San Francisco has been absolutely gorgeous and sunny the past two weeks, but the day we left was quite windy and cloudy. I was looking forward to the warm Phoenix heat until we stepped off the plane at Sky Harbor Airport where I was reminded that even at 7pm with the sun set, we were stepping into a 97 degree oven!
Bryan picked us up and we had a great sushi dinner at Sushi Ken next to home (I haven't had sushi in so long!) Unfortunately the downstairs air conditioning was not working properly so it was mid-80s inside of the house. But with a little bit of the upstairs aircon going, plus ceiling fans going, we were able to sleep through the night okay.
This morning Bryan and I were planning to surprise Mom with a visit to the Morning Glory Cafe which is one of the three fun restaurants at The Farm at South Mountain for a Mother's Day brunch. Trying to beat the crowds and the heat, we were planning for a 9am departure from home, but after showering and making some noise in the house, we realized that Mom's jet lag was still in full effect and decided to stay home to let her sleep in.
Instead, we rushed over to Trader Joe's for a creative Plan B ... let's make the kind of food we'd get at the cafe right at home!
From top left working clockwise ... mixed spring greens salad with fresh sliced kiwi and cilantro dressing, iced green tea that we made last night from some leftover sencha, and the main entree (in detail below)
Main entree consisted of a french toast sandwich with over easy egg and black forest ham, garlic roasted brussels sprouts, and some sauteed veggies in a sort-of "ratatouille" style, but without the eggplant (crimini mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, yellow squash, baby spinach, and fresh chopped basil to brighten things up a bit)
French toast sandwich turned out better than I expected (either that or maybe my cooking skills really have gotten better, haha!) and the cinnamon and cloves I put in the egg batter were delicious with some maple syrup and the eggs/ham.
I guess it was okay since everybody finished their plates!
It was fun to cook and we had a nice time chatting over a long lunch at home. Then it was gift time :-)
So while at the new apartment back in San Francisco a couple days ago, I realized that I had forgotten to buy a card while I was out running errands. Well, I found some old beautiful origami paper that I had from my first trip to Japan back in 1998 ... and I still had so much of it left. I endeavored to make something fun with the paper:
How about a cute little origami paper gift box? 4 different sheets of paper for the bottom part of the box, and 4 more sheets for the top lid
And then another sheet of paper for the locking heart note to put inside :)
I like all the colors
Mom enjoyed the little box and message inside the heart along with a cool bamboo stick aged pu-erh tea
When I first saw it, I knew I had to give it as a gift someday since the story behind it is so cool - why not for Mom on Mother's Day?
It is "sheng" (or green, uncooked) pu-erh ("bolay" in Cantonese) tea which was packed into a bamboo stalk. Pu-erh comes from Yunnan province in China, and a very fragrant type of bamboo grows along the very southern border between China and Laos, Vietnam, and Burma. The Dai minority people in that region use bamboo stalks as containers for various things. The tea is compressed inside the bamboo while it is still fresh and green, but then the stalk is roasted over a fire until the bamboo dries out. In the process, the bamboo imparts a fragrance to the Pu-Erh tea. Did I mention the tea has been aged since 2003?
Originally the "sheng" (green/uncooked) Pu-Erh was a green color. The taste of a young green pu-erh would be quite vegetal, maybe even grassy and astringent. However, over the course of the past 8 years, the tea has continued to oxidize as it ages, turning the green color to a more mellow brown. In the aging process, the taste will have changed significantly as well. I'm excited to taste it - we'll have to actually use a knife to split the bamboo stalk in half to access the tea, then gently separate the compressed leaves before brewing. I figure this is something we can all share together while enjoying each others' company, and then Mom can bring this back to Japan with her to enjoy as well. Continuing to age this tea and tasting it over the years to come will be quite a fun little project :)
After lunch, we had a fun time tasting a different tea that I brought over from San Francisco which I purchased from Red Blossom Tea Company in chinatown - it is a 2010 Spring Alishan high mountain oolong from Taiwan and I chose it after tasting it (and some other teas) with Ian together at the shop.
Barely oxidized and very lightly roasted
Buttery, smooth mouthfeel and vegetal in the first infusion. However, as you continue to infuse multiple times (especially around infusions #4-6), the tea becomes so floral and fragrant - despite being unscented by any flowers. Just plain tea leaves grown high in the mountain and barely oxidized, and yet it was so fragrant and had an orchid-like aroma as the leaves opened up. Using a gaiwan and brewing gong-fu style (multiple small infusions to taste the changes as the tea opens up), we spent another hour or so chatting and laughing.
Tea leaves after multiple infusions and our fill of delicious tea ... fully opened and hydrated, we could see the slightest edges of the leaves oxidized (brown). With tiny tasting cups and having this tea gong-fu style, Bryan and Mom were able to experience how the first infusion was like a buttery, smooth green tea, but then how further infusions brought out the crisp, fragrant, floral aspect of this high mountain oolong, then going back to a more vegetal green tea taste as the leaves started becoming exhausted.
We enjoyed some Japanese "Castella" cakes after the tea opened up and we tasted the change - didn't want to overwhelm our taste buds before we could detect the delicate change in the tea. Mom had a chocolate Castella and Bryan and I shared a sakura (Japanese cherry blossom) cake.
Now Bryan is studying for a big final tomorrow and I think it's nap time for Mom, but it's been a fun Mother's Day morning and afternoon so far :-) Maybe we'll split open the bamboo and try the Pu-Erh together later tonight or tomorrow ... stay tuned for details on that unique tea!
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