London Fog Pots de Crème

London Fog (Earl Grey) Pots de Crème with candied Cocoa Nibs

Homemade Fizzy Grape Kombucha

Homemade Fizzy Kombucha

This Kombucha experiment was anxiety-ridden and exciting and most importantly economical! Do you struggle with paying almost $5 for those bottles of effervescent flavoured kombuchas too?
I failed somewhat in trying to grow my own SCOBY from a bottle of store-bought GT Unflavoured Raw Kombucha.  I don't think I had the right ph balance and I never got anything beyond a translucent scoby that was a few millimetres thin.  When I found out that a local shop was selling scobies I practically went there the next day.  Interestingly, there was a kombucha workshop running that day but I didn't stay for it.  I knew what I wanted and after purchasing some other supplies (at a pretty reasonable price!) I went home to try and make my own kombucha.

Matcha Milkshake (GF)

Matcha Milkshake

I'm cray cray about matcha recently as evidenced by my Matcha Madeleines (gf) and Matcha Coconut Mochi (gf)  recipe.

SUMMER FOODIE HIGHLIGHTS:DEHYDRATED KALE (GF) AND PORTLAND

Forgive me for I have sinned:  I ate this voodoo doughnut.  But when in Portland, one must indulge.  I love it when the red jelly oozes out of the centre of the chocolate frosting covered long-john.  fab.

Oh yah. Summer.  It's been a while since I've posted what with life, teaching and mentoring.  I am taking this summer off and really trying to de-stress.  So what's new? I've purchased a new Fuji X100S camera.  It's retro cool.  All the pics here were taken with it.  I haven't figured out how to use it yet...but that'll come with time and practice.

LONGEVITY HERBAL TEA

Pu Erh Tea in the "Tuocha shape"

We were in Chinatown for lunch at Phnom Penh (I recommend the Garlic Chicken Wings!) and I walked into a lovely tea shop near Ming Wo. The shop, Jane's Longevity Tea and Arts (41 East Pender Street) had traditional Chinese tea supplies...specialty tea cups and pots, formal tea sets and specialty teas from China. They also served free samples of tea in a ceremony very similar to though very different from a Japanese tea ceremony. I was looking for something to relieve my recent strange asthmatic symptoms. I have a persistent dry cough and my voice is strained from the constant hacking. I even popped a ligment behind my ribcage from coughing so hard a couple of days ago.

FAUBOURG PARIS, KERRISDALE, FOR PINK HIGH TEA

The Pink High Tea:  Service for Two.


Faubourg’s window display from the outside.

DRAGON BALL TEA HOUSE

Pearl Milk Tea with Jelly.  Rating:  6/6

PEARL CASTLE, RICHMOND CENTRE

Pearl Milk Tea.  Rating:  5/6

I found the presentation in this honking big glass very nice.  I thought the milk tea was a bit too much on the “milky” side and would have wished for a stronger brew of tea.  Tapioca Bubbles were pretty good.

HIGH TEA AT FAUBOURG

A lovely cup of “Provence” Green Tea/Vert Provence


In the heart of Kerrisdale right across the street from the Starbucks, there is a relatively new little patisserie called Faubourg.   When I walked down the south side of 41st  one evening on the way to dinner a few months ago, I noticed the patisserie and took a mental note to come back for High Tea.   The display window was quite enticing.  Usually, my favourite place to have High Tea in Vancouver is at The Secret Garden, which is a hop and a skip away—located on West Boulevard.  I go to The Secret Garden at least 2 times a year and now that my daughters are older, I intend to go more often.  Often though, you’ll find nary a male in this store.  It’s very proper and very English and your pinky just automatically starts to stick right up as you sip tea from your beautiful fine bone china teacup. 

SECRET GARDEN TEA COMPANY, KERRISDALE

At the Secret Garden Tea Company, you get lovely real fine bone china and a menu of specialty teas to choose from.  Each person gets her own pot and I chose a lovely green tea.

The tea menu is HERE.

High Tea goodies are served on a pretty three-tiered tray.  The bottom tray has the mini sandwiches.  There are just enough (count ‘em) for each person. 

LOW-CARB MILK TEA JELLY

Milk Tea Jelly: a low-carb dessert that is delicate and refreshing
I have had Karen Barnaby's cookbook, The Low-Carb Gourmet for quite a while. In the past, when I've low-carbed my way out of a few pounds, I have sought out her recipes because they're actually delicious-sounding as well as actually delicious. Barnaby is a local chef in Vancouver (she's executive chef at The Fish House in Stanley Park). She has published other cookbooks (that aren't low-carb) and she is active in a low-carb forum as she's an expert in making restaurant-worthy gourmet food for low-carbers. When you make one of her low-carb recipes, you don't actually feel as if you're on a diet. She indicates in the introduction to The Low-Carb Gourmet that she herself had lost 70 pounds and improved her blood pressure and cholesterol levels eating this way.


Barnaby is a fantastic wealth of information and she's a nice lady too. I met her a while back and the copy I purchased is signed by her too. There's nothing better than eating well and not feeling deprived. You certainly feel pampered making some of her gourmet dishes. I haven't been disappointed by any of the recipes yet. I highly recommend her book if you're a foodie trying to eat more healthy low-carb meals. If you want to check out all her low carb recipes, you can find them here. As you can see, she's shared many of the recipes from the 250 that are in her cookbook.

Some of the recipes that I particularly enjoyed were the "Deep-dish Pizza Quiche", "Salmon with Bacon, Tomato and Caper Vinaigrette", "Clams Steamed with Bacon, Green Olives, and Tomatoes", "Stir-fried Prawns with Tomato Coconut Cream","My Brownies", "New York Cheesecake" "Cream Cheese, Coconut and lemon mounds" and "Stained Glass Window Cake".

I was at Kin's Market today and purchased eggplants so I can make her Spicy Roasted and Mashed Eggplant (bharta) this weekend. I also intend to try the Cauli-flied rice and Scalloped Savoy Cabbage. My favourite section to read is her Little Nibbles and Dips section because I'm a grazer and having pre-made low-carb snacks in the fridge is so helpful so I don't reach out for chips or sugar-laced foods.

For this post, I used Barnaby's Coffee Jelly recipe and adapted it to my tastes. I'm a tea-drinker so I used really supersonic dark tea. In those HK cafes around town, they use orange pekoe tea bags and boil the heck out of it, creating this almost thick, dark amber liquid that is so strong it rivals black coffee. It comes with the milk (I suspect powdered creamer or canned evaporated milk) mixed into it already and all you do is add sugar to your liking. To make my Milk Tea Jelly I used Red Rose orange pekoe tea bags (4 in total) and steeped them in the hot water, squeezing the bags out until they rendered all they tannin-laced juices. I like my jelly stiffer than usual so I increased the gelatine a bit too. Using Splenda adds a slight sweetness to the jelly. I made one little custard cup full of the plain jelly without the cream and when it was set, cubed it to sprinkle on the Milk Tea Jelly.

The Milk Tea Jelly was so refreshing. It was light-tasting and would make a lovely dessert even if you weren't low-carbing.

*****update February 8, 2009******

Well, just 'cause Evelyn asked, here's my recipe--an adaptation of the recipe Barnaby created using coffee. I prefer tea of course. I believe any tea will do, but to be authentic Hong Kong Cafe Milk Tea, it's got to be Orange Pekoe tea bags. Red Rose brand is far superior in flavour and for some reason, I heard it's only available in Canada :P

Milk Tea Jelly

3-4 Tbsp. water [or enough to soften the gelatin]
4 tsp. gelatin
2 cups water
1/4 cup Splenda
4 orange pekoe tea bags (preferably Red Rose brand)
1/2 cup whipping cream
optional whipped cream for garnishing

1. Place the 3 Tbsp. water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface. Let stand until the gelatin softens.
2. Heat 2 cups water in a small saucepan. Heat the water until boiling and turn off the heat. Add the 4 tea bags and allow to steep until extremely dark (from 5-10 minutes). Press the bags with the back of a spoon. Remove tea bags and discard.
3. Add soaked gelatin and stir until it dissolves. Add the Splenda to the tea mixture. Stir well.
4. Measure out 3/4 cup of the tea mixture into a small bowl. Add the cream to the remaining mixture. Stir well and pour into 4 small dessert dishes. Place both mixtures into the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours.
5. Remove the plain jelly from the bowl and cut into 1/2-inch cubes and pile onto the jelly in the dishes. Garnish with more whipped cream if you like and a coffee bean or two.
   Total Carbohydrates: 8.17
   Carbohydrates per Serving: 2.04

DETOXIFYING BLOSSOMING GREEN TEA

a hand-tied ball of blossoming green tea

the tea ball "blooms" in hot water, revealing chrysanthemum (yellow), globe amaranth (pink) and jasmine (white) flowers.

All the snow we've had in Vancouver has just recently started to melt. We had a white Christmas and a very white New Year's too. This was the biggest dump of snow I've seen in a long time.

The kids even had their first go at toboganning and it was so much fun!

As for me, I had my own sort of snow-fun. You see, when snow falls in Vancouver, I get kind of excited about shovelling. It must be genetic. My mother shares the same sort of disposition towards things that have fallen on the ground. In the fall, she rakes leaves incessantly. When it snows, she's out there shovelling, even though she shouldn't be because she might slip and break a hip.

I can't stop her though because she'll sneak out there without telling me sometimes. So now you know why I haven't posted in a while. I've been shovelling and shovelling. BTW, Stomach doesn't do snow. He loathes shovelling and is simply glad that he lives with a shoveller. It's such a good workout! Our snow tends to be wet so it's so much heavier that the stuff they get everywhere else in Canada. Then the stuff at the bottom turns to ice and it's slippery as hell.

Since I shovelled in the New Year, I thought I was doing quite well with my resolution to be healthy and happy. Now that the snow is fading, I'm thinking of visiting my treadmill and Total Gym more often. I have cut down on my sugar and refined stuff because as you know, I totally indulged over the Christmas holidays; especially with my Christmas cookies!

This month I'll be baking Bib's 2nd Birthday Cake. I'm aiming for a more modest cake than the one I made for Bebe's 5th Birthday (the Ariel Castle Cake). I'll be making something with a Winnie the Pooh theme. Probably chocolate. Probably lots of buttercream. It'll be good, I think.

Here's some shots of my blossoming green tea in action. I took a shot about every minute or so.

Below, as you can see, the tea ball slowly rights itself after absorbing enough water-- to become upright; revealing at the same time the flowers hidden inside the green tea leaves.

I recently staved off a tickle in my throat post New Year's Eve (most likely caused by overindulging in fried foods, mulled wine and sweets!) by drinking copious amounts of my secret home remedy for colds: Chrysanthemum Green Tea. I used my Blossoming Green Tea and infused each tea ball at least a good 8 times in my little pot. Stomach even drank some because he wasn't feeling all that well after indulging at the New Year's Eve party. I supplemented with Red Reiishi caplets and probiotics and I'm feeling good as new. The green tea is slightly astringent-feeling going down and it cleared up all that tickly feeling.

Not only that, but I feel so special drinking the blossoming teas because they're so beautiful! They're hand-tied and crafted to bloom in the hot water. I've purchased some inferior tea balls in the past before and what happens is the tea leaves are kind of messy-looking as they bloom. Sometimes they might drop off the ball. Sometimes the quality of the leaves can be disappointing. The flowers might not be centred properly or the thin string at the base which holds all the green tea leaves and flowers together, can be seen (so not cool in my opinion)! This brand that I have here is very nicely crafted and I have no complaints. They're beautiful. It's best to have a clear pot or glass to watch the action. The tea-balls reach full bloom in about 5 minutes.

It's actually quite difficult photographing tea. I didn't use a filter on my lens (guess I should have!). I imagine a clear soup would be just as difficult to photograph; what with steam and all that being a problem for the macro shots.

here's a look into my little tea pot and below is the brand of tea I use in case you're wondering...

Detox with me, drinking Green tea!
Cheers!

NO, THAT'S NOT POPCORN IN MY TEA!

japanese green tea with popped rice

Japanese green tea with popped rice (a.k.a. "Genmaicha", roasted rice tea) is absolutely delicious. The roasted brown rice imparts a nutty flavour to the tea. This is my favourite tea to drink with sushi. It's great with desserts because it cleanses your palate and it's fantastic on its own as a refreshing drink.

my jenaer teapot has a built-in gold filter: put your loose tea leaves here and you won't have floaters!

I like to purchase big bags of this type of green tea at the Asian market and it lasts me a long time. This type of green tea is not too grassy or bitter and it's the best kind to introduce to novice green tea drinkers. By the way, never add sugar or milk to green tea. It's almost as bad as pouring soy sauce on your white rice (my pet peeve). Not only are you negating the health benefits, you're muddying the flavour of the tea.

my favourite teapot: german designed, the jenaer glass teapot has a built in filter and warmer

Never mind about the antioxidant properties of green tea, or the fact that it helps fight tooth decay, cancer and heart disease. It's just a delicious drink in my opinion! I don't drink coffee at work but instead drink green tea continuously throughout the day. I hate coffee breath and green tea doesn't give you that. Instead, it fights halitosis!

the jenaer teapot is a functional piece of art

Green tea seems to be a panacea with all the disease-fighting properties some research claims it can have. It has cancer-fighting properties,reduces blood cholesterol, inhibits hypertention, balances blood sugar, kills bacteria and viruses,fights cariogenic bacteria (cavities) and prevents halitosis (bad breath). Green tea contains:

• Catechins (a core component) –a class of polyphenol found in tea which function as antioxidants
• Flavonoids - strengthen blood vessel walls. Prevents halitosis (bad breath).
• Fluoride - prevents cavities.
• Polysaccharides - lowers blood sugar.
• r-Amino Butyric Acid - lowers blood pressure .
• Vitamin-B Complex - aids carbohydrate metabolism .
• Vitamin-C - reduces stress. Prevents flu. Increases strength of the immune system
• Vitamin-E - acts as antioxidant. Regulates aging.
• Theanine (amino acid) - responsible for green tea’s delicious taste

Many people believe green tea can:

• Prevent and hasten recovery from colds and flu.
• Prevent bad breath (halitosis).
• Aid with the prevention and relief of type-two diabetes.
• Block key receptors in producing allergic reactions.
• Aid Parkinson's disease sufferers.
• Slow the HIV infection process.
• Maintain healthy fluid balance
• Relieve fatigue and stress.
• Boost the immune function of skin cells.
• Relieve and prevent arthritis.
• Reduce the risk of stroke.
• Prevent osteoporosis.
• Reduce DNA damage in smokers.
• Delay the signs of aging.
• Improve bone structure.
• Prevent dangerous blood-clotting.
• and to me most importantly: burn calories!- it has thermogenic properties which promote fat burning and increases energy expenditure.

I was loving green tea before all this hype about its health benefits, (and I drink all forms of tea)but now I'm hoping that all my green-tea drinking will prove to be my fountain of youth! ha ha! Actually, I'm addicted to the flavour primarily and it's a bonus that is has health benefits. It's nice to know my passion for green tea won't kill me, unlike all the baking I do using refined products like sugar and white flour! yikes!

***

The tea store I purchased my Jenaer pot has since closed down, but I researched a bit and found that Herbal Republic in Vancouver sells Jenaer pots too.

Herbal Republic: 2418 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3G6, Canada

Tel (604) 263-2000 mailto:%20info@herbalrepublic.com

HOLY MACRO: EXPLODING GREEN TEA

whazzat?
a hand-rolled high grade exploding chinese green tea ball

ta-da! just add hot water and the green tea ball explodes to reveal dried whole flowers!


I've been getting that feeling all day that I'm fighting a cold or something. Perhaps I've been overusing my voice at work? I'm constantly clearing my throat. The very first thing I reach for is Manuka Honey--my mother brought some back from a trip to Australia and it had a "Manuka Factor" of 30! In Vancouver, I can only buy it with a Manuka Factor of 16 for ingestion.

this particular ball has 2 types of flower. the one in the foreground is chrysanthemum

Well, the Manuka honey isn't all that I do to ward off a cold. I drink green tea like crazy. Today I decided to reach for the groovy Chinese Green Tea Balls that explode when you add it to hot water. They come individually wrapped and cost $2.50 each. I think it's worth it in terms of entertainment value.



i have way too many tea pots! this one rests on a cast iron warmer...the votive is inside

My favourite thing to do is sit with one of my glass teapots resting on a warmer. The little green tea ball slowly blooms as it bobs in the pot and I watch as the flowers inside are revealed. I have a little teacup in my hand and sip the hot green tea while listening to jazz. The votive warmer casts a beautiful light from underneath, highlighting the beautiful bloom. Functional too, it is a must for me, because I dislike it when my tea gets cold. These green tea balls last for quite a few infusions as well. My pile of marking seems to go much faster under these conditions.


the green tea ball is fully bloomed here

So as you can see, I've been playing with the macro lens on my new D80. I invested some time in building myself a "studio" out of a cardboard box last night. I am glad to say that I escaped arterial damage with the exacto blade and was able to successfully carve out my studio unscathed. I still have to purchase some decent lights. I guess my old 80's fluorescent desk light isn't going to cut it anymore. It's starting to do that irritating flickering thing and is on its last legs.

this pic better shows the globe amaranth bloom inside

I have followed the advice of Tartelette and my hubby Stomach and have started using a tripod and have been practising my focussing skills. 'Tis not so easy I must say. The fact that I have a tripod set up now makes me feel as though I'm taking all this photography stuff seriously. But NO! I protest. It's just because my focussing sucks and I can't hold the camera still.

What with all the hobbies and crafts I take on, like cardmaking, scrapbooking, knitting (I have a loom too!), jewelry making, glass mosaics, cake decorating/baking, I can't take up another thing! There's no more room in my already jam-packed craft room! I think I need help. I'm something like a "Crafts & Hobbies" junkie.

NB: you can purchase these clear teapots in most specialty tea stores. My favourite is a Jenaer Glass teapot made in Germany. I have the "Country" teapot and the "Collection" tea service & cups. Here's a catalogue from a wholesaler here. They also have a cool catalogue of other tea accessories. Too bad you can't order from them unless you're a merchant.

As for those blossoming tea balls: they're everywhere in Vancouver it seems; even in coffee shops. Here's a coffee shop in Vancouver called Blenz carrying some. Here's just one site I googled that sold them online worldwide.