flemmings: (Default)
flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2007-11-06 01:13 pm
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Happy birthday, Fearless Leader! and many many more of them.

I must also talk a little about the cleverness of me.

November, and leaves fall and rot on the ground, covered in nasty black mould spots, and those of us inclined to mould allergies wheeze and cough and suffer from chronic post-nasal drip. The most important upshot of this for me is not the occasional voicelessness; it's that wine at meals becomes an impossibility because I already have quite enough histamines in my system thank you. Which is a great inconvenience: all my ancestral instincts insist that dinner, at the very least, must be accompanied by a glass of something cold and astringent.

The solution I discover is mugicha- barley tea. Classic summer drink in Japan, which I drink here cut with a bit of sweetened ice tea. As a summer drink, better than nothing, but it goes tepid and thus disgusting too fast for my tastes. But. BUT. With one slight modification it's the perfect accompaniment to meals.

The modification is to drink it from a wine glass. Crystal for choice.

Works like a charm. My expectations are fooled into thinking this is a dinner beverage, and my eye is deceived by the colour (so it looks closer to sweet vermouth- so what?) and the small quantities remain cold and delicious. Go me.

[identity profile] tammylee.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Very clever!

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
(not modest at all) I thought so. ^_^
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Iced tea up here is always sweetened, a fact that throws visiting Americans. So I buy whatever brand of iced lemon tea it is and add a dollop. Adds a certain je ne sais quoi: barley tea alone is just so... Japanese pale-tasting to my senses. Rather like most Chinese teas I know of, in fact, and any green tea you care to name. (Fails the sophisticated taste test.)

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 07:15 pm (UTC)(link)
mmmm...mugicha!

Damn I wish I had some handy now!

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Surely buyable year round in LRD? (I get mine from the Korean super and stock up.)

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
well yes it was just at the time of reading your post ... it wasn't really 3 am I was just off to bed and a hot cuppa mugicha wouldn't have gone amiss. ^_~

[identity profile] abyss-goat.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
<3 Thank you~~

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Kochira koso.

[identity profile] petronia.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
So the mould is in TO as well! Damn that global warming.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
It's always been in TO, though, once autumn comes. Wet rotting leaves = mould. Is it new in Mtl?

[identity profile] petronia.livejournal.com 2007-11-06 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
It's new in Mtl. I first noticed it year before last but it's been rampant since last year - covers all the maples, oaks, etc. with black spots, looks horrid. It kills the autumn colours too, they used to go from green to bright gold and now they just sort of shrivel and turn burnt orange. ;_;

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
Oh- mould on leaves *on* the tree is bad news, definitely. We have some here, but not huge amounts. For me it's after they fall and get rained on and thus go mouldy that the allergies kick in.
incandescens: (Default)

[personal profile] incandescens 2007-11-07 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
Extremely clever! Congratulations.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you. Now I wonder what other Mind Tricks With Place Settings are possible. The one about eating off of smaller plates/ out of smaller bowls...?

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2007-11-07 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
There's that other one about eating slower, and feeling full... or whatever. ^__^