chamomile - german, wild & otherwise

I saw J on Saturday, after not having seen her for a month! We got brunch at the Egg Slut Truck, which is pricey but delicious, and definitely worth trying at least once. I got a 5 oz. 'espresso & milk' from Handsome Coffee Roasters afterward, which I sipped as J and I walked over the 4th Street bridge and all around the adjacent neighborhood - which, even with the presence of newly developed lofts and apartments and hip/up-and-coming restaurants and businesses, the industrial presence of warehouses, barbed wire-topped fences, and railroad tracks still heavily drives the mood of the area. Excellent. As we walked, I noticed lush sproutings of this wild chamomile (Matricaria discoidea), also known as pineapple weed, and plucked handfuls of it, shoving it all into my empty to-go cup as we continued talking and avoiding strange characters wandering around the alleyways.

The cone-shaped flower heads lack any white petals that you see on German chamomile, but upon crushing it, that distinct smell of chamomile as well as a strong pineapple scent arise, and then you know beyond a shadow of a doubt what it is you've stumbled across! I simply plucked off the cushy heads, plopped them into a jar, and steeped them in boiling water until it turned greeny-gold. It tastes exactly like regular chamomile tea, if not better, because it is wild/foraged.

With all these thoughts of wild chamomile buzzing through my head, I noticed that Trader Joe's has their grower's bunches of chamomile in stock, which I unfortunately missed out on last year. So there was zero hesitation on my end today to grab a couple of bunches - the traditional-looking flowers as well as one of the double-flowered variety. The effect of all this chamomile was twofold - uplifting my spirits dampened by a monthly visitor, and soothing a headache and fatigue by either the same visitor or the cursed Daylight Savings Time switcheroo that just happened last night. Thanks chamomile, for helping me make it through the day!

yuzu tea

It's good to end dreary days like this with a cup of yuja-cha (which is what Koreans call yuzu tea), which is basically bits of the chopped up yuzu (a roundish yellow citrus fruit that originates somewhere in Asia...) mixed with honey and/or sugar, then plopped into hot water. It is delicious. The yuzu is sweeter than a lemon, though subtler, and highly fragrant. My mom and I are hooked on this stuff to the point that I get a new jar every week. Which sounds bad, but I like to think of it as fulfilling a weekly simple pleasure. I need to get a jar of it tomorrow, since this week's is pretty much cleared out. Anyway, to bed...

blood orange tea

I just had a cuppa this blood orange tea at this cute café/art gallery and apparently hookah bar(?) called Zephyr that I hadn't known of until now, and it was just under my nose in Pasadena. I went with my old friend from high school Lyle whom I'd kind of lost touch with for the past year or two and so we caught up over a cup of tea in a sweet little room out of sight and earshot by other patrons. I think this might be one of my new favorite fruity teas - it has enough of that tang to be citrusy but it has a subtle sweetness that isn't gag-inducing. mmm!