August 17, 2004

• Alnedra is going to be all over this.
• Uh, I was, I think. Look, it's even got the same text!
• well goddamn. kudos to dng for knowing how to set up a link ;) Sorry everyone! Back to the 'bashi with 'ee!
• So dng set you up the link?
• All monkey picked tea are belong to dng.
• I rule.
• Alnedra sent me four absolutely delicious teas of quality a few months back. She is like a goddess, only smaller.
• Definitely smaller in the godlike department. But larger everywhere else, I'm afraid. Anybody's birthday coming up? Last chance for me to buy you tea!
• Alnedra, the Kindly Goddess of Tea and Happy Monkeys. No upcoming birthday, but I'd love to swap. What would you like? Books, music, tasty treats? Or would postage to the US be prohibitive?
• would these be monkey picked books, music, tasty treats?
• It's ok. Just give me your snail mail addy :) They're not big cans, mind. Just itty bitty ones.
• Since my birthday isn't for a few months, I'm shy about asking, but I'd love some tea, Alnedra. If there's something USian that I could send you, just let me know.
• I'm really embarrassed to say this... uh... ok, the four cans I sent to Wolof are four types of tea: Wulong, Black (like English Tea), Jasmine and Green. Uh... they're a wee bit expensive if I buy all four cans. Can I send everyone two cans? Wulong and Jasmine, or Wulong and Green Tea? *shuffle feet*
• Sweet Alnedra, I will be over the moon even if you send one can. :) And I'd like to send something in return! Email on the way. Don't forget to reply with your mailing address!
• Thanks, shinything! Can I take a rain check on the return gifts? I'll be moving to UK real soon (within two months), so maybe I can provide everyone a UK addy by then *big grin*
• Rain check duly noted. :) Bet you're excited to move, right? Have you started packing yet?
• Nope. Still up to my neck in work. But I've got most of the stuff I need now. Just need to finish up some paperwork for my visa. And find a place. I'm always a last minute packer. And more apprehensive than excited actually.
• Can you send me your new address too, once you have it?
• Alnedra - I'll gladly pay for tea. Can we work it through the same account we used for the big surprise?
• No, no! Presents must not be paid for! I'll wheedle with the manager - she's got a soft spot for me, I think I can get a good price :) Tracicle: Surely! I would love some NZ postcards to put up in my room there.
• I told you she was nice.
• Here's where I buy my tea 80% of the time. It's called Yixing Xuan Teahouse. Its name is a pun on the famous province Yixing in China where purple clay comes from. The other times I buy tea from Tenren, although the quality isn't quite as high, and another local shop that specialises in tea from my ancestor's home province, Teochew. Sorry, till now I've avoided linking to these two shops, cos it seems rather Pepsi-Blueish.
• I told you she was nice.
• I just want to say good luck and we're all counting on you.
• Uh... *wonders how to respond to Wolof's compliments* *tries furious blushing* I've talked to the manager and she's given me two options. They have sample packs of tea - really small amounts, less than 20gm. She'll give them to me and I mail them out myself. The other alternative is that I buy a normal amount of tea, and she'll help me pack them in their small cans - about 25 gm or a tad more each. shinything, path and anyone interested - which would you like? If you're interested in more varieties, I'll get the samples; if you want just one or two types of good tea, it'll be the larger cans. Anyway, you can have a look at their menu (Yixing Xuan) and decide. I'll probably send out two of three kinds: Beauty of the East, their house wulong; Yinzhen Baihao, which is rare white tea (but not really expensive), and Jasmine Pearl, which is jasmine scented green tea.
• I'd go for the cans. And I trust your judgement on varieties. This is way cool!
• Yes, ma'am! I'll get to it next week :)
• I also would love the can option and trust your judgement. Thank you Alnedra! And thanks for posting the teahouse links. Really informative.
• And, Alnedra, send me your new address when you can. I might be able to find postcards you'd want to put on your wall.
• Ditto, Alnedra, on the teas (I'll trust your judgement), ditto on sending your new address for thanks in return when you move and let me know if I can repay inkind with something specific!!! You're a gem!
• Woo... I gotta get me a big cork board for postcards! My little list (alpha order): Darshon - addy please! Flagpole? path pete_best? tensor? tracicle - hope you're feeling better! Anybody else? I can afford to send out about eight batches.
• Oh, no tea for me. I've never gotten into the green tea thang. :) My office is tiny - used to be the bathroom, apparently - and I'm thinking I can paper the room with MoFi postcards. If I were you, I'd aim bigger than a corkboard. Monkeys are very...enthusiastic.
• *raises hand* don't forget meeeee.....?
• Oh good grief! I must have deleted your name from the list when I cut and pasted tensor in! I'm so sorry, shinything! *uncross fingers* tracicle: May I interest you in a small sample of wulong tea? It's very different. Or if you're a coffee person, I can pass you some Pu'er, which is dark and relatively bitter, and quite rich in flavour. Or I can recommend white tea, which is very very low in caffeine, hardly any taste, but apparently very good for the health! Better stop now, I'm starting to hyperventilate.
• Tempted...
• wow i'd never heard of white tea before - thanks for the link!
• Was googling for the addy of the teahouse, and dang me if this thread isn't No. 3 on the list when you look for Yixing Xuan! Shinything, Darshon, path, tracicle, surlyboi: I am very. Very. VERY. Sorry. I haven't sent the tea out yet. The teahouse has been upside down with the mooncake preparations, and I've been serving tea, waiting tables, folding boxes and doing everything but what I should be doing: packing the tea and sending them off. Argh. My humble apologies. I'll be down again tomorrow, and I promise to get it out the weekend latest. Really sorry. *bow*
• Do explain this mooncake wossit for the culturally unenlightened (ie. me). And don't stress over it, for goodness' sake! *bows in return*
• All about mooncakes A bit more detail: The reason why the commoners were recruited into the scheme (which I believe was done only in the capital city), was because the Mongol soldiers housed themselves with the families living in the city. Every third family had to support one Mongol soldier (IIRC). Hence these families were 'recruited' via notes in the mooncakes to assassinate the soldiers living with them. Mooncakes are very sweet, very dense, and generally a whole family of three or four might finish one mooncake. And they're usually sold in boxes of four, so it might take a long time to finish the whole lot. The teahouse makes mooncakes (green tea with lotus paste, and normal lotus paste with double yolk), and they're terribly shorthanded right now. We've been folding boxes frantically to pack the mooncakes in time, because the lunar eighth month starts next Tuesday, and nobody buys mooncakes after the fifteenth of the lunar eighth month. There are literally hundreds of types of mooncakes now, but the more common ones in Singapore are the Cantonese type (soft, breadlike skin on the outside, very thin (less than a quarter-inch thick) intricately stamped, with lotus paste inside, and usually one to four salted duck egg yolks inside), and the Teochew type (crispy flakey skin, shaped vaguely like a peach, with lotus or yam paste inside.)
• (soft, breadlike skin on the outside, very thin (less than a quarter-inch thick) Sorry, the mooncake itself is very thick, but the skin is the very thin bit. Um. Yeah.
• At the risk of giving too much information, mooncakes are eaten during the Mid-Autumn festival, the fifteenth of the eighth lunar month. Sometimes dumplings are made at home and eaten as well, because the chinese words tang1 yuan2, for dumplings, sound like the words for reunion, tuan2 yuan2. A Chinese saying goes, both the moon and people are full (or round). It means that like the moon is fully round, with any missing parts on the fifteenth, the entire family is present. There are three major 'reunion' festivals for the Chinese: The Mid-Autumn Festival, the Winter Solstice, and the Lunar New Year. This will be the very first time I'll be away from my family for any of them.
• Ah, Alnedra, please don't stress on our account. Your first link reminded me of this wonderful cartoon my kids used to watch called "Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Kitten". One of the episodes was about the origins of mooncakes. My mom used to make her version of mooncakes using bean curd paste. Yum!! So good.
• Don't you just want to adopt an Alnedra?
• Sounds like a good website title to me! "Adopt An Alnedra: For Tea, Sweet bits and 100 Ton Hammers! Send me money!" Tracicle, Darshon: Thank ye very much :) I'm stressing out over all sorts of big and small things, it's just a natural reaction. Dun worry, I'll be fine once I'm on the plane.
• Alnedra - you should find out if your new university has a Chinese students' association (it may even have a Singapore Students' association). It's not the same as being with your family, but they may have activities for the Mid-Autumn festival. Good luck for your trip!
• Thanks jb :) I believe they do, as Chinese students make up a fair percentage of the student population in Loughborough. I'll definitely look around. I'll even contribute tea (as part of my plans for world domination) which I'm sure they'll like. Tea and mooncakes are a perfect pair!
• Wolof - yes, and maybe you will. So now I'm going to have to 150 miles to the nearest large Chinese community to get moon cakes to go with the tea. I'm dreaming of mooncakes, even though I'v never had one.
• Me too, path. Luckily we have a good-sized community here in my neighbourhood, so I'll hopefully be able to track one/some down.
• They sound yummy. I've had bean or lotus paste cakes before, but never mooncakes. I like the sound of the thin outside.