Discomfort food

That looks like afterbirth too!

I'm Southern and I hate sweet tea and sweetened tea. Give me unsweetened.

And I like my coffee black, like my women!

 

And look what moves on the AP wire today...

The North-South divide continues when it comes to iced tea
With BC-FEA--Food-Sweet Tea-Recipes
AP Photo NY607, NY605, NY608, NY606, NY604
By LISA SINGHANIA
For The Associated Press
More than 140 years after the Civil War ended, a Mason-Dixon line of sorts still persists when it comes to iced tea.
Order an iced tea at a restaurant in the Deep South or Texas, and the frosty beverage set before you likely will be a world away from what you’d be served in New York or Chicago.
Sweet tea, as Southerners call their iced tea, is named for its two key ingredients — tea and lots of sugar. There’s no such thing as an unsweetened sweet tea. And unlike its summer-loving Northern counterpart, sweet tea is consumed year-round.
“About 85 percent of tea consumed in the U.S. is iced. And no one in the world except for us drinks sweet tea and no one in the U.S. sweetens their tea as much as they do in Southeast,” says Peter Goggi, president of Lipton’s Royal Estates Tea Co.
Sweet tea is something people either love or hate. And often that relationship is determined by geography.
“It’s just very, very sweet. Most people who try it in the North don’t like it,” says Linda Stradley, food historian and founder of food history Web site www.whatscookingamerica.net. “The first time I tried it, I didn’t like it. But then I got addicted to it.”
Why the emphasis on sweet in the South? Stradley speculates sweet tea may have started as a sugar-and-tea punch.
Another theory is that sweet tea may have just been a cheap and convenient stand-in for wine and other alcoholic beverages, which historically were less available and frowned upon in the South.
“Sweet tea has always been a substitute beverage for what wine was doing in other regions,” says Scott Jones, executive food editor at Southern Living magazine.
“The tannins from the tea cleanse your palate, there’s sweetness from the sugar and then the acidity from the lemon,” he says. “It goes well with a lot of food.”
Nonetheless, there is nothing delicate or ethereal about sweet tea.
In addition to the loads of sugar, sweet tea is characterized by an extremely strong tea taste. Sweet tea usually is brewed hot, with tea bags squeezed to get every last bit of flavor.
Sugar then is mixed in while the tea is hot to maximize the amount that dissolves. Water then is added to dilute some of the potency and increase the volume, then the tea is refrigerated to chill.
“Everything they tell you not to do with tea today is pretty much how sweet tea is made,” says Jones, referring to the lower water temperature and more nuanced approach most hot tea drinkers use. “My mom would boil the tea bags in the water, and then squeeze the living daylights out of them.”
Classic sweet tea preparations end there. Pour the tea over ice and serve with a squeeze of lemon for the perfect finish.
As with many regional food favorites, sweet tea tends to be more about memories and loyalty than precise recipes. No one, it seems, can quite make sweet tea as well as your mom or grandmother did.
“I make it how my mother made it, with regular tea bags, sugar and boiling water. There’s no new-age tea making kit or anything like that,” says Whitney Sloane Sauls, 27, of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. “It’s just so refreshing and it brings back good memories of childhood and of growing up.”
If classic sweet tea sounds too cloying, you can offset some of the sweetness with fruit.
“You can add blueberries, peaches or pears some kind of berry or peach infusion,” says Jones. “A raspberry infusion works well.”
And don’t feel guilty about modifying a Southern tradition. It turns out sweet tea’s role in Southern cuisine is evolving.
Twenty years ago, it was hard to walk into a restaurant in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama or other parts of the Southeast and find anything but sweet tea.
But increased health consciousness as well as the growth of chain restaurants that cater to a national audience means unsweetened tea is becoming increasingly popular.
“A lot of these old-school men and women who were weaned on sweet tea you now see them drinking unsweetened iced tea with a lot of pink and blue packets,” Jones says. “There’s been an explosion of diabetes in the South, and the doctors are saying you have to cut the sweet tea out.”
There’s also more competition. The introduction of bottled iced teas and premium tea drinks at places like Starbucks means would-be sweet tea drinkers have a lot more choices.
Still, it’s hard to imagine a Southern BBQ joint or family reunion without sweet tea. Sweet tea fans say the beverage will always be a part of Southern meals and traditions.
“People who grew up drinking sweet tea will continue to drink it, though maybe not so much since there is more health consciousness these days,” says Sauls, who looks forward to introducing her children to the drink.
“I plan on putting them on the beach and giving them their own cups of sweet tea so they can enjoy it just like I did growing up.”

 

When cooked correctly, catfish can be one of the most delicious fish.

 

I love chicory coffee. At my old shop in Idaho, someone discovered a store that sold it and it was the darkest coffee I have ever drank. I don't know if I would call it good in the traditional sense, but if you are looking for a caffeine high it is intense.

 

I love catfish and as far as I'm concerned, "sweet tea" sounds absolutely revolting. And I used to be a non-stop tea drinker. Hot tea. And you never bloody well boiled tea leaves or bags.

Here's how you make real tea.

Bring the water to a gentle boil.

Warm the tea pot --which has to be ceramic--no stainless steel, please.

Put in the bag or leaves. Pour in the water.

Let steep for about three minutes.

Remove leaves or bags.

If you use milk, it always goes in before you pour the tea.

Oh, and never cream.

One teaspoon of sugar max per tea cup.

And you never serve tea in coffee mugs.

There.

 

Kimchee is delicious.