Green (tea) Peace
By Kathleen Daelemans
My Japanese friend Miho and I used to drink green tea every day. Or so it seemed. Miho was my best friend. And my sous chef. We cooked together through three cookbooks and several seasons of my Food Network show. We worked in my home kitchen, we cooked on set and we traveled all over the United States. No matter where we were, Miho had to have green tea. And not just any green tea, Miho only drank Japanese green tea. Real Japanese green tea.
We always had it in the house and she packed it in her suitcase when we traveled. Even so, she had to explore the offerings of every Japanese market she could con me in to taking her to. No matter where our travels took us, Miho insisted we find and visit the local Japanese market day one. "Every town has this, Katha-leeen," she’d scold me in broken English with her silken-tofu accent.
I was all for visiting Japan towns in big cities but trying to find a Japanese market in say...New Orleans in 100º heat, on foot, after a 14 hour day prepping food for 600, wasn't fun. But even though Miho had been in the United States for nine years, she was never comfortable eating American food. So when we’d arrive to a new city, we’d check into our hotel rooms and then head straight out to find a local Japanese market so Miho could stock up on Japanese comfort foods.
Miho was a handful. But she had the spirit of a five-year-old child filled with enough giggles to make the whole world smile. She worked hard for me. And I spoiled her. But Miho spoiled me too. She brewed Japanese green tea almost every day. It was a sweet ritual we shared a lot. Miho drank tea for its nurturing and restorative qualities. It was a vital part of her diet. She also drank it to bring herself back to a place of peaceful tranquility before she slept.
When either of us was particularly worried about a specific problem weighing heavily on our souls, Miho would steep a pot of tea. We’d sit in silence on my kitchen floor while her cat, Fujin (named for the Japanese God of Wind) went back and forth between us as though he knew his touch and the green tea were all we needed.
Sharing tea was a nurturing and deeply restorative ritual we loved. It was calming and brought constancy to our lives. We knew that no matter how hard things got at work, no matter how tough things got financially and no matter how hard cancer messed with us, we could always afford to just get away with a pot of freshly brewed tea and the world of conversation we shared with each cup.
kd@chefkathleen.com
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