First of all, as I peered into the restaurant right after parking, their TV was not tuned to that. Instead, their TV(s) was/were being used for their menu. I don't know if the owners of the restaurant also own the Yemeni coffee place right next to it, but they were showing the Game on their outdoor patio. Sold. Plus, I heard good things about this place, so this was a good time to try it out and try something I've never tried before.
Well, the victuals and libations were great but the atmosphere wasn't. Well, the Match-watching wasn't. For some damn reason, the TV was using a stick or a streamer that tuned in to not Fox Sports 1 or Telemundo but the Arabic feed for BeIn, which I guess holds the rights to the World Cup in the Arab world. Why they just didn't bleepin' get satellite is beyond me, because this feed or stick or streamer or television set had this nasty habit of cutting out and reverting to audio every five minutes, and the only way to restore the picture was to use the remote control and hit a button. The first time this happened the people on the patio watching the Game were scrambling, and by the time we got the video feed back, Switzerland scored what eventually became the Match-winner. I was going to stay the whole Match, but I was done after the First Half. Well, the mosquitos biting me didn't help, either.
The problem with watching World Cup Games in restaurants and pubs is that I feel compelled to give them business by buying food and drink. So I have bought a lot of food and drink, including yesterday/Thursday. I got out of work at a very decent time, so I had the chance to see Portugal-Croatia in its entirety, and I decided to go to this Mexican place to see the whole thing. And since I was staying for two hours, I bought a plate of barbacoa chilaquiles with a Corona before the First Half, then a cup of esquites with a Coke for the Second Half. I got so damn full after that, but I was determined to try out this new place and challenge my palate with "ethnic" food and drink.
And, of course, my stomach is distended because of it. I settled for Dubai chocolate cake, which has been a cliche for two years now, but it was good. So was the Adeni tea that I had ... er, am still having. As of press time, I'm still not done with the cup. It's a medium-sized cup, something akin to a medium from Caribou. And while I sometimes need to finish up the mochas that evening, the only times I haven't finished drinks like that is when I forgot, and then I have to drink quick in the morning.
That is not necessarily the case with this. My stomach might have been telling me it couldn't, um, stomach any more liquids after eating at the Mexican place. Also, I have to say that Adeni team was damn hot. I got it early in the First Half, and even as the Game went to Halftime, the cup was hot to the touch. The hot and humid weather can't explain that. But I got home to drink this tea while watching from my bedroom for the Second Half. I tried to drink it all because it was only warm at this point. But by God, I couldn't get done with this. Swear to God this is a bottomless cup of Adeni tea. If this were a a mocha from Caribou, chances are I could finish it. But there was still more, and still more, and still more, no matter how much I drank.
Finally, I remembered that I juiced the other half-lemon before going to the Mexican restaurant, so I needed to make myself a cocktail (a sidecar) to use the lemon juice. So that means I have tea left over. Oh, and I still have coffee from work yesterday/Thursday left over, too. And I still need to drink my sidecar, but right now I am sipping only because I am damn full.
I checked the World Cup schedule for next week. Since we're getting into the really important Games, the number of them obviously dwindles, and they'll be played in the afternoons when I'm working. USMNT is playing Monday night. Other than that, I do not need to go out and eat and drink to watch soccer the rest of next week until next Saturday. Maybe I will stop eating and drinking so much then. And hopefully I will have drank all the tea by then, too.
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