Dancing Tea
July 3rd, 2009
Southern-Style Thai Tea, Iced and Hot (Cha-Yen and Cha-Ron)
Had Yai, Thailand – Within a few hours of arriving in Had Yai, I was taken under the wing of a group of single Thai women in their 30s, led by June, a confident professional who carried three phones with her. We started talking in a coffee shop and pretty soon they were driving me around town, helping me find a hotel and scheduling dinner.
In Bangkok at Chatuchak market and downstairs in Siam Paragon, I’d seen the theatrical process of making Southern-style Thai tea (I’m told it’s also made this way in Malaysia). The tea man mixes the tea from two cups at arms length from one another in long arching streams of the milky orange liquid above his head and around his back. Mixing it in this way aerates the tea so that it has a layer of bubbles when served. The girls decided to bring me to their local spot. In Bangkok, people gather round to gawk, but here groups of Thais gathered around wood tables in the garden, chatting, drinking and eating, while the tea man did his dance unnoticed.
Roti
Making Southern-Style Thai Tea
July 5th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Yum!