Moving to Portland

As a foodie and as a person, I am thrilled to be moving to Portland. Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to most:

Urban planning done right
Bicycling (especially after living in the not-so-bike-friendly cities of NYC and Charlotte, NC)
Eating at awesome restaurants (and the availability of great veggie/vegan food at most of them)
Exploring the thriving food cart scene
Enjoying locally grown food and the riverside market
Partaking in Portland's love affair with beverages -- Imbibe Magazine, Stumptown Coffee and Tao of Tea are all based there; there's an abundance of local breweries; many California wines are readily available there
Checking out all the tea places Elin recommended on Teafolio.com
Utilizing Portland's proximity to San Francisco (my favorite U.S. city for tea)

Have you lived there/visited? What do you love the most?

Hanami -- The Cherry Blossom Festival

As I recently said in the Samovar blog, I planned a hanami celebration with some friends. It was incredibly windy on the day of, so although we made matcha, it was left undocumented. Here are a few photos we DID manage to snap. I hope you enjoy them, and take the time to welcome spring with your friends!

We celebrated at my favorite park in Charlotte -- Freedom Park. Here's the view near the entrance.














Here's the view from our barbecue spot.


























Veggie Yakitori + FIRE



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Happy Vee! (If you look closely, you can see my hubby, Marko, reflected in my sunglasses.)

Maybe it's just that I was very happy, but it also seemed that the ducks and ducklings were enjoying the weather. :)













Hanami Crew














Andrea drinking matcha. She'd never tried it before, nor had Adam (also pictured).














The willow tree near our barbecue was lovely, but...














... we came for the cherry blossoms!














We found a nice spot to enjoy our veggie yakitori/kabob-type food (yum!) and assorted sushi (veg + otherwise) from our fave local sushi joint, Ru San's (nothing fancy, but very fun -- fusion rolls like walnuts and Sriracha hot sauce).
























Later, we ate wagashi (higashi, matcha agar and youkan) and played soccer. (Below) Marko (our official photographer and my beloved) kicking our collective butts with his Eastern European soccer skills.

Off to SF

Tomorrow, I'm flying out to San Francisco for about a week. It is, arguably, the best place for tea in the U.S., so I'll be doing lots of research while I'm there! I'll post as much as I can during the trip, and then add extras later. If you have anywhere to suggest I go for tea, vegetarian food, art or anything else you think I'd like, please drop me a comment and let me know!

Chamomile Pudding

I recently saw this tasty recipe for chamomile pudding. (Puddings are so hot in the NYC dessert world right now. Cocktails and desserts alike are headed to the creamy, comforting side of the spectrum -- lots of milk and eggs, with classic flavors like vanilla.) If it didn't have gelatin in it, I'd be sure to make it! If any of you try it, please let me know what you think!

Tea in the City

So... I waited in line from 8:30AM to 1:30PM to get a new iPhone today, having had my older model stolen on Monday. I'm writing this as it syncs, so I'm a little distracted.

However, I wanted to note that I've been seeing mentions of tea everywhere these days, and I don't think it's just because I'm obsessed with it. :) In line, a number of people were sipping RTDs (mostly Snapple, but still...) and I read a New York Times Article about female artists in China that mentioned an artist who wrapped household objects, including (you guessed it) teapots, with yarn. (Being both a female tea-lover and a former textiles artist, I loved that!)

Afterward, I walked one block up from the 14th St Apple Store to Chelsea Markets for tea and a fantastic veggie lunch at T Salon. I have to say that it was one of the best lunches I've had in Manhattan for under $10 in ages. The veggie pate was soooo tasty and I even liked the vegan cheese (it's not usually my thing). It was a pleasant perk after the long wait, especially because it had somehow slipped my mind that the Apple Store was so very close to T Salon, and because I had the chance to chat with T Salon's fabulous Miriam Novalle.


How do you stumble across tea in your daily life? Do you feel that it's showing up more and more places these days?

Happy Earth Day!

So, it's Earth Day. Do you know your carbon footprint? After you've taken the quiz, check out a few sites with ways to go green for today and from now on:

World Watch

Tree Hugger's Guides to Going Green (My favorite: How to Green Your Coffee and Tea)

AND

CNN's 22 Little Ways to Go Green (These ones are really easy)

If you're interested in making a change in your diet that is healthy for you AND the environment, read about reducing your carbon footprint by eliminating beef from your diet.

Take some time for yourself and the planet to drink some fair trade, organic tea and do a little something (or big something!) to lessen your environmental impact. Happy Earth Day!

Campaign for Little Britain

A recent trip to Tea & Sympathy tearoom in the West Village in NYC reminded me of the Campaign for Little Britain. Shops and residents in the West Village are trying to get official designation as NYC's "Little Britain" to support small businesses, recognize the area's traditions and identity, honor Tea & Sympathy (which has been there for almost 18 years), increase tourism, and more. <--pdf file, FYI.

A quote from the Campaign for Little Britain site:

"Tea & Sympathy, located on Greenwich Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets, is located at the heart of Little Britain. The owners, Nicky Perry and Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, have dedicated the past fifteen years to creating a British community on Greenwich Avenue. Thirty million cups of tea, several thousand tons of chips served at A Salt & Battery next door, and seventeen Tea & Sympathy staff marriages later, we think it’s time to put Little Britain on the map of New York.

The couple is joined by Virgin Atlantic Airways, which flies over half a million people between New York City and the UK each year. New York is important to the history of the airline, which launched its inaugural flight in 1984 from London to New York, and has carried over 13 million travelers between the two cities since."

With deliciousness like this (and a surprizing number of vegan and veggie options for British food), how can you not support them?

Sign by May 2 to get your voice heard!

Adagio's Custom Blends

Adagio has announced a new option on their site: customer creation of custom blends. Returning customers can now place orders for their own blends of Adagio's teas. This seems like a very exciting idea for people who have developed a palate of flavored teas and want to experiment in that range, or for people who have a special occasion and want a themed tea to match. It reminds me of another cool beverage trend from about 8 years ago--Jones Soda's custom labels. Of course, the teas are much healthier. :)

Here's another cool online marketing trend I noticed recently: software that reads food product nutrition labels for its online shoppers. This is great for vegetarians (like me), people who have specific allergies, or people who follow other dietary restrictions (Halal, Kosher, etc.). Cool!

American Airlines Serves Tea

American Airlines is testing new "food-for-sale" options on their flights. Until the end of this month, the testing includes Lipton Citrus Green RTD tea. Next month it will include vitaminwater and the month after it will include smartwater. (Funny how both companies decided to go all lower-case with their drink names.)

I flew on AA from NYC to Austin and back and I have to say that the food-for-sale program was not being actively promoted at all and, if it had been, I would have considered it to be even MORE of a joke. These were offerings like $3 for a cookie and $7 for a sandwich (with only one choice of type--turkey). The Lipton Citrus Green tea (NOT my favorite, to say the least) was also $3. Perhaps it wouldn't have bothered me so much had my booking not made such a point of asking me what type of meal I would prefer (Pure Vegetarian) in order for them to NOT serve any food besides overpriced meat, chips, cookies, and bad tea. Oh, well. It probably wouldn't have been quite as bad as the atrocious cuppa I was served on my Jet Air flight to San Francisco last year. I guess that sometimes you just really need some tea, no matter how bad it is. (For the record, I didn't finish the tea from Jet Air.)