Featured often in New York’s Time Out Magazine is Brooklyn’s “Tom’s Restaurant.”  Escape the heat and all your troubles.  Classic Burgers served, but they also serve up sass with a little lime on the glass in the form of the good ol’ fashioned Cherry Lime Rickey that maybe hep cats like Brando sipped in “On The Waterfront.” Goes down well with anything!

Cherry Lime Rickey
1. Fill a frozen tulip glass with ice
2. Pour in 7-Up until 3/4 full
3. Add a dash of Fox’s strawberry syrup (or cherry syrup)
4. Squeeze in a 1/4 wedge of lime
5. Do not shake. Do not stir. Serve as is.

Reproduced from Toms Restaurant

So what is an egg cream? It is a terrific summer dream drink and nothing is cooler. It’s basically always Foxes U-Bet Chocolate syrup, fresh creamy milk and seltzer. There is an elite group of egg cream architects, dedicated to its arts and connoisseurship. I was actually intimidated in my early 20’s! I snuck into a dark corner with my long double bulge chilled 16oz glass with my secret recipe. Often I hung my head in defeat as the perfect near capuchine white bubbly hood was smeared with flat disarray or lost its pristine two tone perfection. Practice like a luncheonette counter duelist preparing for a throwdown eventually gave way to confidence.

The trick does seem to be in how you stir and pour fantastically cold seltzer simultaneously. Once you have mastered these initiation tricks and hazings, you are in store for one of the most refreshing devilish treats. Gives me the same feeling as having a chocolate sundae, yet without the guilt. It’s light, opulent and thirst quenching.

Here is a basic recipe here and please check out the soda scientist Ron Casolotti’s devotion here. Soon enough, you can easily by sippin’ soda and tellin’ tall tales all Summer too. Any egg cream veterans from the Croyden Bar? Feel free to drop us some tips!

Basic Egg Cream recipe:

Approximately 1/2 cup cold whole milk*
1 cup bottled seltzer
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup**

* Skim or 1% milk won’t foam as well

** Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup is used in New York.

Pour 1/2 inch of cold milk into a tall soda glass. Add seltzer or club soda to within 1 inch of the top of the glass; stir vigorously with a long spoon (this will cause it to become white and bubbly with a good head of foam).

Very gently pour 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup slowly down the inside of the glass; briskly stir with a long spoon only at the bottom of the glass where the chocolate sits. The resulting drink should have a dark brown bottom and a 1-inch high pure white foam top (if you mix it too much, the foam disappears).

NOTE: Do not let Egg Cream sit for a long period of time - 5 minutes or more; it will go flat.

Makes 1 servings.

Historical trivia on the milky moka bubbles here

Any Egg Cream stories or photos? Please feel free to share!

Direct Trade Certified beans of beauty with a hip name and a clever game.

I attended a Counter Coffee Culture tasting at Dean and Deluca recently, but I only got to try out a few. Here are the specs from Dean and Deluca’s online catalog for “Ndaroini-Nyeri … a Kenyan coffee is intensely flavorful, exquisitely rich, and bound by rules of law that make its purchase complicated to say the least. Our buyers are undeterred, seeking out the most flavorful ’single lots’ at auction directly from the farms that produce them. These pure, unblended coffee beans yield the Ndaroini-Nyeri coffee: bright, intense, with notes of blackcurrant, tropical fruit and dark chocolate. Born of beans directly purchased for a fair price from the farmers who grew them.”  Now can you say this three times? Thank goodness you don’t have to….

I found it hard to resist the intelligent process Counter Culture Coffee projects, so I delved a bit deeper on their website to find they are a veritable National
Geographic spread of expansive collaborations. Their team of Coffee People enjoy the cultural exchange of traveling anywhere from the Asia & The Pacific to Africa where locals might be bedecked in a brilliant plumage of feathers and leaves or wrapped in silk and satin head dresses of Sumatra stylings. I would be much too sleepy at first, to pronounce their “Doluk Sanggul” Sumatra coffee, but I would like to try it!

Their brochure reads: “Traditionally cultivated in the remote community of Dolok Sanggul-located near the giant Lake Toba in the mountains of Lintong, Sumatra—this unique coffee offers flavors of savory herb and spice, profound depth, and a smooth, syrupy body.” Dreaming of these skilled artisans plucking the berries would surely add to my fanciful awakening to clear and focused breakfast space. I might even wear a sarong too. What about the beans? They have some serious bragging rights, touting sacred beans sourced according to strict ethical policy of “Direct Trade Certification, sustainable, and basically serious about being green and treating their Moka-Java crew with love.”

Exotic micro lots equivalent to a Grand Cru or small batch of luscious beans of beauty are rare but an occaisional treat. Now here is a concept that reminds me an awful lot of the love that is applied to single origin teas.  Looks like I am going Counter Coffee Culture straying from my tea. Roasted fresh to each online order.12 oz goes for $15.00

Photos courtesy of: Counter Culture Coffee

The crystal sculptured amber and turquoise designed vessel brings to mind a sugar sculpture from the Food Network concocted by a calligraphy sugar wizard. Feng Shui of earthy yet delicate pu’er tea jelly. The first layer is made of a cave aged tea called pu’er, which has a luxurious plummy, smoky cacao mystical tea flavor blended into a jelly. Once with an Imperial Dian Hong, hand made, yummy Yunnan tea, Greg Glancy, founder of Norbu Tea was kind enough to send me (which added just the slight perfect zing of astringency). I also tried it with some rich ripe pu’er tea. (I will tell you more about Pu’er tea later, also from Norbu Tea out of Texas! I did not take this photo! I made this dessert, however, in a lovely elongated martini glass. The glass did not come in Giancarla’s email with this wonderful recipe. Thank you.

The second layer is an aromatic rose ice cream made of Chinese rose scented spirits (wine called mei qui lu jiu) and Mei Qui rose tea. I also made following the succinct royal orders of Giancarla from Milan. It is simply divine and seems to chase all the worries of last year away like a phoenix. The third layer is a subtle, creamy ecru jasmine cream which echoes it subtle perfume beautifully. There is a buttery layer sugared lightly caramel with a little lolliope of nutty lotus seeds.  The feather in the treasure is the exotic cocoa singed, 5 spice dusted fire feather leaf.

Molto Bella! Whomever did you get this recipe from?  Giancarla’s coutour tea sundae, she asks.  She will never tell! Tailor up a coutour Phoenix Tea Empress Sundae, and you will feel as if a Valentine Venus di Milo, whom arose in an Armani Empress makeover! Thank you Giancarla for sending your recipe. Are you sure you are not friends with Giada and an Emperor?

Jasmine Tea Cream

3-1/2 cups of whole milk
1-1/2 heavy cream
3 Tbsp. Yin Hao Jasmine tea
6 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Combine whole milk and heavy cream in a sauce pan over med. heat. When the mixture reaches around (180f/80c) add the jasmine leaves and remove from the heat.  Cover and steep for 20 minutes, then strain through a sieve lined with a paper towel.

Combine the cornstarch with the water and pour into a sauce pan with the jasmine mixture and dark brown sugar. Heat the mixture over medium heat,stirring to the bottom of the pan with a rubber spatula. When the liquid begins to thicken, place the pan in ice water to cool completely. Strain the sauce thru a fine mesh sieve and leave at room temperature.

Pu’er Tea Jelly

2 Tbsp. pu’er tea leaves (shu/ripe post fermented leaves)

1-1/2 cup of spring water brought to a furious boil!  (serious, the tea is quite hard and needs boiling h20 to break down the composed structure of its clumped leaves.) *(220F/100C)

2.5 grams Agar Agar or Kanten strips.
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. floral honey
2 Tbsp. of pu’er tea leaves (shu/ripe post fermented leaves)

Put the leaves in a teapot and brew for 3.5 to 4 minutes with freshly boiled spring or filtered water. Do not allow to become bitter or astringent. Sip as it goes. Strain tea infusion thru a sieve lined with a paper towel. Measure about 1-1/4 cups of Pu’er infusion and transfer to a saucepan.

Add agar or kanten strips, cover with a lid and place over low heat to dissolve the strips throroughly. Add the granulated sugar and honey. Remove from heat

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and place in ice water to cool, stirring with a wodden spoon to prevent separation. When th emixture thickens slightly (around 95*F/35C Refrigerate till firm.

Mei Qui Rose Tea Ice Cream

5 tbsp. mei qui rose tea (25g or 1/2 oz)
1-1/2 cup freshly boiled spring water
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 whole egg, beaten
2 cups whole milk
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp mei qui rose spirit (mei gui lu jiu)

Combine the Mei Qui rose tea leaves and the boiling water in a teapot and brew as for normal tea. Strain through a sieve lined with a paper towel.

Combine the egg yolk, whole egg and granulated sugar in a bowl. Whisk until the mixure thickens and turns white.
Pour the mei qui rose tea into a med. saucepan and add the whole milk and heavy cream. Heat over low heat until the liquid reasches about 180*F (80*C)

Place the egg mixture in a bowl over hot water, and graudally add the mei qui milk tea, stirring with a rubber spatula. Cont. to stir until the mixture thickens. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
Place the bowl holding the mixure in ice water to cool completely. Add the mei qui rose spirit, and use an ice cream machine to make into ice cream (if not using an ice cream machine, transfer the mixture to a shallow pan and chill in the freezer, stirring from time to time to make a granita)

Lotus Seeds in Syrup

3 cups dried lotus seeds, skin and bitter jacket removed and soaked overnight
Scant 1 cup of bottled spring water
5 tbsp. of granulated sugar.

Bring plenty of water to boil. Add the lotus seeds and simmer over medium heat until tender but still crunchy like water chestnuts about 30 minutes. Drain and rinse in water.

Place the cooked lotus seeds and scant 1 cup of spring water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the sugar, dissolve and remove from heat. Cool to room temperature.

Caramel Sauce

Try this one by Chocolate Monsieur Levowitz with love

If you can order a jar and find it pleases you, this is a good thing.

Spring roll leaves

2 Spring roll leaves
2 tsp butter
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. 5 spice powder

Cut each spring roll wrapper into an ornamental shape. ( A decorative fire plumage is you are feeling artsy)

Mix the butter and the sugar well to form a smooth paste. Reserve 1/2 tsp. of the paste and spread the rest over the surface of the wrappers.

Mix the reserved 1/2 tsp. of butter-sugar paste with the cocoa powder and five spice powder. Spread the mixture along just the edges of the wrappers

Bake the wrappers in a 340*F (170*C) oven until crisp. About 5 minutes.

To assemble: Place the pu’er jelly in a serving bowl or cup. Spoon the jasmine tea cream sauce over the jelly, and top with the Mei Qui Rose tea ice cream and lotus seeds in syrup Spoon Caramel sauce over the ice cream and garnish with a spring roll leaf.

*(Yin Hao is white buds/greenish than harsh jasmine tea) Mei Qui* Substitute if needed with a great Chinese Red tea.(fully oxidized Black) Keemun tea 1/2 oz of food grade aromatic dried roses.* Lotus seeds in syrup available in Chinese markets. If you need any help sourcing some of the ingredients, feel free to ask in comments.

One delicious little company, that I consider to have aced creativity and quality when it comes to tea and related gifts, is Leaf in London.  They offer 100% natural, whole leaf, hand packed teas and herbal infusions.  Founded in 2005 by a woman named Delphine, a veteran of the food and beverage industries, this small tea company works hard to keep things unique.

Westchester County in NY State is host to a range of cultural and culinary destinations.  One such place is the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts. This former private estate hosts incredible musical performances ranging from chamber performances in the music room to outdoor concerts on the lawn and in the gardens.  They also operate as a museum, displaying fine decorative objects within rooms of the main house and host special educational programs for children and adults.  But possibly best of all (for those reading this blog), they host afternoon teas on Thursdays and Fridays through the month of October.The setting is lovely and offers a tea experience reminiscent of the days when the extraordinarily wealthy spent their summers on the Hudson.  Each ticket costs $30 ($22 for children 16 and under) and includes a tour of the Rosen House and sitting for a formal tea in the Summer Dining Room. 

With a view overlooking the romantic Spanish Courtyard, the experience is transporting.  The afternoon tea includes English scones with cloted cream, tea sandwiches and a selection of desserts.  There are two seatings on Thursdays and Fridays, one at 1:30 and another at 4:00.  To make reservations or for additional information, including notice of special tea events, visit the Caramoor website or call the Rosen House 914-232-5035 x221.

Images are the property/copyright of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.

The folks at Sunset magazine have their eye on flower teas these days, and their favorite picks are Te Teas in San Carlos, California and Numi Organic in Oakland.

Truly a different way to enjoy your cuppa, they’re sure to be a bright, flowery spot in your day.

Illustrator and author Christoph Niemann published a brilliant series of “cocktail napkin” sketches and statements about his love for coffee within the Abstract City blog of the New York Times website.  His work is sheer brilliance and really worth a look.  It is rare to find art that so perfectly illustrates life.  His work and sentiments within this entry seems to do just that.
He starts off by saying “I like coffee so much that I have tea for breakfast: The first cup of the day in particular is so good that I’m afraid I won’t be able to properly appreciate it when I am half-asleep...” He proceeds with sharing how he developed such a passion for coffee through clever illustrations and witty storytelling.

Image is property/copyright of the New York Times.