Someone in America asked me last night
if I was happy. At the time, I thought it an odd question. I'd given
no hints of my state being otherwise, and I'm generally a happy guy.
To me, the question usually stems from a concern of the opposite
being true, or at least a possibility, as in, “...but are you
happy?” I don't know if that means that I see the world as such a
positive (at least potentially) thing that the question doesn't need
to be posed, or that I'm secretly a pessimist, but I hate to use the
filled-cup metaphor. However, you know it's coming...
I like a nice spiced chai. There, I
said it. It's public now in case it was ever a secret to be kept.
Never much the coffee fan, I haven't shed too many tears for the
quality of coffee offered in my town. For those curious, it comes
from a single-serving bag that has sugar and cream pre-mixed with the
instant coffee grounds. However, the downside of having a lack of
artisan coffee houses is that the same stands true for teas. Mongolia
is truly a tea-drinking culture, but it generally comes in teabags or
bricks and doesn't offer much variety beyond straight, with
cream/sugar, or as the traditional suutei tsai (salted milk tea).
Yesterday, I went for my first solo
venture in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, on a quest for some new
flavors in my diet. One of the more important bounties from my
successful mission sits next to my computer as I write this. The
container suggests that I “try our other spices and eat more
tastefully” which I greatly appreciate even though I find it a bit
sad that here I am so close to what used to be a spice trade region
and I'm enjoying cinnamon that is distributed by a company in
Bayonne, New Jersey. The front of the label has images of San
Francisco, Japan, India, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. Where's the New
Jersey representation?!
Spiced irony aside, this colder
season(ing!) calls for more hot beverages, and a selection of new
spices and a creative streak (a.k.a. I'm pretending to know what I'm
doing) led me to try to emulate a homemade chai that a friend once
made for me. Fresh ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, and black tea isn't
quite right, but it made me a happy guy and got me writing this. The
cup empties itself quickly, for the tea cools swiftly in this
environment, but hot water can be plentiful and it is sometimes too
easy to find that my cup hath runneth over.
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