There were a lot of dishes with different kinds of beans: garbonzos, kidney beans, some with corn. A lot were covered in a delicious tomatoe sauce. These were followed by 3 or 4 more meat dishes. I don't know the names of any of the dishes I ate or what they had in them, but I'll give a piece of advice: don't EVER turn down Greek/Chipriota food. It could change your life. This was a taste of home for Maria and Elena. They kept saying "Oh this is just like my mom's!" or "My mom makes this, except she...." It was cool for them, I think.
This particular restaurant had Turkish coffee! Yeah, yeah, I know there's coffee everywhere in this country, but this coffee is special. It tells your fortune. I'm not a big believer in astrology and don't put much weight on these types of things, but I was a little curious to see what my coffee had in store for me.
Step 1: Drink coffee as normal, except for leaving a little bit of liquid in the bottom.
Step 2: Put saucer on top of coffee cup and flip over.
Step 3: Place both hands on top of coffee cup, left under right, for 5 minutes.
Step 4: Call over the fortune reader to see hear your destiny
Once we had followed our steps, the grandpa came over to tell us what they said. (This was a family restaurant with 4 generations working and the grandpa was the one who started it and reads the fortunes.) Some of the fortunes were somewhat true, and some were a little off (we hope!), but mine.....
My coffee was in the shape of a big heart! He told me my heart was full of love and that's the only thing that I have in my life right now. I was so happy. They were all ooohhing and aaahhing over it. I was a little pleased, I must say. Everyone here reacts a little negatively towards the getting married part because they think I'm soooo young. It was nice to hear a little affirmation from a random cup of coffee.
Oh, did I mention it was the day before Valentine's Day! :)
