International Drink and Ritual

[Chris Amirault]

On the Etiquette Shmetiquette thread, in response to comments I wrote about drinking in Saudi Arabia, Pan wrote,

Amazing, Chris. Sounds like you could write an interesting article about your experiences with contraband hooch in Arabia.

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So I thought I'd start up this thread. What is your international drinking experience? I mean "international" relatively; I'd be very interested to hear someone from outside the US talk about drinking schnapps and weiss at Von Trier Pub in Milwaukee (a grad school haunt), for example!

My sole serious drinking experience in Tokyo was predictably typical, involving beer and sake at a tempura restaurant that ended with me staggering out to the street at 11 pm to find it filled with stumbling-drunk businessmen pouring into the subways for their two-hour commute home -- quite a sight. But since I imagine several people can say more interesting things about Tokyo than I can, I'll comment more extensively on my drinking in Saudi, where I made about a dozen two-week-long trips from 1999 through 2003. (That span included a trip that I started on September 19, 2001 -- a trip that included much soothing libation for me jangled nerves, let me tell you -- )

Save for water, soda (including the horrific Coke Lite, which includes a carcinogenic sweetener not found in our Diet Coke), and fruit juices, Saudis tend to drink three things: Saudi coffee, "Saudi champagne," and "what the guy brought."

Saudi coffee consists of roughly ground green coffee boiled with cardamom pods for a really, really, really long time. Much debate ensues around time and proportions, and perhaps someone else can provide a decent recipe. It's meant to be very intense and unsweetened, nearly always served with dates to soften the jolt. The stuff is fantastic, one of the many things (roasted whole lamb, kibbeh, tabbouleh, and the greatest dates in the world) that I miss a great deal from those trips.

You get served Saudi coffee basically everywhere: friendly meetings here or there, more formal affairs, and dinners at people's homes. It's sort of the cocktail for the late night meals I used to enjoy with my friends there, meals that started at 9 pm and usually ended around 2 am; we'd be served that with dates, nuts, and maybe a block of cheese for the American touch.

Saudi hospitality is legend, and it involves serving astonishing amounts of food at every meal, the idea being that guests should never feel that their appetite is making a dent on the largesse of the hosts. Many Saudis who do not serve alcohol before or with a meal serve instead "the famous Saudi champagne," a strange sort of compensatory but bracing and slightly sweet beverage that goes well with food and isn't as overpowering as having, say, mango nectar with your hummous. It consists of sparkling apple cider, a slice of lemon or orange or two, and a few sprigs of mint, sort of like a Lillet aperitif with bubbles but without alcohol. Much ado about Saudi champagne is often made by strict Muslim hosts on behalf of the hooch-deprived Western guest, whose innards, presumed to be pickled by alcohol, must surely be screaming for a fix; effusive compliments of the beverage by same are the only way to avoid extended jokes at one's expense.

Less strict Muslim hosts, on the other hand, are very happy to contribute to the pickling of your and their own innards. I didn't make it into any wine cellars, but I did spend a good deal of time with professional class Saudis who were interested in the progressive school reform project I ran, most of whom had been to college and/or grad school outside of the Kingdom. You can't buy alcohol in stores due to the Kingdom-wide ban, but there is a thriving black market (run, apparently, by "the Germans" -- ) that folks who have the money and desire to do so can buy booze. Unfortunately, that's exactly what they do: they buy booze, understood in the broadest possible terms. Because the supply chain is unreliable, placing an order isn't very practical, so Saudis give their Man some money and hope for the best, insh'Allah. Although there is a constrained set of choices (wine, scotch, gin, and a few other things), one never knows what one gets until one opens the box at home.

So, on any given evening, as you settle into the start of your wonderful three or four hour pre-dinner conversation, your host will offer you a drink, and if you ask what's available, he'll say, "Why, we have what the guy brought!" And you laugh along and accept a nice Johnny Walker Black double, say, or a glass of a strange Chilean red you've never seen before, or a Tanqueray and tonic.

And it tastes really, really good, let me tell you.

[rosebud]

This is fascinating! Thanks for posting and contributing to the etiquette thread. It sort of proves the "Everything You Know is Wrong" rule.

[Jaymes]

... and if you ask what's available, he'll say, "Why, we have what the guy brought!"