Another Candle is Lit

Tea: Mandarin Orange

Music: Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

Time: Night.

Until today, my son's involvement with tea consisted of reading Steep Thoughts over my shoulder.

This morning, he was milling around the kitchen looking for something hot to drink with his biscuits and preserves.

"Want some tea?" I asked.

He thought.

"Got any subtle tea?" he asked, cracking himself up at his own pun.

I refused to bite.

"This is green tea," I said, indicating the Mandarin Green (which you might remember from earlier posts as "candletea," because it makes me think of festive holiday gatherings and never fails to lift my mood). "It's pretty light."

"So it's ... subtle tea?"

"Yes," I said with a sigh. "It's subtle tea. I was about to make some, but you can have my first steeping and I'll take the second."

Even without honey, he likes it. Great. He already takes my socks. Now I have to keep an eye on my tea stash, too.

It Takes Guts Sometimes

Tea: Iced, in a Styrofoam cup.

Music: Mexican country, complete with tricolored accordions.

Tiempo: Noche.

Low turnout at tonight's photo opening (although it'll be up another three months, so I'm not tearing out my nonexistent hair). Still, any excuse for comfort food is a valid excuse.

And in my world, variety meats are the quintessential comfort foods. At nine o'clock on a Saturday night, that meant Mexican.

Two Amigos, on 75th Street west of Interstate 36 in Shawnee, Kansas, doesn't have a Web page. Trust me, if it did I'd be pointing you there right now.

It's somewhat ironic that the restaurant is in an old Taco Bell. This happies me, I must say. It's nice to see an independent making it where a chain outpost couldn't.

So, on to tonight's selections -- and be warned, I overdid it a little.

I ordered a burrito de lengua. That's tongue, kids, and I've been eating it since I was a kid. My mom believed in giving me opportunities (orders, if need be) to try new foods, and I acquired a taste for organ meats early on. (All but liver, that is. I like it now, though.)

Then I turned to the taco menu, ordering one de cabeza (head meat), one de buche (pigs' maw) ... and one de tripas. No, that's not tripe. (Not that I don't love menudo, but I'd had a big bowl of it on Thursday.)

Tripas are the Mexican equivalent of chitlins. Yep, intestines. And yes, they'd better be cleaned out really well. I got a bad batch once, and it put me off them for more than a year.

These were perfect, though. Dense, satisfying, the flavor still a bit pungent but without that hint of -- well, caca -- that you get when they're not as clean as they should be. The other meats were also excellent, in their own ways -- from the rich cabeza to the chewy buche to the almost silky lengua.

And I feel much better. Sometimes, you see, the only cure for a bad night is something offal.

Ba dum pum.

What's Japanese for "Ow" ...?

Tea: Christmas

Music: Tom Lehrer, "The Masochism Tango"

Time: Evening.

Sorry, y'all, this post is standing for yesterday's and today's. My ankle hurts like crazy, so I've been (a) keeping off of it and (b) keeping it elevated for the last couple of days. (Yes, I'm also doing the ice and compression parts of "RICE" -- those just aren't as much fun as sitting in a recliner watching cheesy monster movies.)

So far I've watched "The Son of Kong" and "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." "Gorgo" is next. After that, I should probably head back to Japan for something with Anguirus (or Angilas, if you will).

Why him?

Because he's a giant Ankylosaurus. Get it? Ankle-o-sore-us?

I kill myself sometimes ...

Cup XVI: Caffeine Cuisine

Tea: Vanilla Lapsang Souchong

Music: The Rainmakers, Flirting with the Universe

Time: Late afternoon

Much more than a cup today, but only one cuppa -- if you know what I mean.

I have a huge bag of vanilla Lapsang Souchong, hand-blended by the friend who sent me nearly all of the teas in my collection. I love the stuff, but it takes up a lot of room. So, whenever possible, I cook with it.

The second half of the first steeping went to soak dried shiitakes. The other half, still way too hot to drink, went over sliced pork tenderloin to half-cook it. Then I made a second steeping, drank part of it and put the rest of it over the thirsty mushrooms.

The pork and shiitakes (the latter drained and sliced) went into Wok No. 1 (I have three), along with slices of Japanese eggplant and red bell pepper. Then, in order: sweet chile sauce, a ginormous scoop of crunchy peanut butter, and the tea in which the pork marinated. Toward the end, two and a half zots of soy sauce. The whole thing went over rice noodles.

Vanilla Lapsang has this great smoky sweetness that plays really well with shiitakes and eggplant (which in turn gets along wonderfully with pork).

So, when you're looking to get creative in the kitchen ... all I am saying is, give teas a chance.