Milk Tea

Hong Kong milk tea holds a special place in my heart. Hong Kong bistros usually cater a huge menu, from BBQ pork bun (Cha Siu Bao), to chow fun, over rice dishes and won ton soup. They usually also make foreign dishes such as Portuguese chicken with rice, club sandwich, and spaghetti with meat sauce. It represents Hong Kong's unique characteristic of being a melting pot for people from all over the world. Hong Kong milk tea is, of course, one of the popular items on the menu. The smart people of Hong Kong gave it a catchy name: silk stocking milk tea, to emphasize its smoothness. They are made of strong black tea powder, and you can request to put sweetened condense milk, which to me is the best. I used to have Hong Kong milk tea whenever I had a chance and it was a special treat. Until one day, I had it at lunch, and found that I was buzzing all afternoon and all evening. Not to mention being especially "productive" in my afternoon meetings. Then I started to opt for its less strong cousin - Taiwan milk tea. 

A few years ago, milk tea/boba milk tea joints were quietly popping up everywhere around the bay area. Franchises such as Quickly and Chatime were replacing mom and pop shops and making milk tea so much more accessible. Of course the milk tea in these joints are less strong but they also provide a huge selection, like rose milk tea, taro milk tea, just to name a couple. Over the weekend, when we go over the hill to the peninsula, we now have 6 difference places to go and get milk tea, pretty much one or two in every direction we go. So milk tea is replacing Starbucks coffee as our weekend go-to drink.

Last night Jack and I went to have dinner at a Cantonese noodle shop. Jack asked me if he could have mallard (coffee milk tea, a variation of milk tea you can get in HK bistros). I answered, "they don't sell that here." When the waitress came to take our order, Jack again said: milk tea. The waitress smiled and said, "no, we don't have milk tea." After the waitress left with our order, I explained to Jack that you could only order milk tea in a HK bistros or milk tea shops, but noodle shops or regular Chinese restaurants don't sell milk tea. Clearly disappointed, Jack accepted my explanation and settled with ice water. I was impressed how Jack was adopting so well to the Chinese food culture. In his own words, he is like a chameleon.