Lip Sweater

August 2, 2012
by Stigerts
7 Comments

Where to Find the Best Tea in Seattle

If you got a chance to read my last post, you’d realize I’m a bit of a tea geek.

Part of being a tea geek is trying all the tea purveyors and experiences that you can find around town. An epic Seattle coffee geek post from Jonathon Colman inspired me to come up with my tea short list, so let’s get drinkin’!

(Disclaimer: I’m more of an “eastern” tea fan and that’s what you’ll see in this list. Still trying to warm up to western tea; give me more time!)

New Century Tea Gallery

“A float down the Yangtze River in the Emerald City.”

Location: 416 Maynard Avenue South, Seattle

Personal brew time: You’ll spend at least 1 hour here. And arrive with an empty bladder.

This is a true Chinese tea experience where the owner will offer you to sit down for a personal tasting. She’ll continue to pour you tea until you turn your cup upside down or you pee your pants. (I’ve had a few close calls. Good thing the bathroom is two seconds away.) The tasting is free, but you’ll probably want to buy some loose-leaf tea afterwards as a courtesy. (Not hard to do because the tea there is delicious!) Pro tip: ask about their Pu-er (pronounced “poo AIR”… seriously, and it tastes nothing like, um… at least, I don’t imagine it does).

Teahouse Kuan Yin

“A coffeehouse for tea lovers.”

Location: 1911 N 45th St, Seattle

Personal brew time: 2 hours or 8, there’s enough tea and open wifi to keep you cranking through your work.

Psst. Secret: this is my favorite work-day escape. It’s just like a coffeehouse–but all tea and more varietals than you can possibly taste. Order fresh-brewed loose leaf tea in a pot, sit, boot up your laptop, and enjoy for hours. BONUS! Delicious, wholesome soups, quiche, rice, and vegetarian dishes on hand to feed you at every meal.

Panama Hotel Teahouse

“A teahouse with a preserved history.”

Location: 605 S Main St., Seattle

Personal brew time: Less than 2 hours. It’s a neat hideaway, but the premium-priced tea and food will keep you from making it your office away from the office.

A historic hotel-turned-B&B with an awesome tea opportunity. The quality is excellent. They even offer manju, a work of art as a Japanese sweet. (Note: this place tends to be a little pricier, but it’s worth it.) Tip: the iced sencha paired with the green tea cookie make a tasty diversion for green tea lovers.

Japanese Tea Ceremony

“The shortest route to Japan from Seattle.”

Location: 1075 Lake Washington Boulevard East, Seattle

Personal brew time: 1 hour for the ceremony, but plan on 2 hours to include a leisurely walk through the beautiful Japanese garden.

If you’re looking for the most authentic and historic tea experience you can get your hands on in Seattle, this is it! Arrive early for a true Japanese tea ceremony experience: walk through the gardens to relax your mind. Purchase your $5 tickets ahead of time and reserve a place to actually participate in a ceremony. (After paying $6 for entry to the garden, you’ll pay $11 in total.) In addition to a sweet and a bowl of matcha tea, you also get to sit in a traditional tea house imported from Japan! (Be sure you buy a ticket for the chado presentation.)

Zen Dog Tea Gallery

“A personal tea presentation from an urban zen master.”

Location: 2015 Northwest 85th Street, Seattle

Personal brew time: 30 minutes is enough time for a taste of one or two teas and browsing the collection of Asian art.

It’s literally in a home converted to an artist studio and Asian curio shop in the middle of a neighborhood. You can’t miss the location–the exterior has Chinese accents and red lanterns dancing in the trees. Larry, the shop owner, is an architect-turned-zen master. Way cool guy. Very welcoming and definitely knows how to sell his tea. (His tea sources are very trustworthy, too!)

Floating Leaves Tea

“The local favorite.”

Location: 1704 Northwest Market Street, Seattle

Personal brew time: You’ll have to tell me.

I’ve never been here but it’s been on my list of places to try. I consistently hear from my tea friends that it’s one of the best places to go, so try it out and tell me what you think!

BONUS!

Cafe Cesura

“My Eastside home base.”

Location: 1015 108th Avenue Northeast, Bellevue

Personal brew time: Stay for a few minutes or for hours. I usually hang out here at least 3 hours when I stop by to work.

Cafe Cesura is unique from the above in that it’s 1) outside of Seattle and 2) it has an equal focus on coffee. I love this place because it’s more convenient for me being an Eastsider and, although they also sell coffee, they just get tea right in ways most coffeehouses don’t. Take one look at Cafe Cesura’s Facebook page - regular postings, interacting with fans, copious free tea tasting events – and you know Shawn (the owner) is passionate about appreciating tea.

Whew! There’s a great starting place. Have you tried other tea places around the greater Seattle area? Did I miss any? Let me know–or better yet, invite me out for a cup with you.

May 26, 2012
by Stigerts
5 Comments

Becoming a Tea Geek

You know that feeling when you do something fulfilling? That quiet (or not so quiet) rush you get by experiencing something that gives you a deeper appreciation for life?

I get that feeling from tea. Most people in the west look at me funny when I admit how much I love it, which is the equivalent of some of my fellow Seattle denizens’ passion for coffee.

All I knew about tea growing up was that chamomile was good to drink right before bed, mint tea soothes upset stomachs, and you buy tea at the grocery store on isle five.

Then I took a Japanese Tea Ceremony class. Two-thirds of our time was spent in a classroom on campus learning the history of tea in Japan, and the last third of the week was spent practicing and performing the ceremony.

I show up in this rustic, small Japanese hut with a bowl of “sewer water” placed in front of me. (My husband, obviously not a big fan, calls it this–it’s more about the appearance than the taste… I promise.) They want me to directly ingest this vividly green & murky water? The green tea leaves are mixed right in? I don’t even like the bags of green tea at home because they’re so bitter!

Oh boy, how wrong I was. So, so wrong. Matcha, that green water tea, when brewed right? Delicious. And we’re not talking about that matcha latte crap you get at Starbucks, either.

Since 2007 I’ve learned that tea is so much more than those little bits of herbs mass-packed into flat little bags found on isle five. The culture of tea is more than just sitting in a formal drawing room at 3:00 in the afternoon, sipping black tea out of a gold-trimmed and rose-painted porcelain cup while nibbling on a scone. (This seems to be the stereotype from a western point of view.)

My tea leaves are brewed loose. I drink from a double-walled glass tumbler so I can keep the tea warm and admire its colors. I prefer eastern tea found in Japan and China because green, oolong, and pu-er are among my favorites. And my favorite tea time is spent sitting on a pillow while looking out my back door to a pond behind my home.

Everyone has their own way of tea (or “chado”, in Japanese). I challenge you to go beyond the tea you find at the grocery store and start trying loose leaf at specialty shops.

There’s far more to tea than you’d ever expect. Drink lots of it: darjeeling, rooibos, genmaicha, earl grey, assam, ceylon. Notice the taste, how it feels on your tongue, the smell, the appearance of the leaves. Brew it at different temperatures and notice how the flavor changes. Find your favorite and learn about where it’s from, where it grows, other ways it’s prepared. Visit different tea shops and try it everywhere.

Here are some tea geek resources to get you started:

The Voice of Tea
Tea Geek on Google+
Tea Hacker
Tea Geek (dot org)
AmazonV Tea Taste Tracking

April 9, 2012
by Kelly Dull
2 Comments

To Live Would Be an Awfully Big Adventure

I’m taking a break from blogging about baked goods and Irish Car Bomb Pie recipes. I’m writing this from the road. Not literally from the road, of course. I’m sitting in my sister’s apartment in Chicago, where I will be for the rest of the week. I’m currently taking some indefinite time off from working to drive around the country, visit some friends, work in some new kitchens, and ultimately find a new city to conquer. I left Cleveland almost a week ago, but it doesn’t feel like my big adventure has begun quite yet because I’ve been in cities that I’ve spent time in before. I’m going to take this blog to talk a little bit about my first stop, Detroit.

When I told people that I was going to travel around the country, the general response was something like, “Oh wow, SO COOL!!” Then when I would tell them that my first stop was Detroit (a mere 2.5 hours from home) the response was one of two things: [cringe] “Ugh, WHY?” or [laughter and sarcasm] “Ooooh, wow! Sounds exciting!” Both of these responses really irked me. Yes, I understand that Detroit has a pretty bad reputation. And I get that Ohioans seem to believe that the only cool places between here and the Pacific Ocean are Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, and LA, but I visited a good friend in Detroit back in September, and had such a great time. So why not go again? This visit was really no different. I had so much fun, ate some really delicious food, and met some really nice, cool people.

Another big reason that these responses to my traveling to Detroit really bothered me is that they are not at all different than the responses I received when I told my East Coast friends that I was moving to Cleveland three years ago. Yes, I admit that I have done a fair amount of Cleveland bashing, but I grew up in the area, so I felt that I earned that right. Since moving back to the area, I have had only a handful of friends come visit (and they’ve had fun. Seriously!). Everyone else is just like, “Why the HELL would we come to CLEVELAND??” Hurtful. But really, I want to talk about Detroit, and why you should go check it out instead of laughing and/or cringing at how seemingly awful it is.

One thing that really amazes me about Detroit is the food/drink. Both of my visits to the city were jammed with some super delicious meals, coffee, and (of course) alcoholic beverages. Some of the places that Sarah introduced me to include Slow’s BAR-B-Q (delicious BBQ), Supino’s Pizzeria (super tasty pizza), El Barzon (weird Mexican/Italian combo menu, but soo good!), Sugar House (fancy cocktails), Vivio’s (great bloody marys!), Astro (coffee/pastries), Pinwheel (more coffee/pastries), plus a bunch of others. The availability of really delicious coffee really impressed me, because I feel like there are so few great coffee places back home. And Sugar House was such a great bar, I know that if I lived in the city it would DEFINITELY be my go-to spot. There’s also the Eastern Market (similar to Cleveland’s West Side Market), which I didn’t go to during this visit, but checked out back in September.

Another thing that seriously impresses me about Detroit is how positive and excited the people who live there are. All of the young people that I met are just so excited about all of the super cool things that are happening in the city. These are the people that are making things happen, trying to improve the city, trying to make Detroit a place that people want to live again. They all told me that they love living there, that if you’re going to live in Michigan, Detroit is the place to be. Many of them grew up in the suburbs, and a bunch of them moved away for a time, but they have all come back to Detroit because they see it as this great place with so much potential to be even greater. They are so passionate about it, and about what they are doing. They have come to create, and to build, and to live, and I really love and respect what they are all doing. I don’t see that in Cleveland as much, not even from the people who live there. In my experience, Clevelanders have a tendency to be down on their very own city, which is sad, because I believe that Cleveland is great/can be greater, if only people would give it a chance.

During my stay I also checked out the Motown Museum, which was smaller yet more impressive than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (sorry CLE, I wanna love it, but I don’t), and drove out to Ann Arbor, which was really beautiful (don’t hate, Buckeyes). Anyway, Detroit was definitely a great way to start off my journey, and I really encourage you all to visit if you get the chance. I’ll be in Chicago for the rest of the week, then maybe Wisconsin for a few days. After that, St. Louis, Kansas City, Jackson Hole, and down the West Coast! Guys, please let me know if you think there are places that I absolutely HAVE to check out (and if you guys have a spare couch or bed for me to crash on, I can make a mean omelette and the best chocolate chip cookies you will ever have!). Cheers!

Emerald City ComiCon 2012

March 31, 2012 by Stigerts | 0 comments

Day One of Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle’s nerd-tastic comic convention. I’m a bit of a poser this year since I haven’t been keeping up on my comics. (I have a stack of The Walking Dead, Echo, and Y: The Last Man at home waiting to be read. Does that count?)

The wonderful thing about this con is that even if you’re not an avid reader, you’re still a welcomed participant ’cause there’s something for everyone. Emerald City ComiCon is kinda like the Pizza-Crepe-Taco-Pancake-Chili Bag of nerd cons:

The Anatomy of Emerald City ComiCon

My favorite salsa-soaked layers are the gaming, manga, and cosplay.

Line Hijinks

Because Friday was a half-workday for me, I decided to show up with everyone else that had to work / sleep in until 2PM.

Emerald City ComiCon 2012 Line

See that mess on the left? I had to stand there for my pass. We were punished (?) for purchasing our tickets in advance because the side on the right was for on-site purchases where there was virtually no line.

Okay, I’m whining too much. The line went relatively fast (only had to wait for 20 minutes) because we were told to fight our instincts to line up in an orderly line, so all of us nerds had to cram together to make room. It was interesting. The petite 14-year-old Hogwarts student with the red-rimmed glasses, knee-high socks, and pleated skirt was lucky I was behind her and not… well… you know. By the front of the line I was starting to feel a little protective of her, like a mother. I even zipped up her little cute backpack that was falling open because her wand box was too big to fit.

… *ahem* ANYWAYS.

The line itself can be entertaining. Admittedly, I people-watched because I couldn’t get reception on my iPhone to surf the Internet. I think next time I’ll opt for people watching instead. I saw:

A fun lady wearing a fun-nier t-shirt that said “The Last Unicorn was buttery and delicious.”
A grip of Battlestar Galactica trainees
A lovely Dark Phoenix (I swooned at her shiny spandex)
A school friend I haven’t seen in 10 years
A downright adorable Doctor Who:

Emerald City ComiCon Doctor Who

I don’t know if it’s the whispy hair, thick glasses, or dotted bow tie.

Fandom

If Friday was any indication of the cosplay we can look forward to the rest of the weekend, we’re in for a treat. (Quick education if you don’t know what “cosplay” is: it’s the emulation of pop-culture characters through costumes, usually self-made and often elaborate. People sometimes spend an entire year or more making their costume meant to wear for one convention.)

A couple of my faves:

Emerald City ComiCon Armor

These guys were “wow.” They parted massive crowds of attendees with their impressive armor. I’m pretty sure they had a late night the evening prior because I could still smell the paint drying. I wish I asked them what material they used and how they molded it. Drats.

Emerald City ComiCon Adventure Time

These kids melted my heart with their casual Adventure Time cosplay. Here’s proof that you can pull off a great character even if you didn’t use a vacuum-forming table and industrial oven to make the costume. This group kinda resembles the original characters just enough to make it cute.

Unfortunately I couldn’t snap too many pics because my phone was almost dead, but here are some more Emerald City ComiCon cosplay photos.

Speaking of Adventure Time, I was excited to see a few of my talented friends showing off their cute hand-made plushies in the exhibitor’s hall!

Nice Rice

Son Yong and Devin cozying up in their Nice Rice booth. (I snagged a baby Narwhal!)

Adventure Time scarf

Son Yong shows off her Jake (Adventure Time) scarf & hand warmer, made by her husband Devin for Valentine’s Day. Adorbs!

Sushi Shirts XD

Friends Aleeza and Brian are rocking their Sushi Shirts XD booth with an 8-foot grid wall packed with cuteness.

Having all of these friends that make really cute things means I’m up to my eyeballs in them at home. Lucky me!

Time to return for more fun! If you’d like to join me, Emerald City ComiCon is this weekend at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Next stop: Sakura Con!

Pi(e) Day – Irish Car Bomb Pie Recipe

March 16, 2012 by Kelly Dull | 1 Comment

Happy belated Pi(e) Day!! For those of you who may have missed it, the other day was 3.14, aka Pi Day. So, being a pastry chef (and a bit of a math nerd), of course I made a pie to celebrate.

Disclaimer: When I’m baking at home, I do a lot of experimenting. I often don’t measure ingredients (gasp!) and don’t follow recipes (the horror!). So the recipes that I post here may not always be 100% accurate. I think baking, like most art, is something that can be very organic and natural and sort of free-form. Sometimes things turn out. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes experiments result in the most amazing pastries. Sometimes they end up in the garbage… Luckily, my Pi Day experiment did not end up in the garbage. I decided to honor both Pi Day and St. Patty’s Day and created the Irish Car Bomb Pie! Yumm.

Crust

8oz Graham Crumbs
4oz Melted Unsalted Butter

Ganache Filling

1lb semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1tsp Sea Salt
2tbs Malt Powder (this is optional, I wanted a stronger, maltier flavor)
4oz Heavy Cream
4oz Guinness beer

Caramel

1lb Sugar
Water
1tbs Sea Salt
2tbs Unsalted Butter
3/4 c Heavy Cream
1/4 to 1/2 c Whiskey (Depends how strong you like it. I actually used Bulleit Bourbon, ’cause it’s what I had in my cabinet)

Topping

8oz Heavy Cream
1tbs Powdered Sugar
3tbs Bailey’s Irish Cream

To make the crust, combine the melted butter and the graham crumbs. I usually mix this with my hands so that I can feel if I need to add more butter or more crumbs. You want it to clump together nicely, but not be sopping wet.

Grease a 9″ round pie tin and press the crumbs in the pan and up the sides. Bake at 350 degrees about 8-10 minutes. Cool.

Meanwhile, make the ganache. Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl with salt and malt powder. Place cream and beer in a pan and bring to a boil. Pour the liquid over the chocolate and let sit several minutes. I sometimes cover the bowl with a pan or plastic wrap to help retain the heat, which helps in melting the chocolate. Gently stir with a spatula until chocolate is completely melted. Pour ganache into cooled graham crust and place in the refrigerator to set.

While the filling is setting, make the caramel. Place sugar in a pot with enough water the create a “wet sand” consistency. Make sure there are no sugar crystals on the sides of the pot!! Bring to a boil and let cook until a golden brown-amber brown. I like mine a little darker/more bitter, but most people like it a little lighter/sweeter. Watch it carefully when it starts to darken, because it will go from super light to BURNT as soon as you look away; it’s happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. As soon as it reaches the desired color, remove from heat and add your cubed butter and salt. Stir until the butter is melted, then SLOWLY add the heavy cream. It will steam and bowl up and spit at you, so do this slowly and carefully! Last, add the whiskey. Let this cool to room temperature.

Once the ganache is set, spread about 1/4-1/2 c cooled caramel on top (You will have lots of extra caramel. Use it on ice cream, cookies, cakes, etc…).

Now the whipped topping. Place heavy cream in a mixing bowl with powdered sugar. Using your whisk attachment (or whisking with your own arm power), whip until medium peaks. Add the Bailey’s and whip another 20-30 seconds. Using a very special technique I like to call “plopping,” cover the top of the pie with the whipped cream topping. Or, if you want to be fancy, you can put the cream in a piping bag with a star tip and pipe it into designs on top of the pie. I prefer the more rustic look, though. Garnish as desired (chocolate shavings, cocoa powder, cacao nibs, etc.), or leave plain. Slice, and enjoy!