Wikipedia Trails: From Kaapi to Mu'assel

As promised I'm going to start my Wikipedia Trails with Kaapi, or Indian filter coffee. Finding different coffees from around the world is something that I enjoy.


Kaapi
I read the articles on Wikipedia: found here. The one thing I learned about Kaapi is the preparation. It is prepared in two metal cylinders. One has holes in the bottom so that when the coffee is pressed, it can pass through this porting. The other holds the coffee and has a metal disk in it to tamp down the ground beans. I envisioned it to be like a small version of a french press. It is then poured with a lot of milk and sugar. They also have a third metal bowl type vessel that they pour it back and forth in to cool the drink down as well as mix it all together. This is what Kaapi looks like:

Source: Wikipedia

Jaggery

The next article I read was on Jaggery. It's a type of sweetner they use to sweeten the coffee. 

It looks really rather gross in it's raw form.

Source: Wikipedia

One of the most interesting things I learned about jaggery is that it is mainly used in savory dishes. Especially in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine. They use it to balance out the spiciness of a dish. There are also lots of uses in cakes and sweet milks. One of the uses that I was unfamiliar with, is in Hookahs. Which I find interesting, but at not surprised after learning what jaggery is. Placing a sugar cube at the top of a hookah is quite common practice. It makes sense this sugar replacement is often used in Indian cultures. 

Hookah

The next topic I clicked on was Hookah. In high school, the only thing I knew about them is that the stoner kids used them to get high on pot. The older I grew, the more I learned that these are used to smoke regular or flavored tobacco and don't have to be about drugs at all. We eat ALOT of Mediterranean food and a lot of the places we eat offer hookah. I even tried it while on vacation in Mexico last year at a resort. Here is a picture of a beautiful hookah:

Source: Wikipedia

This one here is unique in color and very ornate. They can be plane, glass, metal, or any other type of material and decoration you can think of. This one doesn't have the tubes coming off it, but this is the main vessel. The most interesting thing I learned is that you can smoke something called Mu'assel. It's a tobacco syrup mix with vegetable glycerol and molasses. You then add flavor to this and there ya go. I guess it makes sense that you can't actually flavor the tobacco itself, but i guess i never really thought how they got to that point. This is also used where you are not allowed to smoke tobacco. 

Mu'assel

And finally, this brings me to my last click. Mu'assel. The syrupy goodness that is flavored. In the US, this is known as Shisha. Which I have heard of that. They have all sorts of flavors for it. Most common are fruit flavors and mint. However, I did learn that they have a flavor similar to Red Bull. I don't even know what to say to that!

Source: Wikipedia

Here you can see that they flavored this one like lemon cake. 

The most interesting thing I read is that it is very unusual to find a female smoking in Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. There, it is common practice for males to do this while bonding and hanging out with their friends. They usually play cards or board games when smoking. Although this is not surprising that women don't typically participate, I found it odd that more American woman don't try it. However, I can't really recall a female smoking at any of the places that I've been...hmmmm....

Anyways, this is my weird trail. Hope you enjoyed it!