2. Warm Stories

Tea

by J

The gentle flavor with the natural sweetness expand and linger in the back of my mouth for quite some time, after a sip of my favorite Chinese tea, Pu-er cha, goes down my throat, warming my body and calming me down.

I had never cared about tea until I went to Malaysia, where I met Jackie. I was 14… or maybe 15 back then. Jackie had a little souvenir shop on the ground floor of the apartment building, where I lived. When I was 15 years old, I did not speak much English but some how, I managed to communicate with him. Jackie was a short Chinese Malay, always with a big gentle smile. I do not recall since when but I was always at his store drinking tea. He has introduced me different kinds of Chinese tea and tea sets.

In his store, there were displays of Malay crafts, like the Royal Selangor Pewter plaques, cups and containers, artisan’s batik fabric, and other little things like magnets and keychains. I also remember kites made of batik fabric on the glass window as display… I always wondered if they would actually fly in the sky…

Surrounded by those products, there was a counter where Jackie hid himself and his tea sets, and I was hiding with him, drinking tea. It was not that we were trying to be away from the eyes of the customers or anything but the counter was so tall that it hid us.

My favorite tea, back then, was TieGuanYin tea, which is a family of Oolong tea. I like this tea is because the flavor lingers longer in my mouth than Oolong tea, and I like the flavor of it too.

What I did not like much in the beginning was Pu-er tea. It has earthy flavor and I thought I am drinking mud water. What is funny is that Pu-er tea is my favorite tea now. Behind the earthiness, there is subtle freshness and sweetness. It reminds me of refreshing rainy day when the rain plays the natural music, the breeze brings the fragrance of the wet soil, and plants on the field are enjoying the shower from the heaven. By the way, ladies, it is said that drinking Pu-er tea helps with losing weight.

Just as the sound of rain, I like the moment when hot water is poured into the tea pot. Not only does it make nice sound, the smoky steam escaping from the tea pot is just pleasing to watch. When the tea is just right in the third cup, I can smell the flavor when water is poured into the pot. I can enjoy the flavor before sipping, and even after finishing the cup. The flavor remains on the cup.

After Jackie taught me enjoyment of tea, I bought Chinese tea set. Along with the Chinese tea ceremony experience in Jackie’s store, I took Japanese tea ceremony lessons as well. I also explored British tea. I found that in different culture, tea is prepared differently but, there are some commonalities.

Whether if if it is green tea, matcha tea, darjeeling tea, assam tea, infusion tea with dried fruit, or any other tea, good tea leaves have long lasting flavor in your mouth, just as Chinese tea. When the tea leaves are good, I do not want to ruin them. To get the best flavor out of the leaves, I moist them in the tea pot with a little bit of hot water first. After giving moist to the leaves, I pour the water to my cups and other china to to warm them. Then, I pour hot water in the tea pot to drink. This method works well for all the tea that I have tried. The last commonality, though my subjective feeling, is that they taste the best on a rainy day. They give me comfort.

Jackie, I do not know where you are, how you are doing now but I hope you and your family are well. I just want to say thank you for what you taught me and your friendship.

Cold Christmas Eve in Chicago

by J

It was the first Christmas together with my wife… well back then, we were still dating. We drove up to Chicago in my ’92 red Ford Taurus, which broken down on the way back, in the middle of nowhere, but that’s a story for some other time.

After we checked in the hotel, we headed to the Sears Tower (renamed to Willis Tower in 2009), a 1,450-foot (440m) skyscraper built in the 1974s. Considering the age of it, he is like my big brother. Maybe that is why I have so much affection to it… Whenever I go to Chicago, I always go up there to see the view especially at night because it is one of a kind. The city is so organized that the night view looks like a shiny living organism; between blocks of buildings, the streets and the highways carry millions of cars that shine in yellowish orange. The view goes far out in the horizon especially to the south. I think it is much prettier than the view from the Empire State Building in NY, and my wife, who lived there, agrees with it.

After we “descended on the earth,” we started looking for food. I think it was passed 8pm when we started walking. The walk from the Sears Tower made us feel miserable. We were hungry but we found no restaurant that is open. My naïve Gaijin expectation was that many people celebrate Christmas eve so all the restaurants are open for celebrations on Christmas eve. What I did not realize is that those waiters / waitress and cooks also celebrate at home or in church, but not in their workplace for other people, which makes it difficult for customers like us to have nice dinner outside.

On top of our hunger, the wind in the “Windy City” was freezing. Plus, the streets under the Loop were dark with almost all the business on holiday. Occasionally, train made massive mechanical noise above our head, and cars passed by fast, as if they are chased by time. On the ground, lonely torn piece of newspaper blown by the cold wind seeking warmth of human. At the entrance of some buildings, we passed by shivering people with plastic cups asking for changes.

Originally, I wanted to take my wife to a nice warm restaurant and have a nice dinner after seeing the spectacular view from the Sears Tower but look at us now, we were hungry and tired in the dark cold Christmas eve. We just wanted to eat anything to fill our stomach in anywhere that is warmer than out on the street.

I do not remember which street it was but maybe it was Wabash… We saw Dunkin’ Donut that was open. It was far from what I expected to have for the first Christmas eve with my wife but what the heck!

We opened the glass door with cold aluminum frame. What a relief! On top of the warmth of the air inside the store, we felt the warmth of the people. It is funny I say that because nobody smiled at us or anything. In fact, the waitress just seemed busy, trying to forget she is working on Christmas eve. She was somewhat hyper, and trying to be friendly. Yet I felt warm inside. Maybe I was feeling grateful. I felt grateful for the warm place. I felt grateful for the food. I felt grateful for the people working when everyone else is enjoying their holiday. I felt grateful for being with my wife on a Christmas eve.

We left the store with hot chocolate in our hand. It was still the same freezing windy city but I was filled with warm feeling of grace for the fact that things did not go the way I planned.

By the way, in my opinion, we can experience grace in Christmas season because it is in cold winter…

Beetle Covered in Post-it Notes

by J

My wife and I were driving to Leon, Guanajuato one Sunday. It was a regular peaceful Sunday morning. As always, weather was nice with blue sky without any cloud. On the highway, there were not many cars but when we entered the city, there were more cars, and I could not speed so much.

When we just entered the city, at the first traffic light, we slowed down to stop for the red light. So did the car next to us. Usually, I do not care so much what car stops next to me but this time, the car was so catchy that my wife and I had to stare at it.

It was an old VW Beetle that was dented and broken here and there, just like the rest of other Beetles that we would see many of them in Mexico. What was so catchy about it was that it was covered with Post-it notes and the family in the car. Yellow, pink, orange… very colorful ones. We could not help but staring at it for minutes, until the traffic light turned green.

In the small Beetle, father with a big smile driving the car, his charming wife next to him talking, and energetic kids in the back seat laughing and jumping. Everyone looked very much excited to have a weekend drive to the city with the Beetle covered in Post-it notes.

What did the Post-it note say?

One that was obvious from my angle was “The greatest dad.”