Herbal “tea” is not real tea
2019. After dinner on New Year’s Eve, we asked our guests (my brother and his family) if they wanted coffee or tea. My brother said he’d have tea and my daughter, Alex, …
Food Tales
To understand food and its cultural and social significance, it is often necessary to go beyond recipes and cooking tips. This section includes a comprehensive guide on ramen broth, a history of mac and cheese, a dive into the (mostly Western) misconception that sate / satay is peanut sauce and how chocolate evolved to become the (second?) most popular Valentine's Day gift.
Pourover coffee
I wasn’t always a coffee drinker. In grade school, I remember having hot cocoa in the morning. In college, it was loose leaf tea. It wasn’t until I was in law school that …
A coffee class in Saigon
March, 2019. Ho Chi Minh City. I still call it Saigon though. A result, perhaps, of listening to Billy Joel’s Goodnight Saigon for decades, and watching Lea Salonga in …
The civet coffee hype
For the uninitiated, the Philippines’ coffee alamid — kopi luwak in Indonesia and kafé-laku in East Timor — is known by the rest of the world as civet coffee.
Coffee used to be Satan’s drink
It’s true. Drinking wine was associated with Jesus while coffee was a drink popular in the Arab world.
Merienda
In grade school, we called it recess — a 15-to-20-minute break between the first class and lunch time. When we got home from school, we ate merienda before starting with …
Iced rose “tea” is the perfect summer drink
An infusion made with dried flower buds, rose “tea” is a delightfully refreshing herbal brew with an unmistakable floral scent and flavor. It’s good hot or cold, and it’s …