Tea

Malaysia is a country for tea lovers. While many may argue that Milo is in fact the national drink, the national drink is Teh Tarik. The literal English meaning of Teh Tarik is ‘pulled tea’ and the hot drink can be found basically everywhere in Malaysia. The first week when we were staying in KL we would have tea times at least twice a day and I would rush outside to get Teh Tarik. Even though chai will always have my heart, Teh Tarik is a close second. The tea is made with condensed milk and is hands down not healthy and amazingly sweet. There are many other teas here as well such as Thai tea and Green tea. The green tea is not the Lipton bottled green tea that is sweet with a slight bitter aftertaste, this green tea is plainly bitter without the addition of honey or sugar. Despite the true bitterness of the tea, I quite enjoy it. The only other interaction with Thai tea I have had has been at the nearest Tutti Frutti near my house in North Carolina where I’m a regular customer (I have my own account with them for coupons!). I also think that I account for 50% of their sales of bubble tea. There is where I had my first taste of Thai tea with boba. The tea is a bright orange and is crazy sweet in North Carolina. The other day, I ordered tea at the food truck at the closest weekend market that we had gone to in order to buy breakfast for the day (It ended up being porridge, spring rolls, satay, tofu, fried chicken, and noodles) and to my surprise I got Thai tea. The Thai tea was actually a lot less sweet than I had expected but still utterly great. The final tea (and the one that is pictured) that I have tried so far is Babao tea. I am not exactly sure what the exact flavor of the tea is, but the drink has many dried fruits in it as well as open  tea leaves. My favorite part are the shards of sugar on the bottom that you can capture with your spoon and suck on until it dissolves. I’m having a lot of fun trying the different types of teas here, but I also may have made a beeline for the English black tea in the grocery store yesterday for home tea making. Could you believe that people don’t drink much black tea here? While I am not a cook of any sorts, I am looking forward to attempting to make some food and drinks from home soon for my family. I’m excited what they think of the carrot salad my mom makes (if I can find feta cheese, I’ve been looking everywhere but to no avail) as well as homemade chai. Terima kasih Malaysia untuk teh!

- SEJAL