>Homestarrunner has always been hit or miss, but Teen Girl Squad is a definite hit with me. It’s all about the Secret Decemberween Gift Exchange.
On the other side of the coin, what’s up with the live action shorts they’ve started posting? I’m not feeling it.
>There are few perks to being a webmaster. One of them is the fact that all the spam that goes terribly wrong on our server ends up passing through my mailbox. Usually I just read the headers in order to figure out what’s going wrong in the mail system, but the contents of this one caught my eye.
Ever Vigilant,
Mana’olana
The SPAM:
From: Gideon
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2005 7:27 PM
To: Mana’olana
Subject:
How’s it going,
[… stupid crap …]
I can’t wait until you take a glance at their outlet
[… more stupid crap …]
Day and night Tarzan of the Apes raced through drink the primeval forest
toward the party ruined city in which he potato was and Tarzan sat beside
him prosperous and bathed his head and hands and distinguish orthodontist
washed his wounds.
Day and night Tarzan of the Apes raced through know the primeval forest
toward the invitation ruined city in which he show was
See you at the gym later,
Phillips
>
First, let’s get one thing clear. Chai is tea. Tea is chai. The word chai is from an Indian source and the word tea, or more precisely ti, is from a Chinese source. In the end, they both refer to the same plant. In Europe and the Americas, different cultural associations have built up around the two words, but in most respects they are interchangeable.
Indians tend to prepare their chai by heating it in a pot with milk and water. When spices are available, they will often also throw those in the pot.
There is also the coffeeshop product called Chai. This is usually made from a very sweet, flavorful condensed syrup. I assume that it is imitating the flavor of spiced chai. Personally, I think of it as it’s own thing, separate from traditional chai that’s brewed in a pot.
Know your ingredients. Find out the proper steep time for whatever teas you use. When you are using a new type of tea, make yourself a plain cup in order to get an idea of how much you want to use and how long you want to steep it. Do the same thing with your spices as well. Make an infusion with your chai spices and taste it before adding any tea or milk. This will give you an idea of what’s working and what’s not.
The boiling point is important. Some people would advise against ever using water that is at the boiling point when you are brewing tea. They prefer instead to use water that is closer to 80 degrees celsius. In my experience, this is more important with teas than with spices, and it depends on what you are doing with the tea. I prefer tea that has been boiled ever so briefly with milk already in it. When done right, this gives it a rich, creamy flavor. In any case, watching the boiling point is essential. If you overcook chai, it quickly becomes bitter and flavorless.
Experiment for yourself. Try toasting your spices before adding them to an infusion. Change around the timing to see how your results change. Try cooking the tea with a hearty amount of milk, letting the milk foam up a bit before you take it off the heat. (At chai stands in India, they often pick up the milk chai with a mug or ladel, pouring it back into the pot over and over. This keeps the chai at the boiling point without boiling over.) Have fun.
Wherever Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche visits, the cooks always have this simple tea on hand for every meal. I’ve grown quite fond of it myself. The amounts listed here make enough tea for 2 or 3 people. It works to scale the recipe as long as you maintain the same 3:3:1 ratio.
3 cups Water (Filtered or Spring)
3 bags Twining’s English Breakfast Tea*
1 cup Organic Whole Milk
Pre-Warm your teapot and set it aside. If necessary, wrap it in a towel to keep it warm.
Put the water and the teabags in a pot. I tie the teabags together so that they are easy to remove later. Put the pot on a high heat and have the milk ready to add. As soon as the pot starts to boil, add the milk. When it comes to a boil the second time, take it off the heat and remove the teabags. Transfer the tea into your pre-warmed teapot and serve promptly.
As with any tea, it is important to serve this tea fresh; It should not sit around for more than 30 minutes.
If you are using loose leaf tea, it is best to experiment a bit to figure out how much you want to use. As a rule of thumb, you could try using a tablespoon of Assam or Ceylon.
*Note: If you are making this for Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche, you should make every effort to use Twining’s English Breakfast tea. Other blends and other brands just aren’t a hit with him.
[Coming Soon]
Common Chai Spices
Cinnamon
Cardamom
Coriander Seeds
Black Peppercorns
Whole Cloves
Dried Orange Peel
Dried Ginger
Fresh Ginger
Garam Masala (spice blend including some of the above)
Less Common Chai Spices
Chipotle Chilis
Sage
Nutmeg
Blueberries
Pomegranate Seeds
Anise
Licorice Root
Lemongrass
Lemon Verbena
At World Merchants Spice Shop in Seattle, they stock a variety of black, green and white teas along with a selection of pre-mixed blends of chai spices. If you order tea to drink there, they will prepare it in a French Press (a.k.a Cafetiere). They are very careful about timing, aiming to brew a perfectly blended cup of chai. The fundamental idea is that each type of tea has its own ideal steeping time, usually between 3-5 minutes for black teas and between 1-3 minutes for green teas. After this point, the tea will become increasingly bitter and astringent, obscuring the more subtle pleasant tastes. Meanwhile, the spices we mix into chai can infuse for much longer, adding to the flavor of your chai without making it bitter.
Select your spice blend and the tea that you will be brewing into the chai.
For 2 cups of water, measure out about 3 tablespoons of spices. Break up the spices by pulsing them in a spice grinder or using a mortar and pestle. Pour them into the bottom of the French Press and pour the hot water over them*. Allow the spices to infuse alone for 4 to 6 minutes and then add the tea. Allow the tea to steep along with the spices for that particular tea’s steep time. When the time is up, push down the plunger and serve the chai. Add warm milk and sweetener to taste.
*Note: As noted before, some would advise against ever using water that is at the boiling point, preferring instead to use water that is closer to 80 degrees celsius.
When digging in a friend’s cabinet, I found a canister of “Wild Blueberry” tea bags from The Republic of Tea. The description read: “Fine Black Tea with Sweet Blueberries”. I was intrigued, so I threw one of those into my morning chai instead of plain black tea. The results were quite pleasing. I would have looked to buy a canister for myself, but the label on the lid indicated that this was a Limited Edition tea. “When It’s Gone, It’s Gone.” Luckily, there was a jar of dried blueberries in the cabinet, picked off of the wild bushes in the back yard. After tinkering with the amounts a bit, I settled on my own recipe:
For 3 cups of water, grind 2 to 4 teaspoons of dried Blueberries. Adjust the amount depending on your preference and the pungence of the berries. (The wild berries I was using were pretty dull in flavor.) Follow the instructions for Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s Milk Tea, adding the ground berries to your tea as early as possible in the brewing process.
I’ve found that I like this chai without any other spices to muck it up. I tried adding Cardamon, but it just seemed to deaden the flavor of the Blueberries.
>I came up with this recipe on the spot last night. I love having pasta with wilted dark, leafy greens. It’s a nice change from the standard marinara and ragu sauces.
1lb Tofu
1 1/2 c Red Chard
1 1/2 c Spinach – shredded
1 c Mushrooms – sliced
1med. Onion – julienne
1/2 lb Tagliatelle
1/2 c Soup Stock or White Wine (or mix both)
2-3 cloves Garlic – chopped
2 Tbsp Parsley (fresh or dry)
1 Tbsp Basil (fresh or dry)
2 tsp Hungarian Paprika
1-2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp Coriander Seed – ground
1/4 lb Fresh Parmesean Cheese – grated
Olive Oil, Black Pepper, Salt
Cook the pasta according to your own tastes.
Blanch the tofu. Save the water for cooking the pasta in. If you don’t spread out the tofu while it cools, the pieces will meld together into big lumps. It’s not the end of the world, but best to avoid it.
Heat a medium frying pan. Add 3 Tbsp olive oil. When oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, coriander, pepper flakes, and paprika along with a bit of salt. Stir frequently.
When the onions are clear, add the mushrooms. Stir to coat the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have started to cook, add the soup stock. If you are using dry parsley or basil, add it now. Simmer while stirring occasionally. If you want more of a sauce at the end, add more liquid and maybe some butter or olive oil.
Add the tofu and stir it in so that it gets coated with sauce. Simmer for a while.
About 3 or 4 minutes before you want to plate the food, add the greens and fold them in with everything else in the pan so that they wilt. If you are using fresh basil or parsley, add them now. When the greens have wilted, add parmesean, salt and pepper to taste.
Plate the pasta and top it with the Tofu & Greens. Alternately, toss all the ingredients together and then plate.
Serve with Parmesean, Salt, and Fresh Ground Pepper.
When I made this for myself, I had lowfat vanilla yogurt with diced bananas for dessert.
Serves 2
>This is a re-post from my blog on mySpace.
I lived in Seattle from 1999-2001. Since then, I’ve spent a fair amount of my time in New York City. In that period, I’ve found that while Manhattan and Brooklyn are full of neat places to discover, Seattle is the city I think of when it comes to uncovering real show-stoppers. The dives here are real dives (Hurricane, Hana Teriyaki, Sonya’s), the hidden treats are almost magically hidden (ZigZag, ReBar, The Hideout, Mai Phim), and the jewels are worth recommending over and over (Tenzing Momo & World Merchants in Pike Place Market, Tanh Bros. on Broadway, Mesob on Cherry, Thai Tom on University Ave).
What sweetens this pot even more is the fact that these gems are paired with the perfect setting: Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains to the East, Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to the West, Mount Ranier to the South. As atmospheric conditions fluctuate, the views from Seattle’s hilltops fade from brilliant panorama to blank, misty grey slate. Some days, you won’t even think to look beyond the vibrant green moss on the sidewalks and walls. Other days, the mountains will stun you into forgetting about everything but the sun glinting off of their snowy caps.
Since moving away from Seattle, I’ve come to rely on my friends to sniff out the latest treasures in the Emerald City. Each of my annual visits is augmented by a rolling tour through the fresh newbies and the old standards. Today, thanks to the Very Lovely Kay Morrison, I’ve got two additions for my list of favorites: (1)Panama Hotel Tea & Coffee, and (2)Seattle Deli.
In the International District on Main Street, just east of 6th Ave
This year I confirmed that Seattle’s reputation for great coffee is more than just cliche. Last week I was falling asleep at a seminar and was forced to resort to pulling a cup of joe from the urn in the back of the room. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be the best cup of coffee I’ve tasted in months. Yes, it’s true: Forgotten urns at seminars in Seattle dispense better coffee than most coffee shops in Manhattan. Hands down. With Seattle’s coffee market thus inundated with quality java, what is left for the enterprising business to do? The answer is tea. There are very few places to purchase qualtiy tea in Seattle and there are even fewer good places to consume it. Gladly, there is one new establishment that is looking to fill that void.
The Panama Hotel is hidden in a part of the International District that was, until recently, all apartment buildings and empty store fronts. In our search for this place, my companion Kay and I spent some time wandering around the flat part of 6th and 7th Avenues down by Uwajimaya. Finally, we gave up on that and crossed Jackson in order to trekk up the hill on the downtown side. I was surprised to find a number of restaurants up there on that hill, many of which seemed quite nice. (To be honest, I think I remember hearing a rumor about an amazing Japanese restaurant in this area, but I digress…) We reached main street, turned right, and there it was: a faded neon sign from the mid-20th century with “Panama Hotel” painted on it in white on baby blue. A newer sign on the sidewalk confirmed that we were in the right place. In we went.
The interior of the shop has fresh paint on the walls and shows the signs of a talented decorator with a passion for local history. Touches of exposed brick are pared with dark hardwood moldings, sturdy wooden and wicker furniture, refinished hardwood floors (old, original wood), and plaster walls painted in a rich cream color. The walls are lined with Black & White photos chronicling the history of the International District. Many of the photos are labeled with post-it notes naming buildings and shopkeepers (mostly Japanese-American). Others have notes written directly on the pictures and the glass framing.
The furniture is sparse, giving a sense of space that is lacking in most coffee shops. We will see if the number of tables increases when patronage starts to rise. Thanks to free Wi-fi, most of the tables had at least one laptop user quietly tapping away. About 50 percent of the people in the room were speaking either Japanese or Chinese. The music was sedated and tasteful, set at a volume level where you could hear it if you listened but could just as easily ignore it altogether.
The tea menu is not extensive, but the selection is sure to satisfy any palate. We ordered a pot of “Bombay Market”, a black tea blend whose perfume is like passion fruit with soft hints of spices. The tea was brewed to perfection and brought to our table in a glass pot along with sandblasted glass teacups on bamboo coasters. Everything was exemplary. We polished off the tea while Kay pored over spreadsheets and I wrote this review.
I’m a sucker for well-crafted experiences and overall that is what Panama Hotel provides. This place is sure to become a Seattle Favorite, though I worry that it might lose its real beauty when the crowds start to arrive.
12th Ave, just north of Jackson
I can’t believe I never ate here before. The Seattle Deli is a little nondescript storefront on the west side of 12th Avenue. The jumble of food piled up in this place is absolutely delectable. From Vietnamese Tofu Sandwiches to rice and goodies steamed in banana leaves, the options are so numerous that I froze up when I arrived.
The counter is piled with spring rolls and rice noodle salads wrapped in plastic on styrofoam platters. Each plate disctinct from the next and all of them ready to eat. No microwave required. For those who require something hot, there is a steam table offering mouthwatering tofu, sides of spicy chicken, whole fried fish, and more obscure dishes like whole shrimp stir-fried in a spicy sauce along with giant cubes of bacon. There’s something for everyone amidst the piles. I could eat there every day for a week without getting bored. It wouldn’t put much of a dent in my wallet either. A light lunch for two cost less than $5 and a 3-course feast for three could easily top off at $12.
flyingzumwalt 