Morning Tea

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This morning, we were introduced to the tea ceremony in a more formal setting than we experienced at the tea factory. Before, were situated in a large, white room just to watch the tea service and see how brewing was done. Today, though, we sat down in a lovely tea house, surrounding the young woman serving the tea, and watched closely as she poured each individual cup from her tiny tea service. The sounds of American music from Simon and Garfunkle to Celine Dion floated gently in the background, re-tuned to acoustic flute, it sounds strange, but it was more strangely relaxing than anything else. The service was wonderful, and we got to try great examples of green, jasmine, and black tea brewed in a traditional, formal Chinese fashion.
After the tea demonstration, we left for lunch at Qin shan Zai restaurant for our foray into traditional Chinese medicine food. The lecture given by Ricki Wan, our guest instructor, was informative, if a little vague. It was easy to understand for the most part, but some of our questions didn't translate very well when we tried to ask about specific things. I suppose I had expected a little more from the food, but the lecture explained a lot about balance and the extreme focus on preventative medicine in Chinese culture; the food tasted under-seasoned and a bit bland, and whereas I had expected something a bit more tailored to us (which, now, I imagine was probably presumptuous on my part) we were given a meal which tried to display the balance and prevention the lecture described. It seems odd to us all when, in a place so ready to sprinkle msg in every dish, the food doesn't seem fully seasoned or as though it was tasted during preparation, but I suppose that too has to do with perceived balance, and also with how that food is traditionally prepared.
Overall, it was a nice day. We had some tea, at a meal that will hopefully put some of us back on track, and tomorrow, we get to hug pandas!

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