What is the one food that everyone else really enjoys but you can't seem to get into? For me, it's coffee; my entire life, I have consumed but two cups. The first was about 14 years ago on a particularly hard to rise school day and, desperately seeking any sort of pick-me-up, I swigged some cold, leftover coffee that was in the fridge - not the world's most enjoyable cup of Joe. The second, came last night after a particularly satisfying Italian meal in Rome. Our meal prerequisite for the night was to come as close to a traditional Italian meal as possible; i.e. antipasti, primo, secondo, contorno, dessert, a digestif and of course, no Italian meal would be complete without wine and coffee. Here is what we ended up having:

Caprese salad
Beef carpaccio
Proscuitto e formagio

Rigatoni alla carbonara

Steak fillet with balsamic reduction, greens and parm. cheese (sorry, forgot the Italian words)

Tiramisu

Wine
Grappa (the girls had limoncello)

After all that, how could one not finish with a coffee? And, if you know me, you know I have a tendency to overdo certain things, so I ordered up an espresso*. The verdict? Not half bad, actually. My first response was that it tasted a lot like chocolate covered espresso beans (duh), was quite palatable and I would not be opposed to ordering another one down the road (the thought of ordering another one at dinner crossed my mind, but so did the notion of sleeping sometime in the next 72 hours). Now, if I could just get into olives and mushrooms...

* - Evidently, an espresso is the de facto cup of coffee here