A Pennsylvania Interlude

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Judy

We had an errand to run in Chadds Ford, PA, southwest of Philadelphia, so we took the opportunity to eat in Hank’s Place.  This used to be one of the places we stopped off on our way to Philly, when we were making regular trips to see my family, and then when our daughter was in school there.  Since we don’t do that so much anymore, it was nice to go back and see that Hank’s has hardly changed.

Hank’s building is almost completely camouflaged with flowers.  My personal theory is that they feel the need to keep up appearances because they are just down the road from Longwood Gardens!

Inside, it has the classic diner configuration of a counter lined with stools with a short-order grill behind it, and tables down the other side.  One clue that it’s a little bit more upscale than that?  The wine rack.

And, of course, the food.  In addition to grill fare, Greek specialties and breakfast all day, the specials include risotto, shrimp and crab salad, and apple jack brandy raisin sauce for the hickory smoked pork chops.

I ordered the cheesesteak in a burst of nostalgia, and Barry had a REAL chocolate milkshake with his crab cake sandwich.  They fixed mine just the way I like it, with mushrooms, onions and Provolone cheese.  My only quibble was with the roll, which was too soft; but it was as close to a Philly cheesesteak as I have had outside that town.  It was garnished with a ripe, in-season tomato slice.

Then we went in search of Phillips Mushrooms’ retail outlet.  This used to be right on Route 1, but that small store and Mushroom Museum closed years ago.  We found the new place WAY off the beaten track outside of Kennett Square.

Off the bypass, through the middle of town, down a country road (bear left at the fork), past the mushroom sheds, and turn into the driveway of a big, old farmhouse built in 1828.

The Woodlands at Phillips is named for the antique store which was run from this building for years by Linda Phillips-Steller’s aunt.  She and her daughter, Meg Steller, greeted us and were delighted to give us a tour and sell us some mushrooms.  The house came into the Phillips family in 1890 as a wedding present.  It has been lovingly restored and now houses not only a store but a modern kitchen to hold cooking classes with local chefs (for schedule, email woodlandspa@gmail.com).  The frescoes in the hall were painted by a local artist.

On the porch overlooking a meadow, a clear cover shields the original 30-foot deep well, which still holds water.  Wrens nest on the exposed roof beams.  On the enclosed back stairway walls, the original paint technique has been preserved.

Along the way, I learned that Phillips is the largest grower of specialty mushrooms in the US.  It was founded in 1926 by Linda’s grandfather.  She wasn’t sure exactly how many different sites they have, but there are many! Enough to accommodate over 1 million square feet of growing space.

We bought crimini, portabellas, shiitake, oysters, and a type of puffball they call Pom-Pom.

Then we drove back into town to find the ice cream store we’d passed on the way to the mushrooms.  It had been recommended by two locals, and they had not been misleading us.

La Michoacána offers homemade ice cream in a rotating variety of mundane and exotic flavors.  Its perennial bestseller is corn (elote), with optional sprinkles of chile powder and/or cinnamon.  And no matter how outlandish that might sound, it’s really good.  Their coffee and mango flavors are impressive, but their Nutella is amazing.  They also have paletas (Latin American-style ice pops), and other specialties.  All the signs are thoughtfully bilingual.  This store alone had us planning a return visit to Kennett Square.

We noticed the town’s devotion to food in two more details on State Street (the main West-bound route through town): The giant rooster outside the cafe, and the peppers planted smack in the center of the decorative planters lining the street.

If we’d had time, we would have had dinner in the La Michoacána Grill down the street, but we had to go.  We promised ourselves we would return soon to the Mushroom Capital.

 

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The Governor Invited Us To A Cookout

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Judy

And we accepted.  In honor of Buy Local Challenge Week, Gov. O’Malley held a party on his lawn for folks involved in local food production and press.  Many little tents were erected and tables under them were populated by teams of Maryland chefs and producers offering samples of their creations.

Falcon Ridge Farm and Elk Run Vineyards, two of our Market producers, were represented by their fine products.  James Ricciuti of Ricciuti’s Restaurant was grilling Stanton Gill’s peaches and serving them with beef and peanut sauce.

I started and just about ended the moveable feast with goat products.  An appetizer called “Three Goats Gruff,” a goat meat ball stuffed with goat cheese, was my initial taste.  It was the best meatball ever.

I strolled on to Saval’s fried oysters with Silver Queen corn, tomato and peach salad and aioli.  Silver Queen!  I didn’t know anyone was growing it anymore.  When I first moved to Maryland almost 40 years ago, it was everywhere – now it’s all but gone.  I miss it!  Cooked as soon as picked, you can’t beat the sweet, yet still “corny” flavor.

Fish and corn was a popular combination.  Rockfish Imperial with corn salad and tomato jam was the offering from Chef Martin Saylor.  The booth decorations were his wife’s idea.  The food was delicious as well as photogenic.

I was especially eager to try “Tongue and Cheek Tacos” from Michael Cleary of St. John’s College.  Beside appreciating the pun, I am very fond of variety meats, and tongue is not easy to find.  I thought it was brave of Chef Cleary to offer this recipe for the competition, as not so many folks appreciate offal.  The tacos were so good, I had two.

 

 

 

Desserts were as interesting as the other courses.   Chef Nancey Veldran swore that the dark chocolate Caprikorn dessert truffles with port were made with goat cheese, but the other ingredients masked that taste.  The overall impression was of one luscious dessert.

And my attempt at dining symmetry was ruined when I noticed ice cream on offer.  I had to have some.   Although not part of the Challenge menu, the Taharka Brothers company makes some of the best ice cream in the state.

The company was as good as the food.  Besides many politicians, food industry people and press, there were Hector deLorimar and Robin Tam, organizers of the Canton Farmers Market in Baltimore.  This is the first year for their small, neighborhood market.

The Watermelon Queen was there, and so was one uninvited guest.

 

 

The Governor was there to read a proclamation and entertain us.

The weather was hot, but I have it on good authority that it wasn’t as hot as last year.  Rain threatened but did not fall until after the Cookout was over.  We made our escape in good time (and it was a very good time!)

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Julia Child’s 100th Birthday

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Judy

Is today!  Actually, to be totally accurate, it’s the 100th anniversary of her birth.  She died at 92 years of age, so she didn’t make it to 100 alive, except that she lives in our memories and her legacy to American cooking.

I met her twice, once at a Smithsonian Associates lecture and once at a store demonstration, years ago; but I (along with millions) feel that I know her through her television series and books.  “The French Chef” and Mastering the Art of French Cooking were the start of a movement away from canned and packaged foods and towards real, honest cooking in this country.  Her legacy is tangible and ongoing for both professional and amateur chefs.

Today, as the Smithsonian is holding a celebration in the National Museum of American History, the centerpiece of the party is the (re-)opening of Julia’s kitchen.  It was donated to the NMAH in 2001.  While this kitchen was the set of three of her television series, the best part is that it was her actual home kitchen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for years, and it shows.

The Smithsonian reassembled it as part of their new exhibit due to open in November, “FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000,” a serious (and overdue) treatment of how technological, social and cultural trends influenced eating in America.  The kitchen is much more accessible to museum visitors, being just off the Constitution Avenue lobby instead of buried in the basement, as the previous installation was. See it quickly, as it will close again on September 3, and remain closed until the new exhibit opens.

At the press event yesterday, John Gray and Paula Johnson of NMAH welcomed us and gave us some information about the new exhibit: it will have about 300 objects in addition to the hundreds in the kitchen; it will include a ‘communal table’ at which museum visitors can express their thoughts about and experiences with food; and, perhaps most significantly, it will serve as the kickoff for The Food and Wine Project, an ambitious undertaking which will include ongoing collecting efforts, symposia and intellectual exchanges, and online and public programs.  In 2015, following museum renovations, there are plans for a state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen.

I talked to Philadelphia Cousins, Julia’s niece, who was there as a representative of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts (and, of course, as a personal connection to the Ghost of Honor).  She carries a family resemblance, with both her face and her height.

Asked for personal memories of her aunt, Phila said that she and her mother would often visit, especially when Julia would call and ask them to taste dishes.  “I’m practicing puff pastry!” and there would be a meal with several courses of puff pastry variations.

She remembers “simple, beautiful meals.”  When asked if her aunt ever talked about her service with the OAS during World War II, she would only say that she talked about meeting Paul in Ceylon – “He liked her legs quite a bit.”

I’m looking forward to the full FOOD exhibit in November. Dare I end with “Bon Appetit!”?

 

 

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Fancy Food Show Part 4: The Parties

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Judy

There are always after-hours events at the FFS.  I attended three of them.

The Polish Union of Producers and Employers of the Meat Industry (UPEMI) held a press conference followed by a banquet in celebration of “Tradition, Quality, and European Taste.” During the  press conference, I learned that a settlement of the meat trade dispute between the US and EU was announced in March 2012, resulting in a lifting of the ban on European meat imports into the US since 1997.  All parties are anticipating a liberalization of the market, bringing opportunities and challenges for the EU and Poland.

The Polish meat industry was determined to show us what they could provide, and they did a great job of it.  The banquet was held in the Hyatt Regency Washington, with separate buffet tables of meat dishes and vegetables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The place of honor was given to a display of hams, complete with their own chef.

In addition to more conventional choices, the dessert buffet was crowned with a most unusual cake.

 

The tree cake also came with its own waiter, who explained that it was made on a spindle, layer by layer, and spun while baking.  When sliced, it resembles a tree’s growth rings and outer bark.  The cake, or Sekacz, tradition, dates back to the 14th century.

The other two parties had a lot to live up to.  The Egyptian party was held at the Economic and Commercial Bureau of the Embassy of Egypt.  It had tables full of products from Egypt, all appropriate for party food: olives (many kinds), cheese, jam, cookies, pickles, artichokes, hummus, chickpeas, and other goodies.  There were also passed finger foods.

The Austrian party was the same night, in a nightclub in Georgetown.  We cabbed it there and were rewarded with traditional Austrian food: bratwurst and sauerkraut, pork and spaetzle, wiener-schnitzel, something else (my notes and pictures were both fuzzy by this point!)  We were too tired to wait for dessert.  We were partied out!

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Eating Local First (And As Often As Possible)

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Judy

By coincidence (or maybe not), I attended two similar events within three weeks, each focusing on the local food movement.  I have already written about the Change Comes To Dinner panel and book signing at 6th & I Historic Synagogue.  There was also a panel discussing locally-sourced products in celebration of Eat Local First Week (July 15-21) at the Phillips Collection.  Unlike at 6th & I, however, this one also featured local food, drink and an audience of local food professionals.

First, the panel: Introduced by June Blanks of Penn Quarter Bodega and moderated by Pamela Hess, editor of Flavor Magazine, it featured Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, Ann Yonkers of FreshFarm Markets, Jim Epstein of Blue Ridge Produce, Tommy Langford of Dawson’s Market, Erin Johnson of Sandy Spring CSA, Matt Mulder of Arcadia, and David Winer of EatWellDC.

A wide-ranging discussion ensued, about bringing the message of the local food movement to restaurants, grocery stores, farms, CSAs, markets, and artisanal products.  Here are some of the excellent points made by the participants:

  •  A big problem with raising food locally is land abandonment, coupled with the aging of the farm population.  The price of land is a big factor near cities.  We need to interest and train youth to try out this profession.  Montgomery County’s Agricultural Preserve is planning a training program to address this.
  • Regulations inhibit integration of food production into cities and suburbs.  Space requirements for keeping chickens, and negative attitudes of officials regarding schoolyard gardens are two examples.
  • We  are just beginning to realize the value of “terroir” in this country.  We must determine what grows best where and concentrate on maximizing that advantage.
  • Climate change is inevitable.  We must develop climate-resilient agriculture.
  • Small farmers must have a safety net.  There is no crop insurance available to them, as there is for agribusiness.
  • Small farmers must have an assured market for their specialty crops.  Relationships with restaurants, CSAs, bespoke distribution networks are ways to solve this problem.

Then, the proof of the pudding: a reception featuring products from Tryst, Local 16, Whipple Farms, Goûter, Copperfox Distillery, DC Brau, and Barboursville Vineyards.

Tryst is the restaurant at the Phillips.  The produced a very nice selection of three salads: mixed rice, green beans and peas, and a tomato and mozzarella salad.  They did a good job of filling the gaps in the menu of products offered by the artisans present.  I met Jocelyne DeHaas, billed as General Logistical Ubiquitous Executive (GLUE), at Tryst.  I guess she holds it all together!

V of Goûter displayed her raw vegan products and tonics.  She had a (mostly) willing helper.

Local 16, lead by Edan Macquaid, brought a wonderful spread of their house-cured meats.  There was cappicola, lomo (pork loin cured with garlic and paprika), speck (smoked prosciutto), and braciola (beef cured with juniper and bay leaf); all delicious. 

There was a colorful and tasty display of local vegetables from Whipple Farms, including heirloom tomatoes.  I may have accounted for more than my share of these.

To drink, Jeff Hancock of DC Brau brought extremely fresh beer – he told me he had canned one variety just that morning.  (Is this a Good Thing?  I know nothing about beer.  I brought one home for my husband, who assured me it is.)

Likewise, Copperfox Distillery was offering tastes of single malt and rye whisky.  My samples effectively doubled my consumption of these spirits for the year.

 

 

 

I was more partial to the offering of Barboursville Vineyards.  Luca Paschina offered a white wine selection from their award-winning vintages.  I learned from him that the vineyard not only produces wine, but hosts the world-class Palladio Restaurant and accommodates guests in their own inn.

Mingling with the other attendees, I met Julie Sproesser, of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.  These are the people who produce the Rammys, the annual restaurant awards for the Washington, DC region.  I was glad to know that the RAMW is aware of the advantages of the local sourcing of food for restaurants.

Pamela Hess  told me that she had willingly taken a pay cut to become editor of Flavor Magazine.  I’m so glad we still have Flavor to read, since Edible Chesapeake is no longer being published.  I do hope that Flavor will have more articles focused on Maryland in the future.

I also ran into Caroline Taylor of the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, working to promote policies in support of the Ag Reserve; Ype von Hengst of the Silver Diner (have you seen their menu full of locally-sourced food?), who promised to take a turn as a demo chef at OFAM, now scheduled for October 28; and Rebecca Layton Gunter of operation:eatery, who did a splendid job facilitating the Eat Local event.

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Fancy Food Show Part 3: Viva Italia!

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Judy

In the Italian Pavilion, there were Parmesan cheese and prosciutto in abbondanza.

There was a very engaging young Italian slicing a leg of prosciutto.  I lost track of the number of  cheese wheels and hams being displayed and sampled, but suffice it to say that I spent a lot of time on that part of the floor.  The olive products (oil and cured), baked goods, pasta, wine, and other products were truly overwhelming.

The region of Apulia was featured in the demonstration kitchen.  I sat in on a session with Chef Domenico Maggi, and watched as he created a three-course lunch of five dishes (not counting the olives and pickled vegetables on the table, just in case we were starving) and then sampled it all.

Looking at the menu, I realized that Chef Domenico would cook this meal 4 times that day, and had cooked other multi-course meals 4 times each during the other two days of the show; yet he remained cheerful and willing to answer questions about the food and other attractions of his home region.

I learned that Apulia forms the heel of the Italian boot. It contains 60 million olive trees (or 10 for each citizen).  Some are thousands of years old.  It should therefore not be surprising that Apulia produces 40% of Italy’s olive oil; and the cuisine, at least as produced by Chef Domenico, is delicious!

Down the aisle from the kitchen I saw a display of farro.  As I was anxious to try this grain which has become very popular recently, Ursula Castor, the representative for the importer Italian Products USA, agreed to send me some to try.  She sent a vacuum-packed kilo.

Farro is a form of wheat reputed to be relatively high in protein and low in gluten.  It can be cooked like risotto or boiled in a large quantity of water like pasta.  When it’s done, it still has some “bite” to it and an agreeably nutty taste.  I found a recipe for Farro with Mushrooms, Balsamic Vinegar and Thyme on Italian Products’ website: http://www.italian-products.com/recipes.

We agreed that it was delicious.  I wasn’t sure how much farro would expand in cooking, so I halved the recipe quantity (serves 4-6), as I was cooking for just the two of us.  One and one-half cups of farro made enough for two people to have this dish for dinner and lunch the next day. It was excellent cold, as well as hot!

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Crisfield Its Ownself

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Judy

This is how we spent the day in Crisfield while waiting for the Crab & Cruise.

We were tempted to take a cruise to Tangier or Smith Island (where the cake comes from), but decided to stay on the mainland.  We ambled down Main Street to the Somerset County Tourism Office, where we stocked up on brochures and advice from the nice gentleman in charge.  He advised us to start by leaving the office by the back door and proceeding across the parking lot to the J. Millard Tawes Historical Museum, so we did.

There were exhibits about both crabbing and oystering, as well as decoy carving and other industries.  I was amused to see that the “Keys to the City” of Crisfield consisted of a crossed oyster “stabber” and crab knife.

A display of empty cans from old shucking houses was a poignant reminder of the decline of this once abundant resource.

 

After we finished with the museum, we walked around the Marina awhile until it got toward lunchtime.  We had asked in the museum if there was a place we could eat on the water, and the local girl behind the bookstore desk pointed out the door to a large, unpromising-looking green building on the other (yes, the third) side of the parking lot, and said, “That’s the only place in town with waterside seating.  Don’t worry, it’s got really good food.”

So we walked over.  On the other side of the building was a shady deck with picnic tables, ceiling fans providing a cooling breeze, and sure enough, it was right on the water.

Our hostess was related to the eponymous Capt Tyler.  She assured us that the crabs were very fresh, and we got a chance to see that for ourselves when Miss Betty moored next to the deck and unloaded a few bushel baskets full of crabs.

We were assured, however, that if we waited a few minutes, a buy boat would pull up to the wholesale business next door and unload many bushels of crabs.  We had finished a light lunch (excellent crab soup and an ear of corn for me), but decided to wait.

We were not disappointed!  The buy boat was low in the water with crabs.  No one minded if a couple of outlanders hung around while she was unloaded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crabs went from the boat to the truck.  “They’ll be in New York by morning,” said the truck driver.  Mace McGrath posed for me with a bushel of crabs.  When I took a picture of a bushel basket lid with a label and a desperado, he gave me another label.   He couldn’t say why only this one has Chinese on it, though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, we drove around Crisfield and out to James Island State Park.  On the way, we saw wild turkeys and some free enterprise.Then we drove back to Crisfield and ate lots of crabs!

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Boloco Opening – Do We Need Another Burrito Joint?

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Judy

Bethesda is full of restaurants.  The whole DMV would seem to be saturated with fast-food burrito joints (even near my house in the wilds of upper Montgomery, there’s a Cal Tort), so do we need yet another?  And an interloper from Boston, at that?

That was my question when the invite came to attend the opening of the first Boloco outside of New England on Tuesday.  I decided to see if I could get a reasonable answer.

My first hint that Boloco stood out from the crowd was in the restroom.  The wall was lined with murals of places around Boston.  A sign on the wall explained that the painter, Sean Boyce, was commissioned by the founder of Boloco to paint the neighborhood of each branch as they opened.  He also painted two scenes of Bethesda, which are displayed in the ordering area.

I talked to John Pepper, co-founder and CEO of Boloco (which is a contraction of Boston Local Company), and learned some more: they strive to be socially responsible on many levels.  They are certified green (first thing: ditch Styrofoam); they pay employees the highest salaries in the industry; they are committed to having options for all dietary restrictions and preferences – such as having “mini”  and “small” sizes for burritos and drinks, with calorie counts available on-line.  They consider themselves part of any community they open in, and participate with enthusiasm (in support of that, I noticed a blackboard community event calendar in the store).

But enough of the preliminaries, let’s get to the most important thing:  how does the food taste?  There are many choices beyond the traditional Mexican-style burrito, and we got to taste several of them, in the form of passed halves of mini-sized wraps.  The Buffalo was very tasty.  The Classic Mexican with steak was also good, though the Tikka Masala with tofu was too bland.  On the other hand, the Cajun was a touch spicy for me, but could be the best if you roll that way.

There were bowls of sides to try.  There were terrific mango salsa and guacamole, and the corn salsa had a bright, fresh flavor.  Samples of drinks proved deadly to the diet for this reviewer – the Nutella milkshake could be my next guilty pleasure.  But for pleasure without guilt, there is also a dynamite mango passion smoothie made with frozen yoghurt.So to answer my own question, Boloco’s addition to the local burrito scene is thoroughly justified.  Welcome!

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Change Comes to Dinner – And Sixth & I Street

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Judy

The Book

Katherine Gustafson has written a compulsively readable book full of optimism that we can overcome our nation-wide dependence on big agriculture and addiction to obesity-causing fast food.

She writes about initiatives across the country – of individuals, families, and organizations working to bring sustainable, healthy food and services to appreciative consumers.  With her descriptions of pioneers, from adding gardening to school curricula to bringing affordable fresh produce to inner-city food deserts, one reads this book and hope springs anew that we won’t all dissolve into puddles of fat and inertia by the end of the decade.

In each chapter, she visits and interviews farmers, distributers, and consumers who are subverting the ways many of us grew up eating – frozen and canned supermarket food, fast-food restaurants and school menus devised from surplus commodities.

At the end of her travels, she had an epiphany: “It dawned on me that the answer…was a system designed to bring people and their food into a closer relationship…[to] shrink the distance between farmers and eaters in…areas of knowledge, finance, and labor.”  Not such an easy thing to implement, but we are making a start as a country and in hundreds of individual communities.

The book comes with an extensive chapter-by-chapter bibliography of her sources, which would be useful for further research on specific topics.  I found myself wishing for an index, though.

Katherine Gustafson, Change Comes to Dinner, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2012. (http://us.macmillan.com/changecomestodinner/KatherineGustafson)

The Event

Four local avatars of the sustainable food movement joined Ms. Gustafson at the 6th and I Historic Synagogue to tell their own stories and discuss the future of fresh, local  and healthy eating.  Moderated by Danny Harris, founder of People’s District (“A People’s History of Washington DC”) and Feastly (a supper club), it included Mike Curtin, CEO of DC Central Kitchen; Sarah Polon, owner of Soupergirl; and Bernie Prince, co-executive director of DC FreshFarm Market.

The discussion was wide-ranging and enlightening.  Here is a collection of anecdotal information from my notes.  Attribution is given as initials after each point.

  • Is healthy food a social good? DH
  • For the first time, schoolchildren’s life expectancy is less than their parents’. BP
  • College students are now demanding sustainable food from their foodservice suppliers. MC
  • The corn harvest may be devastated by drought, raising the cost of everything, but – small farmers with diverse crops won’t be affected as much. SP
  • Kids with schoolyard gardens love raw kale salad! BP
  • DC Central Kitchen has proven that inner-city patrons will buy fresh produce from corner stores by subsidizing the stocking, then charging wholesale prices when the experiment was a success. MC
  • Why buy in farmers markets?  For one thing, there will be produce you won’t find in supermarkets. BP
  • Soupergirl buys products from DuPont Circle Farmers Market to use in her soup; she knows her producers and the produce. SP

To conclude, Katherine noted that “local food” is not the simple or only answer; there needs to be a more comprehensive solution.  Change in the marketplace depends on consumer demand.  Consumer education leads to change.  There has been great progress in the last ten years.

All of these folks, and so many more, are working toward that change.  Keep up the good fight, everyone!

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Fancy Food Show Part 2: Two Tastings

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Judy

The show provides many opportunities to learn about specialized products and markets.  I took advantage of two of them, one on appreciating Korean food and one on rare tea.

Decoding  Korean  Cuisine: A Guided Tasting, first presented an overview of the increasing interest in Korean food in the US, and then led us through a tasting of some of the more commonly used Korean ingredients.

I was familiar with some of them, like seaweed and soju (one of my favorite alcoholic drinks), but many were new to me.  There was kimchee in a new form – freeze-dried! Ginseng was presented as a concentrated drink.

We learned that fermentation is key to many Korean foods.  Besides kimchee, we sampled gochujang, red chili pepper paste, sweet, hot, and with a wine-like fermented flavor.  We followed the directions to take a little gochujang and wrap it in gim – seaweed – and eat it, savoring the sensation of “swimming with your mouth open.”

As we left, we were given a cookbook of  Western recipes utilizing gim, a joint effort of the Korean Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation and the Culinary Institute of America.

The Rare Tea Republic sponsored a tasting of their line of small parcel single estate teas.  A boutique division of the Republic of Tea, the RTR is devoted to hand-selecting the very best of the tea harvest from the world’s tea-growing regions.

They personally inspect the growing and processing practices of all the farms they source from.  We tasted eight teas, each distinct, and noted their appearance both dry and wet (after steeping) to see the differences of leaf size and level of fermentation.

Their level of detail extends to the hand-written labels.  Each package lists the place of origin of the tea, the plucking date, and the recommended teaspoons per cup, water temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) , and steep time (in minutes).

My favorites were Kangra Wah Handrolled Green, with a lovely smoky tinge due to the traditional pan-fired processing method;  and the Kenya Kangaita White Needles 2011, full-bodied and complex.  This event broadened my appreciation of tea and the efforts of all those devoted to bringing the very best possible  product to the market.

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