Skip to main content

Why Do Good Restaurants Serve Bad Tea?

I visited a nationally-known restaurant a few weeks ago. I sat down with my meal, including a cup of iced tea. One sip told me that it was bitter. I looked up and noticed what had escaped me when I poured the tea---it came from a dispenser marked with the name of an obscure, commercial tea vendor.

If I'm at a fast food chain, tea that upsets my stomach is par for the course. But why do so many restaurants who put a great deal of effort into the rest of their menus serve tea that is just plain bad? Gastric upset is an extreme reaction to tea; bitter, acidic tea just tastes bad to anyone.

Bad tea is a feature of many cuisines. I remember one dinner in Princeton at our local Chinese restaurant during which one of my colleagues told the owner, "My wife thinks your tea tastes like dishwater." Ooh, snap!

But I am deeply disappointed that disciples of the New Southern Cuisines would take such a cavalier attitude to their tea. Iced tea is one of the signature dishes of the South. Its preparation should be taken as seriously as that of collard greens or fried chicken. So please, folks, can we have better tea next time?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.
Post a Comment
Read more

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...
2 comments
Read more