Which reminds me. Were you ever sent to far Asia for duties. Specifically Vietnam or Thailand? their coffee culture is interesting in the sense of using milk and an unhealthy amount of sweetened condensed milk.
No, neither Vietnam nor Thailand - though I would dearly love to visit both of them; other Asian countries, yes.
Actually, I have yet to meet an Asian cuisine that I dislike, and some of them I love.
On the topic of milk, condensed or otherwise, most of the Asian countries I have worked in - and the Caucasus, too - don't understand the concept of fresh milk at all, - dairy is not a part of their diet - and it is almost impossible to obtain it.
Thus, in those countries, I tended to drink my coffee black.
And, while I can forego a lot, the one thing I do miss when I am away for a few months at a time is cheese. Here, at home, or anywhere in Europe, a cheeseboard is - not a luxury, but something I would eat on an almost daily basis, certainly, several times a week.
Abroad, I miss cheese, and, en route home from the train station (having caught the train after the plane had landed) will often request that the taxi stop, and wait for me outside the cheesemonger's while I stock up.
Before my mother developed her advanced Alzheimer's she used to have a cheeseboard ready for me when I arrived home, having visited the cheesemonger that day, or the previous day with a plaintive request for them to give her a selection of cheeses - hard, soft, blue - that they knew I liked. They always obliged.
