In the mean time, and significant to the star anise at the left, I've been hankerin' for some tea eggs (not for tea baggers). I've also been dropping' my g's and ot'er letters as I've been re-readin' Steinbeck's magnificent Grapes of Wrath—relevant as hell in this corporate world of the .1 percent and the rest of us schlubs and proles.
Tune in tomorrow or Monday for the actual tea egg recipe.
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| I was in the Banana Grove Market the other day. It's this great little market stuffed with all you really need, with lots of reasonably-priced, local, and often as not organic produce. |
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| Whilst shopping for some produce, I happened on a packet of star anise. This reminded me of the great tea eggs my friend Vicki Goldsmith used to make. I emailed Vicki and got her recipe and felt a sudden urge to drop everything, head to Chinatown, and assemble the ingredients. |
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Of course, the main ingredient is tea. So, my first stop was Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng Co.
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| In the West, the recipes generally call for black tea. Black tea isn't a favorite of the Chinese, however. I figured green tea would be too weak of flavor, and settled on pu er, which isn't really green and isn't really black, but it's a strong and distinctive flavor. |
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| Another ingredient I needed was cinnamon stick. This wasn't called for in Vicki's recipe, but I thought it would be a good addition, and it's in many tea egg recipes. This little shop sells any sort of herb one might want, some medicinal, some fer cookin'. |
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| This "little" bag of cinnamon (or 桂皮 gui pi) was only $2.98. I added the pen for perspective. |
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| Next to Gibo Health Foods is the Gold Stone bakery. |
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They have the best Dan Ta (蛋塔 literally egg pagoda）or egg-custard tart I've ever had, anywhere, even Hong Kong.
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| Fortified with dan ta, I was able to make it home on my own power. |
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