Clouds in My Coffee

I like half & half or cream in my coffee.  Not milk. 

Italians drink milk in their coffee (if that) not cream. Milk is given every form of elaborate preparation for coffee – it is steamed, foamed and heated.   And I kind of knew that already, but they must have cream, right? 

The first day or so here, my friend Faye and I went to my little alimentari and asked if they had half & half.  But what do you call it?  Mezzo e mezzo?  That is what I started with. 

The looks I got. “Mezzo e mezzo?”  The market ladies asked dubiously.  So I began trying to explain what I was looking for exactly.  “You know, it is for your coffee.  It is half milk and half cream.” 

“Mezzo e mezzo?”  I got again with the same suspicious and quizzical “what the hell is she asking for?” look.  “It is milk that you need for your coffee.  Milk!  You want milk?  Here!” As she shoves a container of milk at me.  Maybe they don’t have half & half in Italy. I decided to change tactics and just ask for cream for the coffee. 

Let’s stick with cream – I would be happy with that.  They must have cream, right? No, not so much. 

I am shown Panna Cucina – cream for cooking.  It is sold unrefrigerated, in a small cardboard box without a pouring spout.  “No” I tell the market lady “I don’t think that is it.”  She then shows me Béchamel, sold the same way as the Panna Cucina. “No.” 

How about whip cream sold in a spray can?  She holds it up for my inspection.  “uh-uh” I shake my head.  She holds up something with sugar, a sweetened cream, to make whip cream.  The box shows it on strawberries.  “No, that’s not it either.  It is normally kept cold.” I tell her. 

My market lady then runs to her refrigerated section and begins rummaging behind the glass. She pulls out fresh ricotta. “Nope.” She pulls out some other runny white cheese stuff.  “Nope, that’s not it.” 

I keep saying “For coffee, for coffee, to make it white.”  I should have known when she kept insisting that you put milk in your coffee, that this was just not customary in Italy.  But I kept pursuing until it seemed she had exhausted showing me everything that was a dairy product in her glass case.  “Latte, latte” she says. 

Okay, so let’s compromise.  My friend Faye and I decide on a container of whole milk and a box of the Panna Cucina.  The market ladies seemed relieved that we settled on something and finally made a purchase.  We’ll mix the two we thought.  Maybe we can make our own half & half.  No, not so much. It was a science experiment that went wrong and created big lumps of buttery cream blobs.  But we lived with it for a week until I finally found something called Panna Fresca at the Coop supermercato, tested it and found it to be like our cream.  Sometimes, simple things are not always so simple.