Categories
foooood in thailand

butterfly pea tea

this is a very funky tea that we first learnt about on a cooking class in chiang mai. the class itself was conducted on a farm, and included a tour of the gardens. our very nice teacher showed us a bush of butterfly pea with its blueish/purple flowers in bloom, and instructed us to collect 3 each:

back in the kitchen, we put the flowers in a cup and drowned them in hot water…

…and after a moment, voilá! blue tea! :D

everyone was mesmerized by the color slowly leeching from the flower.

just this would be enough to delight me, but then we discovered that lowering the pH of the drink makes it change color to purple… so add some lime juice and voilá! :D

i’m hoping to bring back some seeds, to see if we can grow the bush at home and impress our guests with this concoction. wouldn’t that be fun!

Categories
foooood in slovenia

cockta!

cockta is one of those things that you have to try in slovenia. for a while we were curious about it… it looked a bit like a fake cola – would it taste the same?

so one day we brought some home from the supermarket to try. and whoa! i actually like it a lot! reminds me of the kind of syrups parents give to children when they’re sick: sweet and herbal, evocative of medicine but with bubbles! very nice. paulo disagrees and prefers to drink multisola :)

from wikipedia, i learnt it was invented in the 50s by emerik zelinka of slovenijavino, in his research for an original slovenian beverage. it’s made of rosehip, lemon, orange and lots of different local herbs. the design of the logo and unique bottle was made by architecture students.

all in all, a genuine slovenian drink!