Sakura Sencha

Whenever I talk to someone about tea, there's a good chance I'll say how I only drink "real" tea and how there's a difference between tea and tisanes ("herbal tea" that contains no camellia sinensis). And even though Jasmine green tea was the stepping stone into my current tea obsession, I can't remember the last time I actually drank a flavored/infused tea. This week at Wegman's though I saw that they had some Sakura Sencha in their loose leaf section and I can't recall ever seeing it there before. And since I just ran out of my green tea stock, I thought it a good idea to give this a try.

Frozen Organic Surprise

Lunch time at work for me usually means something involving a loaf of bread, the salad bar or take-out, and it is rare I deviate from this pattern. In Wegman's the other day, I decided to cruise the organic/natural section a little more intently then usual and found these Organic Bistro line of frozen meals. There were only like 3-4 kinds, including this "Thai Style Yellow Curry with Chicken" and they all looked promising. Normally I get all my frozen meals from Trader Joe's, and even then I don't spend more than like $4 a piece. Also, I only eat them at home. But here I was, on my lunch shopping trip from work, and I thought "fuck it... I'm going to GO CRAZY AND BUY THIS FROZEN MEAL FOR LUNCH, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT ON SALE" (it's difficult and pathetic to explain why this is a big deal for me in any way at all).

Not the actual picture I should have taken to exemplify the following point...

So when I get back to the office to pop this thing in the microwave, the first thing I notice is that the chicken appears to be raw. Uncooked, frozen chicken in a frozen dinner? That seemed ridiculous, so I asked my co-worker what he thought and he was equally perplexed. Then I noticed the little note at the bottom of the cooking instructions:

* Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots

What the hell? That's way too much effort for a frozen meal and it only further supports my thoughts of the chicken not being cooked yet.

Then I calmed down and thought about it for a second... obviously this thing made it to the shelf somehow, so I'm sure they know what they're doing. I also noticed how the rest of the stuff in the bowl looked pretty fresh and "real", for lack of a better word, so maybe they're on to something here

 

After playing global thermonuclear war with it, the chicken still bothered me. It looked like, and had the consistency of tuna, maybe a side effect from being cooked in a microwave? No idea. All I do know is that it was actually the best chicken I've ever tasted out of a frozen meal. It was super tender, juicy and overall had a good taste. In addition to that, all of the vegetables tasted equally as fresh. This came as a real surprise, especially since it wasn't even in a special cooking container. It makes all the people at Hot Pockets and Stouffer's look like assholes for taking years to develop those reflective sleeves and cooking trays only to have this company get the job done with nothing more than a paper bowl in a loose cellophane bag.

After mixing all the ingredients together

Last but not least, the actual curry sauce was pretty good, too. The best part is that there was just enough of it to go around and the rest of the items weren't swimming in it. All of the ingredients were allowed to "speak for themselves" and all was right in the world.

So yeah, I'd say this was probably one of the best frozen meals I've ever had, and I've been around the block a few times when it comes to frozen meals. If you've got $5 that you're committed on spending in the frozen foods section, I don't think you'd be disappointed with one of these.

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.