Tea and metal

Sorry, but you don't have to be much of a snob to reject that reasoning. As the owner of a Chinese restaurant once explained to me, the reason he didn't offer better teas to his customers was that they were accustomed to getting the tea gratis. I try to remember to bring my own tea when dining in a Chinese restaurant, and there's never been any trouble about it.

/Lew

My local Chinese stores stock the 2.27kg/5lb plastic commercial sacks from Foojoy, Xiamen for $7. I've never opened one up but mine smell good. The one that still smells great is a ten year old Golden Dynasty

5lb sack of Jasmine. I wouldn't hesitate to use these if I could find a pot big enough.

Jim

Lewis Per>

Well, the question is whether it IS one tea, or a whole bunch of different grades of tea.

The stuff in the 25 pound bags is vile. But they might also sell some perfectly good tea.

--scott

One of the first times I ever started to think along this line was when a close friends elderly grandfather was going through his things from World War II with us when I was in high school. He had a number of posessions that he kept from Japanese that he killed. The most profound being, a pair of chopsticks. The chopsticks were so worn and had countless teeth marks in them from years of use. It made them come alive. No one keeps one pair of chopsticks for life anymore, heck in America it's hard to find an actual pair of chopsticks period that isn't for one-time use or disposable.

When I was in college I had become great friends with a Thai woman who owned a small pan-asian grocery. She had her great-grandfather's Yixing tepot and made tea for us from it all the time. It was like a magic teapot, it had life, and character, and thousands of untold stories and thousands of pounds of tea pass through it. All through this tiny pot which again in modern day is not even thought about, heck who has time for a teapot?

I think a lot of this is where most of our current crisis and problems stems from. No one takes time to actually appreciate anything. It is just a constant rush to fit as much in as possible or to aquire the most stuff in the least amount of time. I'm from Italian heritage and I hold dear the customs and traditions that have been passed down, and plan on raising my children someday in those same ways as well as my adopted asian culture. Slowing down, appreciation, history, education, and such are all very important to life and to me.

- Dominic (If I knew how to start a new thread from inside a thread I would)

Caviar, along with champagne and diamonds, is officially on my black list. I've come to the conclusion that their enjoyment stems mostly from their scarcity, and hence, exclusivity. Caviar especially is an odd one. It might very well be tasty right out of the sturgeon. But salted and canned and put on ice for weeks before eventual smug indulgence?

No dopier than criticizing others' choices in TV, movies, and reading material.

--crymad

No more caviar for you. I'm going to love it when I grow up.

OK, I concede, but it's right up their with those on your list. I just mentioned music because for me, like tea, it's so viceral.

Michael