Reading Food

Have you heard of a tea sock?

A tea sock (photo) is used to strain Thai tea. That's Thai tea, not chai.

note: I loathe the word chai. Only a wannabe would use that word.:)

Back to Thai tea.

What follows is a method for making Thai tea that was handed down to me from a Thai friend, as it was handed down to her from her parents.

To make Thai tea, a bag of Thai tea is needed.

The bag I speak of looks like this and is shipped from Thailand. You can find this bag of Thai tea in many Asia food stores, such as this one for example. store.

As for the items needed to make Thai tea you need:

1.)a large pot for boiling approximately 1 gallon.
2.)half of a bag of Thai tea (photo)
3.)a tea sock
4.)a large jar ( I usually use a glass kimchi jar like this, found by shopping at Korean supermarkets).
5.)sugar
6.)half-n-half or non-dairy creamer

Steps:

First boil the water and once the water has reached a rapid boil, turn off the stove.

Secondly, take the half bag of Thai tea and place it in the water.

Note: allowing the tea to float and soak slowly, will allow it to act as an "organic lid" of sticks and powdered tea particles, where proper steeping occurs.

Thirdly, let the tea set for a good hour.

Note: a good hour means to leave the tea to steep while you go and read a book or take a bubble bath and eat toast.

Warning: Using a toaster near a bubble bath may be hazardous to your health. Plus, you'll ruin the toast.

Lastly, strain the tea into the well rinsed and clean kimchee jar. hint: the tea sock's ring should fit neatly around the outside of the tea jar's opening.

hint: pour the near-warm tea slowly in the tea sock as to allow the temperature of the tea entering the glass jar to warm the temperature of the glass. This will prevent the glass from breaking from temperature shock.

hint: do not squeeze tea sock once straining is complete. The bitter essence from the tea leaves will ruin the batch.

Prep for Serving the Thai tea:

Take a cocktail shaker and fill it 3/4 full. Place three table spoons of sugar (depending on your health) and one heaping table spoon of non-dairy creamer and shake well.

Pour into a nice glass, walk out onto the veranda --still doning your robe --and sip your away worries.

What comes around goes around.

Do you also have a recipe for Pearl Tea? A friend of mine calls it Bubble Tea.

I am just me, searching for simplicity.........and a good hair stylist

Do you also have a recipe for Pearl Tea? A friend of mine calls it Bubble Tea.

Yes.

Needed Material:

1.) Bag of tapioca pearl
2.) Water (per directions on package of tapioca)Some bags have no directions depending on the manufacturer.
3.) 1/2 cup of sugar (optional and not recommended usually)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Boil water
2. Place tapioca in the water
3. Reduce heat to low and let simmer (cooking time depends on amount of pearl used.

Serving Instructions:

Use within one or two days in *novel drink of choice. Enjoy!

Extended cooking instructions with bonus tidbits of pertinent information:

The tapioca "pearls" take a bit of practice to cook nicely.

The reason is, if they are cooked at a too high-of-heat, then they will be crumbly or hard \an the center and soft on the outside. Gooey-soft.

If the tapioca is cooked at a too low-of-heat, they will be mushy-soft on the outside and tacky-soft on the inside.

For each cup of tapioca, use a cup and a half of water (this is similar in the ratio when cooking rice, except for rice it is one and one-fourth cup of water to each cup of rice.

(note: there are many sizes of tapioca and they are used for different receipes. Buy the that is similar to that of a regular-sized marble. The amount of water needed for cooking the pearl will depend on the amount of pearls needed.

When purchasing the tapioca, you may see products advertizing as "starter kits" and what not. These work well but are costly. If you are able to shop at an Asian market, tapioca is usually very inexpensive.

Most bags of tapioca will not include instructions. If they do, they usually are in Chinese or are inadequately translated in to English. There are some directions in Tegalog, and Indonesian, even.

Read cooking directions off of an expensive starter-kit package and then buy the inexpensive bag of tapioca.

Tapioca expands and turns dark amber in color to dark cola-brown. When dry and uncooked, it is dusty-rootbeer-foam in color.(how is that for a description)

Stirring occasionally is advised to keep the tapioca from sticking to the botton of the pot.

Aspects of Chinese Language Concerning "Bubble teas" or Milk Teas or drinks that contain tapioca:

Zhen1 zhu1 nai3 cha2 means pearl milk tea, in Mandarin. The term in Cantonese is bo1 ba4 nai2 cha3 (note: numbers after the italicized word refers to the intonation used when pronouncing the words). Because I did not study Cantonese, I can not give any information on the origin of bo ba, but I have heard a rumor that a Hong Kong actress with...

*novel drinks refers to "bubble teas," "pearl teas" or other drinks such as: smoothies, icees, shakes, Thai tea, and ice bowls.

What comes around goes around.