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September 10, 2006
Weekend in the city
This is a boring, piecemeal update.
I’ve spent the weekend in Singapore. I’m not sure what I’ve been thinking but I spent Saturday walking around the Chinese district, just beyond the point where Northbridge road crosses the bridge and becomes Southbridge road.
The apartment complexes near Neil’s road are Singapore’s lame attempt at having a “wrong side of the tracks.” Large billboard sized posters shout that “Low crime does not mean no crime” and that “Everyone should be aware of pickpockets” but if there is any crime here, I suspect that it comes from drunk Australians. I could probably walk through these high rise apartments at three in the morning with 500-dollar bills stapled to my shirt and I’d still be okay.
There is a tea chapter on Neil’s. This is an old school Chinese tea house/ club. I spent an hour there on Saturday, drinking a high grade Ooolong tea. I was seated in the Chinese section
( Inset: there was a Chinese section, a Korean section, and a Japanese section—each with different seating styles. The Chinese section was the most European, with marble topped tables and backed wooden chairs; the Korean section had small rooms with long benches and small tables. I have no idea what the Japanese section on the third floor looks like- probably spiked hello kitty benches from the Meji period.)
The waiter who sent me to the Chinese table near the street facing windows on the second floor came by and helped me choose the tea. At first he just asked me whether I had a preference for one province (Fujian, I think) over a different province (Guangdong, I think). This was a great question (the equivalent of asking a California tourist whether they prefer wines from the Napa valley over those of Sonoma or vice versa) because it forced me to tell him that I had no real knowledge of tea. A good move. I might otherwise have chosen the tea from Guangdong, which carries a heavy floral bouquet that can interfere with the non-aromatic taste of the tea (some day, I will use that factoid)
The waiter brought the tea over and walked through the tea drinking process. I’d known that tea drinkers typically pour tea from the first brewing vessel into a second cooling vessel before pouring it into a cup. I did not know, however, that Chinese tea drinkers (this may have been different in the Korean and Japanese rooms) pour the tea from the cooling vessel first into a fragrance cup (so they can smell the tea) and then into a color & clarity drinking cup (more stout than the willowy fragrance cup) in order to check the color just before drinking the tea.
Tea Equipment
There were several other steps, including a first infusion step where the tea is poured from the cooling vessel back over the outer surface of the brewing vessel since the first infusion is usually too bitter to drink. After the waiter left, I spent an hour noodling my way through a large pot and a small pack of dry tea leaves.
After I left the tea house, I wandered around some more and visited the Singapore Asian Civilizations Museum.
Now, I’m at work and listening to yet another thunderstorm roll over the Island.
Jibber Jabberin | By jb | 03:19 AM
Comments
man, they've totally got me beat on complicating the tea-drinking process. I've got some catching up to do.
Posted by: linnea at September 10, 2006 08:28 PM