Month: March 2016

Lady Grey tea

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The snow is melting, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and it just seems like the right time to open this fine tin of Twinings Lady Grey tea that I brought home from London way last September.  I’ve been saving it since then for just the right time.

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Now the pot of tea is brewing and it fills my kitchen with a warm citrusy scent.  Very nice!

 

Wiki tells us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Grey_(tea)

  • Lady Grey tea is a variation on the famous Earl Grey tea. Like Earl Grey it is a black tea scented with oil of bergamot (though in lower concentrations in Lady Grey). Additionally it contains lemon peel and orange peel oil.

  • Lady Grey tea was named after Mary Elizabeth Grey, the wife of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, after whom Earl Grey tea is named.

  • ‘Lady Grey’ is also a registered trademark of Twinings. The Twinings blend contains black teas, Seville orange, lemon, bergamot, and cornflower, although other companies’ blends of Lady Grey include lavender instead of or in addition to Seville oranges.

  • Lady Grey tea is a modern invention, created by Twinings in the early 1990s to appeal to the Nordic market, who found Earl Grey tea too pungent.

  • It first went on sale in Norway in 1994 and in Britain in 1996.

  • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8411595/Lady-Grey-tea-fact-file.html

Do you come down on the side of a Q-tip or safety bud?

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Ha ha.  I could be perfectly happy traveling the world comparing products and stores in all the various countries.  And by stores I mean grocery and hardware stores and pharmacies.  My favorite store in all of Florence, Italy is a hardware store that goes on and on, seemingly forever.  I could spend a lifetime looking at the items for sale in that bazaar alone.

Last fall I traveled through London on my return from Italy to USA and bought a few items on my London layover.  One of the quotidian items I purchased was this funny box of safety buds.

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In the US we call safety buds Q-tips.  You know the brand.

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Let’s do a side-by-side comparison of the products:

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The swab in the center above is the British safety bud.  Interesting shape, no?

 

I can tell you from experience that it is difficult to shove the safety bud into your ear after a shower.  It’s too big.

 

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But, even though the safety bud is too big for my ear canal, the packaging assures me that the cotton buds are “good for baby and you.”  If you say so!

Ah, but then it says, don’t put it in your ear or nose.  Got it!  My bad!

 

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Here’s another interesting fact:  the British Boots safety buds are actually made in Turkey!

So this is a very multi-national post. I actually have to wonder if the shape of the Turkish safety bud, which looks like an Islamic arch, is a cultural thing.

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Who knows?  Not I.  But it is fun to think about.  And I have a fun Turkish/English souvenir.

Italian summertime, una bambina, and balloons

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I spent last July living in Torino, Italy, getting to know the city, its monuments and museums and, of course, its shopping.

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In the beautiful arcades that line the city center boulevards, I was delighted to follow this small girl, her balloons and her mother for a while.  These are just some random shots I took of the moment.  We were strolling up the Via Roma.

 

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Ciao bambina!  Have fun with those balloons!

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If you love NYC and fashion, you will love…

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Bill Cunningham.

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He started his fashion career as a millener, designing hats such as this one:

 

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Later, and currently, he works for the New York Times:

 

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For decades he lived in an artist’s studio space in Carnegie Hall:

 

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Fascinating topic, these artist’s studios in Carnegie Hall.  Read about them here:

http://nymag.com/homedesign/greatrooms/42385/

http://www.carnegieartiststudios.com/portfolio.html

 

Cunningham has an eye for fashion on the street.  He rides his bike around NYC, shooting what catches his eye.  He says he likes the fashion, not the people or celebrity.

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Find yourself some time and enjoy this documentary on Bill Cunningham.  It is completely delightful.  “He who seeks beauty shall find it” says Bill.

 

Red gold.

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In recent posts I’ve discussed blue gold and black gold.

But, what is red gold?

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Well, Cleopatra bathed in it.

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And, Alexander the Great used it as shampoo.

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It comes from a delicate flower grown from a bulb.

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It is the most expensive spice in the world.

 

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Of course, it is saffron.

I’ve you’ve ever eaten bouillabaisse or paella, you’ve no doubt had saffron. Or saffron couscous. Divine.

Saffron is the most expensive spice by weight in the world precisely because it is actually the dried  stigmas of a little purple perennial crocus flower that must be gathered by hand during a harvest that lasts just a couple of weeks in the fall.  There are only three stigmas per blossom.

It takes about 75,000 flowers to yield a pound of saffron.

Fortunately, a pinch (about 20 threads) is usually all it takes to impart saffron’s distinctive yellow color and vaguely metallic, dried alfalfa hay and bittersweet wildflower-honey flavor. Saffron is featured in Spanish and Indian cooking; it’s often a major component of curry powders; Iran, Greece, Morocco, and Italy also harvest and use saffron, too.

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The best source I can suggest is a (another!) BBC documentary on saffron grown in Morocco and Spain.  I found it fabulous!

 

 

Here are a few pictures of the autumn saffron harvest in Morocco.  While you can see why it is so labor intensive to harvest these crocus stigma, the sad truth is that these Berber families reap only a small percentage of the prices paid.  It is the same old story that has haunted the spice trade since time immemorial: the middlemen take all the profit.

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Next time you price saffron in your market, you’ll know why the price is high.

Update: April 9.  I just heard (on the BBC so you know it’s true!) that saffron reached England 2000 years ago when Phoenicians brought it to trade for tin.  Never mind the Medieval spice trade!