Writing about food comes in layers
Years ago, I wrote Afternoon Tea: A History, and as always happens with writing, I learned about A Really Cool Thing (in this case, Burmese pickled tea salad) immediately after the book went to press. A book is never really ‘done,’ we don’t come to a point where everything can be said on a topic or we stop learning about that topic. We just come to a stopping point when the book is ready to be out in the world, perhaps to be revisited yet again in the future.
But back to tea, or specifically to afternoon tea:
Tea’s history in general, as well as the history of that specific meal, are deeply interwoven with violence and colonialism, and it was an interesting challenge to write about that history in relation to a meal that many of my fellow Americans see as a very light-hearted and sometimes-luxurious treat.
I’ve gotten more than a few responses from Americans in particular over the years about how they were surprised about the meal’s colonial legacy (or in a few cases, how I ruined the meal for them by making them think about colonialism at all. Um, sorry?)
The complexity comes from both the overarching reach of colonialism around the world, the layers of relationships we as individuals (and/or specific cultures) have with the meal: Both an opportunity to slow down and enjoy a break and a living tradition that serves as a reminder of colonial rule and the lasting legacy of colonial rule on various regions.
Recapping the book is outside the scope of this newsletter issue (though please give me your suggestions for tea-related deep dives you’d like to see here). For more on the book, Ken Fornataro recently wrote a very excellent, very thorough synopsis, which you can read here. I also talked a bit about tea and ritual in my post on the Teasmade.
In this issue, I talk about tea specifically in Myanmar, and about the pickled tea salad I mentioned above, plus a couple additional recipes/ideas for cooking with tea (including a fragrant, spiced, tea-poached salmon, a personal favorite).
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