The flowers that bloom in the spring

tra la! The jacarandas are in bloom, so when I walked to work this morning I trod through a carpet of purple flowers. Not everyone shares my love for these trees, though. Apparently quite a few students in Brisbane hate the blooming of the jacarandas, since it invariably signals that final exams are only a few weeks away. The first time I encountered these flowers was at Caltech, where every spring the grass turns purple for a few weeks. Lucky for me, I arrived in Brisbane just as they were opening up last year. That's right, I've been here for an entire year now! Amazing how the time goes by.


Every place seems to have their signature spring flowers - in Milwaukee and the Netherlands my dad can enjoy the tulips; Japan has its cherry blossoms; crepe myrtles in Louisiana. For me, though, the start of spring is always when the daffodils come out. No daffodils in my garden, unfortunately, but the pink flowers around my gate have also bloomed recently, so at least I have some colour to welcome me home. The last picture is from last year in New Zealand - doesn't it just make you want to pick some daffodils?


Without the flowers it might be hard to point to the start of spring. March 20/21 (up north) is all very well as the vernal equinox, but this year in Milwaukee it snowed for ~12 hours straight on the 21! I don't think the tulips came out till May, so take note, all prospective visitors to the Huangy household. Here the weather's already in the 80s (24C at 8pm), so the upcoming summer may be hotter than the last one. The weather and the flowers are definitely perks of the season, but the start of spring also means water polo season is just around the corner. First practice is tomorrow, and first game next Tuesday, so wish me luck!

Chocooking?

Chocking? Cocoaking? I own a cookbook containing chocolate recipes, and I'm slowly working my way through some of them. So far I've made chocolate cupcakes (with chocolate buttercream icing); chocolate (and chocolate chip) cookies; and tonight I made chocolate brownies. These weren't just any brownies - they had melted dark chocolate, cocoa and chocolate chips in them. The batter was an amazing dark brown colour, and tasted delicious. The cooked brownies would have tasted better, but due to not having exactly the right pan - an 8 inch round rather than a 7 inch square - I had to cook them longer and ended up burning the bottom :( As some might point out, nothing new in my world.

The pinnacle of my chocooking achievements will be if I can succesfully duplicate Roy's chocolate souffles. Nikki, who introduced me to them, gave me the recipe, and I have been ordered to a) test it out and b) iron out all the wrinkles before she comes to visit in December, at which time I am (presumably) expected to wow her with the perfected product. It's quite an involved recipe - at one point you have to refrigerate things overnight! Ah well, can't let Nikki down. I'll just have to plan ahead when I invite some friends over to be guinea pigs.

The search for the perfect boba

Yesterday I had an almost perfect bubble tea. The liquid was sweet but had a strong tea flavor, the tapioca was flavorful and chewy but not overly so, and best of all, I was really thirsty when I drank it. So why 'almost' perfect? Too much ice. Not only did it reduce the quantity of bubble tea I received, but it made it difficult to get those last few boba at the bottom!

A brief digression for the uninitiated - bubble tea is a drink which can take many different forms but always consists of some type of liquid, mixed with some type of solid, in a plastic cup with a lid and a big straw. The 'classic' would be pearl milk tea, where the liquid is black tea mixed with sweetened condensed milk (or cream), with black tapioca pearls (boba) with diameter slightly less than 1 cm. However, I personally have tasted different kinds of tea, with or without milk; powder-based drinks mixed with water or milk; and fresh fruit drinks. All of these can be made a) mixed with ice b) blended with ice c) hot. The solids generally take the form of pearls, fruit jelly, or pudding. Personally i favor pearls and disfavor pudding.

I recommend trying it at least once. The idea of sucking something solid up through your straw seems strange to begin with, but it can be quite addictive. To wit - my search for the perfect bubble tea! Since moving to Brisbane, I've tried new and exciting flavours at >10 places. I've also used the 'classic' as a standard to rate each place. The quality of pearls is generally uniformly high, but the best and most consistent ones come from EasyWay. However, their milk tea tends to be a bit too milky and sweet for my taste. The best milk tea I've ever had actually comes from an Asian market in Cary, NC. You can watch them mix the ingredients in front of you, and the colour of the drink is darker than most places, so even before tasting you can tell it will have a strong tea flavour. After all, I'm not looking for the perfect tea-flavoured milk!