Jasmine Pearls got me hooked on tea. The pearls are a type of green tea that is hand rolled and infused with jasmine scent. After my first cup of Jasmine Pearls, I started to search for every type of tea, exploring new flavors. Now, 10 years later, I know a lot more about tea, but I am still fascinated by the varieties of tastes, textures, brewing methods, names, and myths.
Jasmine Pearls, pre-brewing:
Yesterday, on my way home from picking up that role of film, I passed by that corner, and the house had been demolished. Developers reclaiming what had turned into a wild space. Now there’s an empty lot, with prime real estate for new development.
I visited Chicago last week and felt as though I walked the entire city between several meetings. I was impressed by the ways in which everything was layered together. When I was flying into O’Hare, I first noticed the layers of the city from downtown to the suburbs–from the densely packed skyscrapers to suburban neighborhoods with 2 story houses and yards. And then when I found myself on Lower Wacker or the El, I appreciated all the levels of transportation the city offered.
I was impressed by the numerous ways that nature appeared in the city, from gardens to building lobbies to rooftops and weeds. It is nice to have some greenery in the middle of a city and even better that the mayor has made a commitment to make Chicago the greenest city in America; he started out by building a rooftop garden on Chicago City Hall.
I also enjoyed seeing the old and new right next to each other in Chicago: Walking in Wicker Park and seeing a historic Victorian next to a modern home, or in downtown, where you can see the story of the skyscraper developing from the Tribune building to the Willis (Sears) Tower. Below is the new walkway to the Art Institute of Chicago with the old, new and newest:
The other awesome part about Chicago was the water, and I particularly enjoyed walking along the river, where I could see so much of Chicago’s architecture, beauty and history. I saw architecture from almost every era, including old factories covered in ivy and repurposed as condos. And crossing the river from the Loop, it appeared as though the water found its way into more than just the river. Perhaps this image can remind us that Chicago was initially built on a swamp:
So my favorite thing about summer, besides the greenery and veggies, is… grilling and being outside (unless it is 100 degrees–and ironically, it was 100 degrees for this photo shoot). So below are cook-out photographs. On the menu were cheeseburgers, potato salad, and watermelon (and ketchup and mustard for someone).
So here they are, images of friends cooking out:
And thank you to everyone that helped out by modeling or assisting.
I’ve heard stories that some use tea leaves to tell your fortune. I do not really believe in fortunes, but I do enjoy watching tea leaves brewing because interesting shapes, patterns and scenes emerge. For some teas, watching the leaves unfurl is interesting, while with other teas, it is interesting to watch the tea flavor the water.
Pu-erh tea falls into the latter category, as it can be interesting to watch the tea turn the water a deep, dark red. Pu-erh is an aged tea that has an earthy flavor, it is lower in caffeine than black tea and is often made into tuo-cha’s which are compressed tea cakes, wrapped in parchment for storage. This tuo-cha was in the shape of a bird’s nest:
To brew, I just drop a tuo cha into a pot of water and it very slowly breaks down and brews from the bottom, creating these interesting scenes I mentioned earlier:
Someone compared the scene in the tea pot to Ayer’s Rock. What do you see?
