Like Tea Dust in the Wind

This is my tea station at work... more specifically it's the right side of this table in my office where I put all my tea stuff. When I can maintain the rhythm and routine, I will drink tea every morning via a convenient method of using my tea infuser/tumbler and this Zojirushi water heater. It still kinda impresses me how I can do it so easily within an office, which seems to add to the zen-like experience of tea drinking over all... maybe.

Anyway, the mesh screen on my tea infuser is starting to develop larger holes in it from regular use. In addition to that, it's not a superfine screen to begin with. It would normally be a problem for most people, except I happen to almost exclusively drink sencha. Specifically, most of the sencha I use is fairly brittle and either ends up getting broken into smaller pieces, or just turned out that way via it's processing to begin with. There's also usually a good amount of what I like to call "shake" (also referred to as fannings or dust).

Anyone got a bowl?

I usually buy good quality tea in the first place, so it's not like this shake is bullshit grade stuff you would find in a Lipton-esque tea bag (although it closely resembles what you would find if you emptied one), but if I don't separate it, then it gets through the screen of my infuser. Drinking tea fragments in your brewed tea isn't a bad thing either and it's something that happens 90% of the time anyway, especially if brewing via a traditional method (kyusu, etc).

So several months ago I started to try and remove as much as the shake as I can before hand, which is actually pretty easy. I just put the tea into the lid of the infuser and use it like a flour sifter, moving it back and forth until no more small particles make their way through. A lot of the time its a bit depressing too, seeing just how much shake there is in some of the more expensive teas I buy and knowing that it's "going to waste". Seriously, I'll buy a 3oz can of shincha for like $50 and probably end up sifting out 30-40% of it out onto the table. Sometimes I don't know if it's my fault for acquiring a new found sense of OCD or if the tea producers are just not being as careful during the processing of the leaves as they should be.

Spending the 4th Eating Garbage

I didn't end up doing anything on Independence Day this year, at least nothing special. Since I was going to waste the day anyhow, I thought I should at least eat some fast food: a truly American past time. On top of that, why not go to Sonic again, since it is "America's Drive-In".

I love spicy stuff and was going to get this new Blazin' BBQ burger, which sounded pretty amazing considering it has fried jalapeno, regular jalapeno, habenero sauce and pepperjack cheese... but I was suffering from a hangover and the thought of all that spice made my stomach start filing papers to get clearance from my esophagus for "reverse digestion". So I went with "The Ring Leader" instead, which is basically a bacon cheeseburger with grilled onions, and an onion ring. Honestly, I would've preferred a normal burger, but since I started this blog I'm making myself try new things.

Where's Michael Douglas when you need him? (see below)

Despite it looking like shit (most fast food does), it was so-so. Wait, I take that back, the onion ring situation made it kinda gross. I'm not a connoisseur of onion rings or anything, but I didn't like this at all. The breading on it was doughy, like a piece of bread that wasn't cooked enough. So that taste just spread across my tongue when I bit into it and then the onion slipped out of the fried coating, like onion rings always do... it was a fucking mess. I can't even remember tasting or seeing the grilled onions either, maybe they're what really made it taste strange? Who knows.

Overall, this burger is almost complete bullshit though. I mean, can you really expect anything good to come of this idea? Fried stuff needs to be on it's own, not sandwiched in between greasy ass cheese and meat on a bun. I should've gotten the BBQ one instead, lesson learned.

Trader Joe's Quinoa Duo

Saw this at TJ's the other day and thought it would be a good side dish for some fish or something. However... it was the weekend, I was hungry, lazy and impatient, and ended up cooking and eating the entire bag by itself.

If you've never had quinoa before, it's like a grain-rice-corn hybrid thing and is fluffy and slightly crunchy. It's one of those things that you probably never had unless you have a vegetarian/vegan friend, or are one yourself.

As you probably see, this has bits of zucchini and sweet potato mixed in, as well as a bunch of seasonings. I swore I tasted a hint of cinnamon, but there wasn't any. Funny thing is that I think the same exact thing every time I make TJ's penne pasta... which makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, this Quinoa is super easy to make, just dump it in a covered bowl and microwave. If I recall correctly, quinoa is one of those things that takes awhile to cook normally, so this is much better. Also, I don't ever see myself cooking it from scratch in the first place.

I would recommend it though, just don't eat the entire bag by yourself like I did.

Doctor Strangebrew or: How I Learned To Stop Complaining and Love Tea [part 2]

 Again, all I have to say is thank god for Wegman's... if it weren't for their insane mission to stock as many amazing food products as they do, I wouldn't have become the avid tea drinker that I am. They're planning on opening new stores in Maryland and a bunch of people were complaining about how "un-green" they are and that they're trying to muscle out competition, but all those people need to shut up. To my knowledge, they were one of the first chain stores to not only carry Ito En products, but to sell them cheaper than anywhere else ($1.50 per 16.9oz bottle... suck on that Whole Foods!)

Curry Rice On The Go

Today I decided to make some Japanese curry rice (kare raisu) at my office for lunch. For those of you not familiar with the dish, here's what it normally looks like:

As you can (kinda) see, it's not really anything like Indian curry, except it does use curry powder/garam masala. It's more like a thick stew with curry spices, apparently it's based on "English curry"... I could Google it to better inform myself, but I don't feel like it.

Normally kare raisu is made with potatoes, carrots, onions, some kind of meat, various spices and quite often something sweet like apple and/or honey. It's very popular in Japan and is eaten in restaurants and made at home; families and restaurants usually have their own secret recipes. Per the name, it's served with short-grain sticky rice, or sometimes over a big piece of fried pork (tonkatsu). And... sometimes over spaghetti... the Japanese have some interesting takes on Western food, but I'll talk about that some other time.

Doctor Strangebrew or: How I Learned To Stop Complaining and Love Tea [part 1]

This morning it just dawned upon me that I could take my Ito En fandom to new heights by spending about two hours looking at their website via the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). They only have archives from 2005-2009, but I went ahead and looked through most of them and jotted down some notes pertaining to how their product lineup has changed over the years.

Technically the first time I became aware of Ito En was in 2006 when I went to Japan for the first time. It was during cherry blossom season and I remember walking around Ueno Park doing some hanami. Up until then I was taking the gaijin approach to eating and was mostly going for stuff I was familiar with, but kept on seeing people drinking this stuff out of green bottles. I was getting thirsty from walking around in the sun all day and when I went to get some lunch I ran into one of the million vending machines selling the stuff. I figured if everyone else in the country was drinking it, I should probably give it a try. I don't even think I knew what it was before then either; I probably assumed it was tea but had no idea what kind. It wasn't until much later that I realized it would be my first bottle of Ito En's flagship beverage: Oi Ocha.

Example of "real" Oi Ocha bottle from Japan

That first taste I took... was completely awful. I'm sure a lot of other Americans have the same reaction too, mainly due to our country's preference to sugary/flavored beverages. Oi Ocha is pure Japanese green tea, no flavor or sugar added, but to me it just tasted like they brewed fresh grass clippings and bottled it. I really had a hard time finishing the entire bottle too, in fact I think I did end up throwing away the last 1/4 of it; it had gotten especially gross after it started to get get warm in the sun, too. It would a long time before I would ever cross paths with Ito En again, or even figure out what it was that I had drank that day in Japan.

Sonic Drive-In

Last autumn, the first Sonic was opened in the greater Baltimore area and I was over-joyed. I admit it's probably mainly because I didn't grow up with them around, but I have a strong affection for all of the "non-East Coast" fast food chains, ie. In-N-Out Burger, Whataburger, Jack in the Box, etc.

Right now they're promoting four new hot dogs: New York, Chicago, Chili Cheese Coney and All-American. The Chicago seemed like it could be awesome, so I drove up this weekend in the rain to check it out.