Veracruz's business card: Balogaia Cafe, a comfortable retro cafe tourist destination.

Li Zhenyu Mexico

Restaurant owners, fishing fanatics, veteran international migrant workers have worked hard in America and Africa for 24 years. As the poem says: the longer this old owl lives, the more he sees, the more he sees and the less he says.

When tourists come to Veracruz for a trip, the local Mo must ask them if they have ever been to the Balogaya Cafe for coffee. No? Oh, my God, man! Then you have come to Veracruz for nothing!

It is said that Balogaya Cafe has a history of more than 100 years. When Dad started his business, he became famous locally. When the father died, the coffee shop passed to the son, and the son was also a conscientious and honest businessman who doubled the next business from his father and spent a lot of money to order a giant coffee stove rarely seen in the world from Italy. The brass is glittering and glittering in the cashier, becoming the signboard of Balogaya Cafe and the treasure of the town shop. It is said that this stove makes more than a thousand cups of coffee to entertain guests every day. Later, the coffee shop passed to the grandson's generation, who were brothers. I don't know why they disagreed. In a fit of anger, the younger brother and his brother split up and opened a new cafe, also called Balogaia. When the family was separated, there was a lawsuit over the coffee stove, and as a result, the baby was awarded to his brother by the court, so Veracruz had two Balogaya cafes.

The ancestral Balogaya is in the city center, and the new one is located on Camacho Street facing the sea, each with fans. The elderly citizens of Veracruz, out of nostalgia, tend to prefer the old one, which they think is romantic, just like the old Shanghainese who have to go to the Pavilion in the middle of the lake for tea in the morning. The younger generation likes new things and always patronizes the new one, because the new one has a modern flavor from architecture to decoration. On the other hand, tourists who come from other places always go to the house handed down by their father, drink coffee and look at the old pictures of Veracruz on the surrounding walls, and then go to the new one another day to see the legendary Italian coffee oven. try the difference between the two Balogaya coffee and West Point, and end up doing business for both.

Balogaya Cafe is famous because of its fastidiousness about its ingredients. For example, although Mexico has excellent varieties like Chiapas Heights, Balogaia chose local coffee beans from Cordoba, Veracruz, with a sour aftertaste but strong aromas. in line with the tricky taste of the local foodie. When the coffee is distilled and filtered into a concentrate in the coffee oven, instead of hot water, they add hot milk-all from a private farm in Balogaya, and the cows have to be a cross between Dutch and Mexican dairy cows. it is said that there are private standards for the content of milk fat. After drinking this kind of coffee, of course you scoff at the so-called "fragrant drop" instant coffee. This is the case with coffee, and the West Diet with coffee is even more unambiguous. Many of the two Balogaya pastry chefs belong to the family of West Point chefs, and their grandparents and grandchildren have worked for Balogaia for three generations. A simple Butterfly Cookies, they can make "hold in the hand afraid of broken in the mouth afraid of melting" artistic conception. By the way, Balogaya's chef's salary is kept secret. Unlike other cafes, Balogaya allows guests to tap the coffee cup with a coffee spoon to remind the waiter to refill his cup. The volume and frequency of the tapping can convey "Please give me a little more" until "hurry up. I'm getting impatient."

In Balogaya, guests can choose from local signature breakfast coffee, American black coffee, Italian-flavored espresso and cappuccino to Mexican-flabby iced coffee with thick whipped cream and chocolate syrup, and playfully insert three crispy finger biscuits, which are popular with children and ladies.

The prestigious Balogaya Cafe has become a city business card that Veracruz can come up with. In the guidebook, it is always lined up with Bocadrio's famous seafood restaurants and has become a must for both domestic and foreign tourists.

We usually like to go to the new Balogaya, but the old one is inconvenient because it is troublesome to park in the city center. The new one, which faces the sea and harbor, has an excellent view. With a cup of coffee in hand, you can see the red roof of the marine aquarium and the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater, where I often go fishing. On the sea outside the port, huge ships from all over the world filed in and out, and tourist boats with colorful flags were full of cheerful tourists shuttling back and forth. In the cafe, the aroma of coffee is full of, the old people are drinking coffee and gossiping, the young couples are hugging and kissing endlessly, the children are crushing bread and teasing the pigeons cooing and looking for food, everything is so peaceful and peaceful.

Tapping the cup and beckoning the waiter to come over to refill the coffee, this feeling of stealing half a day's leisure is really good!

Source: morning News