Christmas Eve roundup
For me, the war Christmas retail season is over. (Not really, because there will be after-Christmas sales and people spending the gift cards they received for Christmas, but today I choose to believe that it is over.)
I'm at home, cooking bacon for a late post-work lunch. Later I will steam some tamales; tamales on Christmas Eve are a local tradition. They weren't part of my childhood, because I grew up in another part of the country, one that, unlike New Mexico, is not predominantly Latin@. But tamales are delicious and therefore I am happy to adopt the tradition!
In the end, I decided on a relaxed, low-cooking Christmas. Tomorrow I will bake a loaf of bread and eat it with some cheese (I bought an aged Manchego and some Taleggio, not my ideal choices but for some reason it's hard to get good cheeses here) and some paté. If I start to feel that I must have Real Food, I will cook a creamy potato soup with ham. I have fancy ginger beer to drink, as well as eggnog and the last of the good apple cider. And there's some leftover pumpkin spice cake with ginger and cream cheese frosting (I took most of it to work the other day), but I will probably end up making some chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls, because they are the most gloriously, childishly delicious thing ever.
In keeping with the food theme, today's December meme topic, from
glinda, is tea. (I'll answer the meme questions I had to skip after Christmas).
The main beverages of my childhood were Coca-Cola and Kool-Aid, but we also drank tea sometimes. My parents would bring a thermos of tea when we had to do things that would keep us away from both home and stores for most of the day, such as cutting boughs (which we sold to Christmas-wreath makers), gathering pine cones (sold, I think, to the Forest Service, who used the seeds), or that traditional pastime of the rural poor, dump-picking. Dump-picking is what it sounds like: you go to the dump/landfill and you pick for things like aluminum cans and copper wire, which you then sell to recycling companies, and for usable objects. We got a lot of stuff from the dump when I was a kid. My first book of poetry, which I still have, came from the dump. So, anyway, these excursions included a thermos of hot Lipton tea with sugar. And also, as I recall, hard-boiled eggs--not in the thermos, obviously.
Another occasion for tea in my childhood was if you were sick. Colds and especially stomach-aches were dosed with the same sweet Lipton tea.
The last childhood association I have with tea is those rare occasions when we ate at the Chinese Dragon restaurant, which I talked about a little here. I loved having my own little metal teapot to fill the tiny cup from.
I don't remember drinking tea as part of an ordinary childhood meal or just for the sake of drinking tea, though. Which doesn't necessarily mean that I didn't; a lot of my childhood memories are kind of vague, and what I remember tends to be exceptions to the routine.
Anyway, I didn't discover that tea could be more than a handy portable warm drink/cure for sickness until I was in my 30s. While I was living in Washington DC, I happened to go to a Japanese restaurant that served green tea automatically to all the guests. The food was mediocre in my opinion, but I fell in love with the tea. It had a rich, vegetable-y taste, almost like soup. Unfortunately I was too shy to ask what kind of tea it was, although I can guess now that it was probably hojicha, which is a low-grade green tea that's roasted to create a deeper flavor and eliminate the bitterness that Japanese green teas can have.
I wanted to have that flavor at home, and that's how I began to explore tea. Washington DC had some good options for trying new teas, and so did Minneapolis where I lived after that, but unfortunately Santa Fe lacks in that department--there's one place that sells a semi-reasonable variety of good teas, but it's ridiculously expensive and they won't let you buy in quantities smaller than 2 ounces/60 grams, which is a lot of tea.
Anyway, my favorite teas are still the Japanese greens. Hojicha and Genmaicha (green tea with roasted rice) are full-flavored and great for everyday drinking, as well as low in caffeine so they can be drunk at night. Sencha, which is a better quality plain green tea, is more delicate and herbal, also sometimes seaweedy (this is a quality I like) but can be bitter. My absolute favorite is gyokuro, which naturally is both rare and expensive. Gyokoru is made from best-quality tea leaves, shade-grown and specially processed to produce a mild, slightly sweet, incredibly aromatic and beautifully pale-jade tea. It's brewed in colder water than any other tea (advice varies, but around 130-140 F for first brewing) to preserve the flavor, and in Japan is served, in very very tiny cups, for special occasions. As I understand it, the best gyokuro never leaves Japan. But even not-best gyokuro is special.
I'm not as familiar with Chinese green teas. They taste considerably different from Japanese ones--stronger and more earthy--and I don't like them as much. Tea Source in Minnesota sells a high-quality Pi Lo Chun (they call it Pi Lo Chun Imperial) that I used to love, though. Unfortunately I haven't had it in ages and can't remember exactly what I loved about it.
Black teas tend to be too tannic and astringent for me. In the mornings, when I just need the caffeine boost, I'll drink a black tea blend with milk and sugar, but I seldom drink black teas plain for pleasure. One exception is good darjeeling, which has less astringency, a slight sweetness, and a lovely wine-y quality. And in the summer, I use plain black tea to make iced tea. When it's cold I find it more drinkable, somehow, even though I don't sweeten my iced tea.
I love white teas when I can get a good one, but a bad white tea (like the "White Symphony" tea that I bought locally a while back) can be undrinkable. At their best, they're delicate, aromatic, and lovely.
I can be a bit of a snob about flavored teas, but there are some I like. Chai, of course, and also a good Earl Grey with lots of bergamot. I think with flavored teas, quality may count even more than usual, because you don't want the flavoring to be covering up inferior tea.
Current my tea cupboard is a little bare, and talking about teas has made me realize how much I need to acquire some more nice ones. I have:
Sencha
Houjicha
Genmaicha
Kokeicha (a Japanese tea in which matcha tea powder is re-formed into "leaves"--I find it too bitter and if you want it and live in the US to keep my postage costs down, it's yours)
White Symphony (anybody want it? you might like it even though I don't)
Ginger Green Tea (it was a gift)
Rooibos Chai (gift, and I like this one actually)
Zhena's Gypsy Tea Vanilla Chai (it was on clearance at the grocery store, and it's not bad as hippie teas go)
Australian Dream tea (a yummy gift from and --it's black tea, lavender, and chamomile)
Darjeeling
Trader Joe's English Breakfast tea bags (= easy caffeine in the mornings)
Yes, apparently for me this counts as not having much tea.
Now I think I'll brew up a cup. Maybe some sencha.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.
I'm at home, cooking bacon for a late post-work lunch. Later I will steam some tamales; tamales on Christmas Eve are a local tradition. They weren't part of my childhood, because I grew up in another part of the country, one that, unlike New Mexico, is not predominantly Latin@. But tamales are delicious and therefore I am happy to adopt the tradition!
In the end, I decided on a relaxed, low-cooking Christmas. Tomorrow I will bake a loaf of bread and eat it with some cheese (I bought an aged Manchego and some Taleggio, not my ideal choices but for some reason it's hard to get good cheeses here) and some paté. If I start to feel that I must have Real Food, I will cook a creamy potato soup with ham. I have fancy ginger beer to drink, as well as eggnog and the last of the good apple cider. And there's some leftover pumpkin spice cake with ginger and cream cheese frosting (I took most of it to work the other day), but I will probably end up making some chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls, because they are the most gloriously, childishly delicious thing ever.
In keeping with the food theme, today's December meme topic, from
glinda, is tea. (I'll answer the meme questions I had to skip after Christmas).
The main beverages of my childhood were Coca-Cola and Kool-Aid, but we also drank tea sometimes. My parents would bring a thermos of tea when we had to do things that would keep us away from both home and stores for most of the day, such as cutting boughs (which we sold to Christmas-wreath makers), gathering pine cones (sold, I think, to the Forest Service, who used the seeds), or that traditional pastime of the rural poor, dump-picking. Dump-picking is what it sounds like: you go to the dump/landfill and you pick for things like aluminum cans and copper wire, which you then sell to recycling companies, and for usable objects. We got a lot of stuff from the dump when I was a kid. My first book of poetry, which I still have, came from the dump. So, anyway, these excursions included a thermos of hot Lipton tea with sugar. And also, as I recall, hard-boiled eggs--not in the thermos, obviously.
Another occasion for tea in my childhood was if you were sick. Colds and especially stomach-aches were dosed with the same sweet Lipton tea.
The last childhood association I have with tea is those rare occasions when we ate at the Chinese Dragon restaurant, which I talked about a little here. I loved having my own little metal teapot to fill the tiny cup from.
I don't remember drinking tea as part of an ordinary childhood meal or just for the sake of drinking tea, though. Which doesn't necessarily mean that I didn't; a lot of my childhood memories are kind of vague, and what I remember tends to be exceptions to the routine.
Anyway, I didn't discover that tea could be more than a handy portable warm drink/cure for sickness until I was in my 30s. While I was living in Washington DC, I happened to go to a Japanese restaurant that served green tea automatically to all the guests. The food was mediocre in my opinion, but I fell in love with the tea. It had a rich, vegetable-y taste, almost like soup. Unfortunately I was too shy to ask what kind of tea it was, although I can guess now that it was probably hojicha, which is a low-grade green tea that's roasted to create a deeper flavor and eliminate the bitterness that Japanese green teas can have.
I wanted to have that flavor at home, and that's how I began to explore tea. Washington DC had some good options for trying new teas, and so did Minneapolis where I lived after that, but unfortunately Santa Fe lacks in that department--there's one place that sells a semi-reasonable variety of good teas, but it's ridiculously expensive and they won't let you buy in quantities smaller than 2 ounces/60 grams, which is a lot of tea.
Anyway, my favorite teas are still the Japanese greens. Hojicha and Genmaicha (green tea with roasted rice) are full-flavored and great for everyday drinking, as well as low in caffeine so they can be drunk at night. Sencha, which is a better quality plain green tea, is more delicate and herbal, also sometimes seaweedy (this is a quality I like) but can be bitter. My absolute favorite is gyokuro, which naturally is both rare and expensive. Gyokoru is made from best-quality tea leaves, shade-grown and specially processed to produce a mild, slightly sweet, incredibly aromatic and beautifully pale-jade tea. It's brewed in colder water than any other tea (advice varies, but around 130-140 F for first brewing) to preserve the flavor, and in Japan is served, in very very tiny cups, for special occasions. As I understand it, the best gyokuro never leaves Japan. But even not-best gyokuro is special.
I'm not as familiar with Chinese green teas. They taste considerably different from Japanese ones--stronger and more earthy--and I don't like them as much. Tea Source in Minnesota sells a high-quality Pi Lo Chun (they call it Pi Lo Chun Imperial) that I used to love, though. Unfortunately I haven't had it in ages and can't remember exactly what I loved about it.
Black teas tend to be too tannic and astringent for me. In the mornings, when I just need the caffeine boost, I'll drink a black tea blend with milk and sugar, but I seldom drink black teas plain for pleasure. One exception is good darjeeling, which has less astringency, a slight sweetness, and a lovely wine-y quality. And in the summer, I use plain black tea to make iced tea. When it's cold I find it more drinkable, somehow, even though I don't sweeten my iced tea.
I love white teas when I can get a good one, but a bad white tea (like the "White Symphony" tea that I bought locally a while back) can be undrinkable. At their best, they're delicate, aromatic, and lovely.
I can be a bit of a snob about flavored teas, but there are some I like. Chai, of course, and also a good Earl Grey with lots of bergamot. I think with flavored teas, quality may count even more than usual, because you don't want the flavoring to be covering up inferior tea.
Current my tea cupboard is a little bare, and talking about teas has made me realize how much I need to acquire some more nice ones. I have:
Sencha
Houjicha
Genmaicha
Kokeicha (a Japanese tea in which matcha tea powder is re-formed into "leaves"--I find it too bitter and if you want it and live in the US to keep my postage costs down, it's yours)
White Symphony (anybody want it? you might like it even though I don't)
Ginger Green Tea (it was a gift)
Rooibos Chai (gift, and I like this one actually)
Zhena's Gypsy Tea Vanilla Chai (it was on clearance at the grocery store, and it's not bad as hippie teas go)
Australian Dream tea (a yummy gift from and --it's black tea, lavender, and chamomile)
Darjeeling
Trader Joe's English Breakfast tea bags (= easy caffeine in the mornings)
Yes, apparently for me this counts as not having much tea.
Now I think I'll brew up a cup. Maybe some sencha.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.