China Talk Tuesday - Sippy Tea

I interrupt my riveting travelogue to bring you this China Talk Tuesday story. Our story takes place in Philadelphia, in a dim sum parlor. (The same parlor where BBJ amazed us all last fall by picking up her chopsticks and proceeding to feed herself. Little show off!)

A quick dim sum story. As a rule, my little family does not drink tea, or coffee. (This has to do with something called the Word Of Wisdom, a guideline from the LDS church. I'm not going to get into the semantics of why green tea is not OK for me, and Chrysanthemum tea is...but it's an obvious difference in Chinese.)

When we go to dim sum, we order chrysanthemum tea - a caffeine-free concoction made by steeping dried chrysanthemums in hot water. (IE - no actual "tea" in it.) It tastes vaguely of artichokes, and is very good cold with lots of sugar. (Think iced tea...made with flowers. Om nom nom. They sell it in little juice-box type boxes at all the convenience stores. It's very good for you!) BBJ has never been a fan. HOWEVER, she has recently taken to memorizing her books. One book, called Yum Yum Dim Sum, has been in regular rotation around here lately. One line says, "Now our cups are cool enough to try a sip of tea."

When BBJ saw the steaming tea pot on the table, and I explained what it was, I couldn't help myself. I recited, "Smell the steamy oolong tea, pouring from the pot. Let's wait together while it cools, these little cups are hot!" (No, it wasn't oolong tea...but I was just reciting from the book!) She was adamant that a bit of that tea be placed in her own little cup...along with two lumps of rock sugar. (Has anyone else seen this at dim sum? It was my first time having little bowls of white rock sugar on the table for the tea, and I have to say - this white girl is a FAN. Tea tastes kinda nasty plain.)

After about 10 minutes, BBJ started saying she wanted 'sippy tea.' It took me a minute to realize that she was reciting from the book - a sip of tea! She happily drained her now-cooled cup of tea, and enjoyed several more through the course of the rest of our vacation. Whenever she saw the pot on the table, she would point to her cup and say, "Mama! I wan' sippy tea!"