merchimerch

While I was in the bay area having a wonderful visit with

nisaa and

stevefava, they introduced me to many exciting gastronomical expereinces. We had Burmese food which was delectable, had a gingerbread cajun meal that involved the most orgasmic cornbread of my life (it was called "sassy cornbread"), and went to the tiki lounge for girly drinks that involved exotic fruit juices, homemade 5-spice syrup, and blue food coloring (mind you, not all in one drink).

Nisaa also pointed me toward the imperial tea house in the SF ferry building, where I discovered that I don't particularly like the traditional Chinese way of serving tea. The traditional way to have the Chinese equivalent of a piela/tea bowl with your tea leaves inside it, and pour hot water over it repeatedly as you finish each cup. What I didn't like about this was that the first cup or two was way too strong by the time you got to the bottom, then you got a couple good ones, then it got progressively weaker as the leaves wore out and the teapot of water got cooler. I much prefer my Uzbek way of filling a pot with leaves and water, turning the first few cups back in, and drinking an entire pot of tea that (for me) is the correct strength. In the end I got an extra cup and managed to devise a system where I got tea that I more or less enjoyed the strength of. I samples their wuyi oolong, yunnan gold, and silver needle jasmine. I really enjoyed the jasmine, though I think the subtlety of the white tea was subsumed by the heady jasmine flavor (luckily I really like jasmine).

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to announce the newfound best snack food ever--green tea pumpkin seeds! Nisaa fed them to me my first night there with some delicious creme de la earl grey tea and is such a generous soul that she gave me the rest of the bag to take with me. I munched them all the way home and was SO RELIEVED when I learned that the 99 Ranch Market on Victory and Sepulveda carries the exact same brand. I bought 2 bags, one that I am munching through right now, and one for my trip to New York.

Hurray Nisaa! Thank you for taking such good care of my tummy (and the rest of me).