IMBB 17: TasteTea Roundup Part IV

Apologies for the delay.  Unfortunately our car broke down after our last tasteTea episode, and we were forced to walk 668 km (415 miles) from Reedville, Virginia to our next stop in Boston, Massachusetts.

After days of eating at roadside gas stations, we’re delighted to find that Stel of Baby Rambutan had prepared a succulent dish of Tea Smoked Duck Legs and Chicken Eggs.  It’s one of her signature recipes – in-law approved and smoked outdoors with aromatic Oolong tea.  For dessert, Stel serves us Green Tea Ice Cream - her favourite ice cream of all-time.  Its flavour is deep, smoky, and leafy, and is perfectly balanced with green tea Pocky and her brother’s madeleines.

Across the country we fly to San Francisco to visit Amy of the award-winning blog, Cooking with Amy.  She’s prepared a mouthwatering dish of Smoky Citrus Shrimp that uses both tangerine flavoured black tea and Lapsang Souchong.  Her husband has proclaimed it as ‘gourmet’ and a dish that ‘would impress the judges on Iron Chef’.  I’m certain it’s as delicious as it looks and sounds.

Next we travel to Knoxville, Tennessee where we join Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness for a splendid feast.  Seven wonderful dishes.  The number alone may very well set a new IMBB record for the number of dishes prepared in a single entry!  We start our meal with Tea-Marbled Eggs boiled in a black tea broth and served with a mayonnaise and balsamic vinegar sauce.  Next it’s Mixed Greens with a Green Tea Vinaigrette.  The vinaigrette is a combination of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, thyme, pepper, and Japanese green tea.  From the kitchen we can smell the wonderful aroma of our next course.  It turns out to be a Nutty Jasmine Rice which combines saffron, almonds, and pine nuts with rice cooked in jasmine tea.  Tea-Smoked Chicken is up next; marinated in a flavourful soy sauce mixture before being smoked with brown sugar and black tea.  To help us digest, Stephanie makes us a delightful cup of Masala Chai from a variety of spices.  For dessert we’re served a soft and delicious green tea pound cake; a fitting end to a most impressive meal.  Just as we’re about to leave, Stephanie appears with a plate of piping hot White Tea Spring Rolls.  “With six you get springrolls,” she says, and we’re delighted by this since the combination of bean sprouts, shredded carrot, cabbage, garlic, ginger, and white tea inside the crispy roll is outstanding.

Back on the plane and off to Sydney, Australia we travel, where AugustusGloop of Grab Your Fork tells us about her ritual of always eating something sweet with tea.  Fittingly, she’s made Green Tea and Almond Cookies for this month’s IMBB - a crumbly cookie that perfectly balances the flavours of almonds and green tea.  The cookies look very similar to the Chinese almond cookies I used to eat growing up – I imagine that they must taste at least as good and certainly, they would be perfect with a cup of tea.

In Stockholm, Sweden, the always creative Anne of Anne’s Food has prepared a simple yet elegant dessert of Tea-Truffle filled Raspberries.  Her idea of infusing a fruity Indian Spice tea in cream before pouring it over a fruity dark Chocovic sounds delicious.  To top it off, she pipes her truffles/ganache into raspberries to create a beautiful and most interesting dessert.

Under the cover of darkness, we’re taken to an undisclosed location where Sam of Infraredherring has prepared two delectable dishes.  In her quest to learn to cook the Southeastern Chinese cuisine she grew up eating, she first prepares a dish of Bak Kut Teh (meat bone tea), a soothing soup of spices and pork ribs that strangely enough doesn't actually have tea.  But not to worry, her second dish, Cha Ye Dan (tea leaf eggs) does actually use tea; assam to be specific.  Her eggs are beautifully marbled look like delicate works of art, and undoubtedly taste as good as they look.

Next we go back downunder to Perth, Western Australia to visit Chris of ChubbyCatCooks.  Drawing inspiration from Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai, Chris has prepared a beautiful dish of Tea Smoked Duck Breasts.  Guided by his culinary instincts, he first marinates his duck overnight in a mixture of oolong tea, ginger, five spice powder, soy sauce and maple syrup before smoking them with wood chips and oolong the next day.  His results look and sound wonderful – nicely flavoured duck breasts that take on the aromatic flavours of ginger and five spice powder, and the earthy sweetness of maple syrup.

It’s back around the world to New York City, where Nupur of One Hot Stove tells us about India’s tea obsession.  To celebrate this month’s tea theme, she’s made Chaha-Poha, a beautiful pan-fried dish of beaten rice served with tea.  Noting that any method claiming to be the ‘right’ way to make tea would be subject to much controversy, she shares a simple way of making Indian tea-for-two.  Afterwards, Nupur treats us to milky Indian version of ice cream called kulfi using a homemade chai masala.  It may be labour-intensive, but its sweet and spicy flavour sounds wonderful – definitely a dessert that I’d like to try soon!

Moving on, we’re off to Singapore, a place that’s certainly one of the world’s epicentres of good food.  We first visit Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal who’s prepared a dainty confection of snowy white balls coated with desiccated coconut, green tea powder and green bean filling.  The chewy white balls, combined with pseudo-crunchy coconut, and the green tea-green bean pairing form a most unique and delectable combination.

Still in Singapore, we visit June of Nibble & Scribble who’s made Green Tea-Smoked Salmon.  A day before smoking, she applies a salt, ginger, and sugar rub to her salmon, then coats it with a mixture of brown sugar, soy sauce, and five-spice powder just before smoking.  The result is a beautiful smoked salmon fillet, rich in colour, and most certainly delicious!

We end today’s adventures in Guam, where Santos of The Scent of Green Bananas has concocted an amazingly brilliant and creative Matcha Cotton Candy Floss with Earl Grey-Scented Candied Rose Petals.   It appears to have been inspired by her Afro Ken Appletree plush doll and a cotton candy machine.  And true to her good taste, Santos has used Mariage Frères Earl Grey Imperial for her rose petals.  Simply ingenious!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s round-up!

Comments

[Stephanie]

I've always wanted to be a record-holder!

[soycap]

So sorry about your car...that is a l-o-n-g walk...I'm glad that everyone made it and you're back :) Great roundup once again.

[peggy]

it's a pity you're not in the business. i'd hire you in a split second solely for your natural artistic talent.

your photos are gorgeous by the way. how do you prep for your photoshoots and what camera do you use?

[Reid]

Hi Clement,

Thanks for continuing the round up! That bit about the car is hilarious! It didn't really happen, now did it? =P

[Samantha]

Great write-up Clement... I love the bit about the car. Very witty. :)

[chika]

ooo sorry about your car and the long walk... glad you got to fly from Boston and on! ;)
Great write-up as always.

[Mia]

Oops, you seem to have missed out my Not so tasty tea cupcakes :)
http://skinny-epicurean.blogspot.com/2005/08/imbb-17-not-so-tastetea-rosehip-and.html