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These days in sophisticated circles tea pairings are all the rage, tea sommeliers are sought after and meticulously crafted tea list are appearing in glamorous New York and Paris restaurants and hotels. One would think tea is a new discovery and not a product that frankly has been around for thousands of years. This tea renaissance is not really about the drink itself but about the ways in which tea is drunk in Asia and especially in China. Expect to get tableside matcha (Japanese whisked powdered green tea) service, or gong-fu tea, a traditional Chinese way of  preparing and serving tea. Tea is a truly artisanal product and in China, its birth cradle, there are millenary varieties and a myriad of ceramics and clay pots that enhance the ways to enjoy tea. If you buy some nice oolong and use a plain old mug, you are not going to get the same pleasure as if you had a small tea set and tea tray. I highly recommend that you get an Yixing tea pot (the shapes are so whimsical), a gangwan (lidded cup) or a porcelain or ceramic tea pot and small porcelain white tea cups. Tea with its amazing nuances and flavors that range from flowers to seaweed has been in the last decades totally eclipsed by coffee and the huge corporations that run its shops. Although the tea market has increased from $2 billion in 1990 to $10 billion in 2014, it is still premature to tell if we will wind up drinking a “double shot oolong with jasmine milk” in a global teashop. Because I love tea parties I wanted to host a tea party where Chinese teas would be paired with nibbles like they do in the grand hotels of London like the Savoy and Claridge’s but set in a Chinese teahouse. Tong yuan cha she is a Dalian teahouse where every detail has been looked after. From the moment you walk in, you are charmed by its décor and its selection of nicely packaged teas. The way they serve their great quality tea is elegant and peaceful and if you have visited other teahouses or markets before, their style will be a revelation. If you are new to tea this should be your first venture. The owner not only has impeccable taste but also his own tea gardens in Fujian hence various teas come from there. His tea ware is unique with some highly curated tea wares like pottery from Taiwan, porcelain from Jingdezhen and teapots from Yixing both hand-made and semi-hand made. We choose three teas: Tie guan yin from Anxi, Wuyi rougui (cinnamon bark), an oolong from Wuyi mountain  and Pu’er from Yunnan. Tie guan yin is immensely popular in China.  It is a very seasonal and delicate tea that does not age well. It is a borderline green tea even though it is classified as oolong. The English name is Iron Goddess of Mercy. It’s very floral, light and straw color. Its floral notes are astonishing because they are totally natural. Use a gangwan to steep it. Using the Chinese method of steeping tea several times you can probably get 4 infusions out of the leaves. Wuyi Yan Cha means rock tea from Wuyi mountain in Fujian. It is stronger and closer to a black tea with stone-fruit and spice notes and when you smell the tea pot there is a scent of pipe tobacco that I find irresistible. Do multiple steepings in an Yixing teapot. Pu’er is a really unique tea with a flavor that comes from the fermentation of the leaves and tastes at first strongly of soil and earth but then mellows. There are many types of this tea we selected  “cooked” Pu’er rather than a raw Pu’er, which is more challenging to pair. In Chengdu, famous chef Lan Guijun at his restaurant Yu Zhi Lan serves raw Pu’er cleverly as an aperitif. For “cooked” Pu’er tea you can use an Yixing teapot or a lidded cup. Wash first and throw the water out then do multiple steepings. The teas were served with quintessentially British scones and chocolate truffles dusted with cocoa, recipes are below.  Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches also added a dash of British coolness. For a Chinese touch get sunflower seeds, sweet cherry tomatoes and gufaguyuangao or ejiaogao, a cake made from donkey gelatin, a famous and highly prized Chinese medicine ingredient (don’t be squeamish, all commercial gelatin is made from animal bones!), jujube, walnuts, sesame seeds, yellow wine, rock sugar and goji berries. Chocolate truffles 225 grs 70% chocolate, finely chopped 1/2 cups heavy cream ¼ cup of tea leaves (Wuyi Rougui or Earl Grey) 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt Unsweetened cocoa powder, for rolling and dusting Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, heat cream until it is almost boiling. Take off the heat and add the tealeaves and let it steep 5-10 minutes covered. Strain the cream back onto small saucepan and discard solids. Bring to a boil again. Pour over chocolate, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand 2 minutes. Uncover and slowly whisk chocolate mixture until smooth. Mix in salt. Pour into a clean bowl and refrigerate until completely set, about 1 hour. Don’t let it set too hard. With a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop out chocolate mixture and place on a tray lined with parchment paper. Coat hands with cocoa powder and roll truffles into balls; place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until set approximately 15 minutes. Put cocoa powder in a bowl and roll the truffles in the bowl until covered. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Take out the fridge 30 minutes before serving. Tea scones 250 grs all-purpose or cake flour 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt 25 grs sugar 40 grs of softened unsalted butter, cut into small pieces 1 egg 100 ml of milk approx. Pre-heat oven to 200 Celsius. Place flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Whisk together. Use your fingertips quickly to cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in sugar. Beat the egg in a measuring jug. Pour the milk up to the 100ml line. Set aside a tablespoon of this mix for brushing the top of the scones later. Stir in milk and egg mix to flour mix with rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough and all dry bits to the counter or a big chopping board and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form the dough into 1 disk and cut out 4cm rounds using a cutter or small glass (dipped in flour to prevent sticking). Gather the trimmings and form a disk again. Cut out scones. Repeat until you have no more dough. Place scones on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Brush with egg and milk mixture. Bake until scone tops are light brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 small scones. Adapted from Mary Berry’s tea scone recipe.

Every so often you find that your cooking is in a rut and that you regurgitate the same recipes again and again. If you need a change of pace or are looking for healthier food alternatives I would, without a doubt, recommend Japanese food. There is no sense in me going on about its health benefits. The beauty of Japanese women speaks for itself. Their delicious ultra healthy diet bestows them with lustrous hair, perfect skin and thin frames. In Asian hotels I do try and catch a glimpse of what they eat for breakfast: miso soup, fish or omelettes and am quick to hide my naughty pain-au-chocolat and bacon. Dalian has a population of about 6,000 Japanese people so you are always bound to find good Japanese restaurants and ingredients. Jiu Guang has a great selection of Japanese style meats and ingredients. It’s pricey, but worth it unless you are an ace at meat chopping and slicing. My Japanese pantry contains the following: miso paste of various colors and flavors, sake, mirin, wasabi, pickled ginger, soba, tofu, ichimi togarashi and seaweeds like hijiki and wakame. With great speed and little equipment you can prepare most Japanese dishes. A bowl of miso with clams or tofu and seaweed is never more than 10 minutes away. Chicken teriyaki, a dish adored by children the world over, can be made in a flash. In Japan, fish is revered and eaten in many ways from baked in salt to sushi. Rice, like in China, is a staple and vegetables accompany every meal. What makes Japan distinct is an emphasis on aesthetic harmony that compared to other countries is a critical part of food culture. The food is presented in a myriad of plates in all shapes, colors and sizes. Meals are also balanced by containing the five flavors: sour, salty, sweet, bitter and spicy. If you fall in love with Japanese food like me do rush to the top of floor of theTea Market and get yourself cheap Japanese bowls and dishes from the dusty and messy restaurant supply store there. Japanese cold dishes are easy, beautiful and can be made ahead. Tofu with bonito flakes and green onion Ingredients 1 block of silken tofu 1 green onion thinly sliced ½ cup of bonito flakes 2 tsp. grated ginger soy sauce Cut the tofu into 4 portions or smaller if you desire. Put in individual plates and sprinkle with the ginger, green onion and bonito flakes. Drizzle with the soy sauce. Hijiki with carrots 1 cup of dried hijiki 2 tbsp of vegetable oil 2 small carrots, julienned 1 cup of dashi (bonito stock) 3 tbsp soy sauce 3 tbsp mirin 1 tsp sugar Soak the hijiki for about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse. In a wok add vegetable oil and stir fry hijiki until soft. Add carrots and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add bonito stock and simmer until carrots are tender for about 10 minutes depending on size of carrots. Add mirin, sugar and soy sauce. Spinach with sesame paste Ingredients 300 grs of spinach 3 tablespoons of sesame paste ½ tsp of sugar 2 tbsp of dash (bonito stock) 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp sesame seeds Bring salted water to a boil and add the spinach. Boil for a minute. Rinse with cold water and squeeze firmly and cut into small sections. Mix sesame paste, sugar, dash and soy sauce to make dressing. Mix with spinach and serve. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

El valenciano que no sabía hacer paellas, anuncio 2016. Arroz Dacsa In the same way that novels, songs, presidential speeches, and social network messages can be used to get insight and understand the mood of generations, countries, and people, Spanish food advertising can give us a powerful insight into the prevailing mood and our relationship with food.The biggest budgets in Spanish advertising are often reserved for food and drink, given our obsession, especially with embutidos or charcuterie, of which we are the largest consumers in the world. Every Christmas, it is customary for companies like Navidul and Campofrio, manufacturers of embutidos (charcuteries) to produce commercials to reflect on the issues of the moment so this year the effects of the pandemic were on the plate. In the past ads have concentrated on the economic crisis, the nationalists spats and fake news. The Campofrio ad for 2013 titled “The Curriculum of All of Us” featured famous clown Fofito aided by comedians, journalist and other famous people create the CV of all Spaniards as a remedy to the nefarious psychological effects of the crisis and sending Spanish embutidos along with the CV in packages to the International Monetary Fund, Angela Merkel and Moody’s among others. The part about the elderly lady that shares her small pension with her children and grandchildren inevitably always brings tears to my eyes. One of the most popular ads this past Christmas was a fun take (parody) on all the cooking experiments people have done over the pandemic lockdowns as Spaniards have become more “cocinillas” or little cooks and asking them to simplify this Christmas by serving (of course!) iberico products #SaboreemosLoSencillo (taste the simplicity). These were based on the summer ads “Chef Pro’’ which poked fun at all the Ferran Adrià disciples making spherifications and other culinary experiments with disastrous results. The December ad shows cooks attempting impossible recreations of avant-garde recipes, cook’s and kitchens covered with baking flour, burning ovens and exploding roasted peppers, scenes where some of us will surely see ourselves reflected. The cooking mania that has taken over us as a result of COVID is felt across the world but the response to its woes is 100% Spanish: iberico ham, rest and enjoyment. Iberico pig – an autochthonous breed of pigs native to Spain – is the pinnacle of gastronomic experiences for any us Spaniards, irrespective of region, football team, gender, age or economic situation. A kilo of prime iberico ham can set you back 100 euro. Where else in the world can you really celebrate anything memorable with a plate of iberico ham and a glass of fino sherry? A plate of iberico or serrano ham is traditionally a prelude to the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of every Spaniard. This January and February 2021 we will be presenting a series of online workshops on Spanish Food culture through art, TV ads, sayings and expressions ( dichos y refranes ) and movies. We will analyze paintings from El Prado museum, perplexing expressions about food like “que te den morcilla!”  (may you be given black pudding but in reality get lost!) and why the Basque terrorists in the TV show Fe de Etarras (Bomb Scared) fight about the type of almond used in the traditionally Basque pantxineta tart (nibbed vs. sliced) among many other topics. --------- Lo mismo que las novelas, canciones, discursos presidenciales y los mensajes en redes sociales se pueden utilizar para entender el estado anímico de las distintas generaciones, países y gentes, los anuncios de televisión sobre alimentos y bebidas nos dan las claves del estado de la cultura gastronómica y nuestra relación con la comida. Los mayores presupuestos en el mundo de la publicidad se reservan a menudo para los anuncios de alimentos y bebidas, dada nuestra obsesión por ellos; en especial, los embutidos de los que los españoles somos los mayores consumidores del mundo. Cada Navidad es usual que Navidul y Campofrío —dos empresas de embutidos— realicen anuncios que reflejan las inquietudes del momento, por eso este año los efectos de la pandemia están sobre el plato. En el pasado, los anuncios se han concentrado en la crisis económica del 2013, las peleas de los nacionalismos y las noticias falsas. El anuncio de Campofrío de 2013, titulado “El curriculum de todos”, fue protagonizado por el payaso Fofito, que ayudado por comediantes, periodistas y otros famosos decide escribir el curriculum de todos los españoles como remedio a los efectos psicológicos de la crisis y enviarlos, acompañados de embutidos españoles, en paquetes al Fondo Monetario Internacional, a Angela Merkel y a Moody’s, entre otros. La parte sobre la señora mayor que comparte su pensión con sus hijos y sus nietos siempre, inevitablemente, me obliga a contener las lágrimas. Unos de los anuncios más populares de esta pasada Navidad fue una parodia de los experimentos culinarios realizados en casa durante los confinamientos por la pandemia, en la cual, los españoles se han vuelto más “cocinillas” con el objeto de simplificar las Navidades sirviendo (por supuesto) embutidos Ibéricos (#SaboreemosLoSencillo). Este anuncio estaba basado en otros, emitidos el verano pasado y titulados “Chef Pro”, que bromeaban sobre los discípulos de Ferran Adrià haciendo esferificaciones y otros experimentos culinarios con resultados desastrosos. El anuncio del pasado diciembre muestra cocinillas intentando realizar platos imposibles de la alta cocina: cocinas cubiertas de harina, hornos incendiados y pimientos que explotan; escenas en las que algunos de nosotros nos vemos reflejados. La manía culinaria que se ha apoderado de España —como resultado de la COVID-19— se ha sentido en todo el mundo, pero la solución es jamón ibérico, descanso y disfrute 100% español. El embutido del cerdo ibérico —una raza autóctona de España— es la cumbre de las experiencias gastronómicas para cualquiera español, sin tener en cuenta región, equipo de fútbol, sexo, edad o situación económica. Un kilo de jamón ibérico de primera calidad te puede costar hasta 100 euros. ¿En qué otro sitio del mundo se celebra un evento memorable con un plato de jamón y un fino? Un plato de jamón ibérico o serrano es un preludio de la tradicional cena de Nochebuena para la mayoría de los españoles. Este enero y febrero presentaremos unos talleres en línea sobre la cultura gastronómica española a través del arte, los anuncios, los dichos y refranes, y las películas. Analizaremos las pinturas gastronómicas del Museo del Prado, dichos confusos como “¡Que te den morcilla!” y porqué los terroristas vascos en Fe de Etarras —una serie de TV— se pelean al discutir sobre el tipo de almendra que se utiliza en la pantxineta vasca, entre otros muchos temas. Blog written for the Cervantes Institute.

In Spain when somebody is rich and wants to show off we say that they “tie their dogs with sausages”. This “dicho” or saying originated in the town of Candelario, near Béjar, Salamanca and is one of my favorite sayings for its long and illustrious history that links it to the Prado Museum and the Spanish King Charles IV.  #Spainfromhome   #Españadesdecasa #InstitutoCervantes  (drawing by Miguel Angel Valencia Rivera) En España cuando alguien es rico y quiere aparentarlo decimos que “ata los perros con longanizas”. Este dicho es originario del pueblo de Candelario, cerca de Béjar, Salamanca y es uno de mis dichos favoritos, por su larga e ilustre historia que lo conecta con el Museo de Prado y el Rey Carlos V.  #Spainfromhome   #Españadesdecasa   #InstitutoCervantes  (dibujo de Miguel Angel Valencia Rivera)

When one thinks of Spanish food, tapas always come to mind. These little morsels, served with drinks, are what define Spanish eating. Ferran Adria, our most famous chef, says that “more than food; Tapas is a way of life”. As a Spaniard I love sitting or standing in crowded bars; whether eating a traditional, perfectly fried eggplant with cane honey or drinking an avant garde shot of cherry gazpacho with frozen cheese. With tapas you don’t stand still in one place, but you move from bar to bar and define your own itinerary and menu. In some provinces, tapas are free with your drink; in others you pay. Anything can be transformed into a tapa: olives, potato salad, stuffed piquillo peppersor meatballs. Romesco sauce, a mix of roasted tomatoes, hazelnuts and bread lifts any roasted vegetable. Try this recipe at your next barbeque.

photo: Blanca Valencia (Dalian, China) All cultures claim complete uniqueness when it comes to the things they eat. Such is the feeling we Spanish people have about our beloved churros. So what a surprise to find morning " churrerías " that spring up early at dawn to provide a breakfast of churros to the Chinese!Granted Chinese eating churro or you tiao  is vastly different from the Spanish one. While we eat them with hot chocolate, or dipped in granulated sugar with a café con leche, the Chinese eat them with sweetened soy milk and hot and sour soup or congee (rice porridge). It is something that is done in a bit of a haste before running to work while in Spain it is more of weekend leisure activity. One day I went to a morning market to see how they make you tiao . The process is fairly labor intensive; they use a baking powder, sugar, peanut oil, alkaline water and a host of other ingredients that are secretly guarded by street vendors. The dough is kneaded and rested several times. After, they cut the dough into strips. Using a chopstick or the flat back of a knife, they make a gutter in the middle of each strip hence it looks like two breadsticks stuck together. Finally it is fried in peanut oil and served. The end result is light, fluffly and crispy. Photo: Blanca Valencia (Dalian)

The fact that you can get a last minute reservation at Yu Zhi Lan must be one of the abnormalities of the fine dining world. But then in China things don’t work as Westerners expect, and food and restaurants are no different. We were in Chengdu on holiday to experience tea culture, Sichuanese food and of course to see pandas, when I remembered that Fuchsia Dunlop had recommended a fine dining restaurant in Chengdu in an article in the FT. By fine dining she meant Chinese restaurants that adapt to the stringent requirements of Western-style fine dining. There are plenty of fine (very fine) dining restaurants in China thank you very much! I looked it up called and booked a table for that evening. Obviously readers of the FT don’t venture normally as far as Sichuan or are not interested in restaurants that serve Chinese food in western-like way and setting. This restaurant is anathema to the main caveat of  Chinese dining where food is served at the same time and not sequentially. It used to be called “ a la française ”  but now people use the term “family-style” (an expression that is super abused in restaurants where they can’t get their timings right) . The chef was inspired by visits to the French Laundry in Napa and wanted to recreate that experience of having individual servings (!) brought in order which the Chinese frankly don’t care for. Steve and I got in a cab and where greeted by a black wooden door in a nondescript residential neighborhood. The restaurant was empty at the time of our arrival. We were given a xiao baofang or small private room (in this sense it’s very Chinese since they like their private rooms). The room was tastefully decorated but the lighting was off,  too white and too direct. The room had a window in to an inner courtyard of the residential complex. There were two tables in the baofang. One small table was set with cups of raw pu’er*, a medicinal like tea,  and a bowl of  herbal jelly with tapioca. A larger one, was obviously set for the main meal. They had a long western wine menu so we decided to order some red wine, although we were not sure if it would enhance or detract from the meal. I tend to drink beer with Chinese food but do find some whites match perfectly (prices permitting, since wines are heavily taxed in China). While we drank our pu’er and ate the herbal jelly the waitress set the main table with a huge array of appetisers. Tea tree mushrooms, cashews with Sichuan pepper, rose with lily bulbs, bamboo with roasted green chile, beef shank and delicious fresh black berries. It was all delicious and intriguing but confused in the sense that it was all served at once. Although I find long menus and pontificating snobby waiters exhausting, this was for my liking too compressed. So much history, hard work thrown in one go maybe it should have be less dishes. After these appetisers came a long, long parade of dishes. A showcase of some of the dishes Chinese love and westerners love to hate like sea cucumber, abalone, bird’s nest egg and others more recognisable and approachable like dumplings, miniature egg noodles, okra, matsukase mushroom and green eggplant. I was most impressed with the abalone which was cooked to perfection and the matsukase stew and by the selection of crockery. Although the experience felt like “fine dining” I missed the hustle and bustle of a normal restaurant. Although we could hear other dinners in other baofangs we did not get to see anyone. I would transport this restaurant to a busy neighbourhood in Shanghai with a main dining room full of young professional Chinese, tourists and expats. Also I truly believe that because of long convoluted historical reasons Chinese food is unknown and under-appreciated and that we should pay more attention to what and how they cook and serve and not exclusively vice-versa. I would say to chef Lan Guijun that his food is fantastic and shows amazing dexterity no matter how it’s served.