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Originally Posted by Knight_Marshal
If tea isn't sweet, cold and served in a glass of ice, then you are doing it wrong.
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Originally Posted by Eisregen_NA
Barbarian.
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Originally Posted by Dark One
No, Southern.
But I see how you could make that mistake.  |
Iced tea is a perfect way to counter our 100 degree/ 90% humidity summers. Due to a form of hypoglycemia, I really shouldn't be drinking the ultra-sweet versions, so I've grown to appreciate the clear, slightly bitter taste of unsweet ice tea. For this I'm a barbarian in my own homeland.
Whenever possible, I like to use the American Classic Tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation.
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Originally Posted by Eisregen_NA
Ever try eating instant coffee? It's amazing. Not sure if it can match Turkish coffee, but it's gonna be a close one.
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Barbarian.
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Microwaves are only unhealthy if you stick your head in it. Matter of fact, it's a lot healthier than the carcinogens that natural gas and coal can get all over your food. Microwaves are as bad for you as electric stoves. Also, microwaves destroy bacteria more effectively than anything save pure alcohol. Takes about a minute at about 1300 watts (the setting of an average microwave, they don't have adjustable settings in the States) to boil enough water for about two cups of coffee/tea/hot chocolate or bowls of instant oatmeal/ramen/whatever. Many modern apartments and houses come with microwaves built into them (usually above the stove), so they don't take up any real space (although we usually have enough counter that we can spare enough for a small microwave). Also, due to them being on for drastically less time, they wind up using less power than other electric cooking appliances. Also, most Americans have oven mitts (and ovens). Lastly, microwaveable food in America actually tastes good if you pick the right brands (Healthy Choice is pretty much cardboard), sorry to disappoint you. Especially since the "microwaveable" food you talk about was actually made for both the microwave AND the oven. By the way, you say "store-bought" as though you somehow farm and hunt your own food.|
Originally Posted by Eisregen_NA
Only that microwaves are both unhealthy and unsanitary, take up more space and expand vastly more power. I've got one. I use it to thaw frozen food or warm up leftovers. At how many watts and for how long do you need to run a microwave to actually get water to boil? And how do you get your container full of boiling water out of the microwave without oven mitts? It'll be almost as hot as the content. Meanwhile, the kettle comes with a handle that doesn't heat up.
Moreover, the only food you can actually prepare in it is pre-cooked. 90% of which is store-bought and usually indistinguishable in taste from its packaging. The other 10% having been made on a real stove and given to you by kind strangers. Or your mom. |
Also, as you might have inferred from the references to them, Americans, by not living in a third-world country like Europe(
), are able to own a microwave AND an oven (with stove!). So, we can make our food and drinks however we want, without an electric kettle (we can use a regular kettle, or just microwave the water if we're impatient, or, here's a novel idea, just boot up our coffee maker, since we're typically getting coffee).
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As a Brit, I drink tea by doing this.
Boiling water.
Adding that to a mug.
Putting in a tea bag, stirring.
Removing tea bag.
Adding milk.
Adding suger (one teaspoon), stirring.
Drinking.
My family prefers Yorkshire Tea.
Forget all this fancy crap 
As an American that loves tea, I will add my 2 inf in.
I prefer an herbal tea, preferably without caffeine. I hate lipton but I do use it with other teas for sun tea.
As they said, boil the water, and place either the tea bag in, or the tea ball which contains the loose leaf tea. Tea balls can be found at the local shopping center, super market, what ever.
As for bag tea, I discovered this from a brit that used to work with my fiance. Tea pyramids. Basically the bag is in a pyramid shape. You will have to look around for it someone that sells it, but in Chico, Ca, I found some import tea at Zuchini and Vine. Harney and Sons Fine Teas. They sell the pyramid tea.
Celestial Seasonings is my favorite herbal tea, with a preference for Sleepy Time tea. The other brands just do not compare. (I am talking about American Tea companies here, import teas are a whole different ball game.)
Sweetener. It all dependss on what type of tea. For brewed cold tea, and sun tea, I suggest a 1/4 cup of C&H sugar OR less per gallon. For hot teas, honey is the only way to go. Honey, like tea, has lots of different flavors, but I just standard honey usually.
I never put milk or cream in my tea. It tastes wrong. Though I may be brewing the tea to long, and I will have to try that later on this weekend.
Nor do I dunk anything in my tea. I loathe biscotti, and rarely dunk in my coffee either.
For the record, I drink a flavored coffe usually, with 3 scoops per 12 cup pot, and I drink it black. I prefer the aroma of coffee, not the bitterness, so I drinker a slighty weaker coffee, partiularly compared to the strong teas I drink.
I don't drink regular tea. I drink chai.
WRT microwaves - I have one. Almost never use it. I've got a toaster oven that I use all the time, and a full-size oven for stuff that's too big to fit in the toaster oven.
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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Personally, my fiance and I hate microwaves. The food tastes weird after heating it. Meat becomes rubbery, water tastes stale. Eggs and bacon taste bad.
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Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Microwaves are only unhealthy if you stick your head in it. Matter of fact, it's a lot healthier than the carcinogens that natural gas and coal can get all over your food. Microwaves are as bad for you as electric stoves. Also, microwaves destroy bacteria more effectively than anything save pure alcohol. Takes about a minute at about 1300 watts (the setting of an average microwave, they don't have adjustable settings in the States) to boil enough water for about two cups of coffee/tea/hot chocolate or bowls of instant oatmeal/ramen/whatever. Many modern apartments and houses come with microwaves built into them (usually above the stove), so they don't take up any real space (although we usually have enough counter that we can spare enough for a small microwave). Also, due to them being on for drastically less time, they wind up using less power than other electric cooking appliances. Also, most Americans have oven mitts (and ovens). Lastly, microwaveable food in America actually tastes good if you pick the right brands (Healthy Choice is pretty much cardboard), sorry to disappoint you. Especially since the "microwaveable" food you talk about was actually made for both the microwave AND the oven. By the way, you say "store-bought" as though you somehow farm and hunt your own food.
Also, as you might have inferred from the references to them, Americans, by not living in a third-world country like Europe( ), are able to own a microwave AND an oven (with stove!). So, we can make our food and drinks however we want, without an electric kettle (we can use a regular kettle, or just microwave the water if we're impatient, or, here's a novel idea, just boot up our coffee maker, since we're typically getting coffee). |
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All depends on how you use the microwave. If you don't want meat to come out rubbery or completely dry, you have to use a lower setting and cook it longer, just like cooking meat on the stove or in an oven. Just because you can roast a turkey at 500 degrees in the oven doesn't mean you should. At that temperature, the outside is going to be completely dry long before the heat can penetrate to the center of the bird. Similarly, just because you can microwave a piece of chicken at full 1200 watt blast doesn't mean you should.|
Originally Posted by BlackArachnia
Personally, my fiance and I hate microwaves. The food tastes weird after heating it. Meat becomes rubbery, water tastes stale. Eggs and bacon taste bad.
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As for eggs and bacon tasting bad, I wouldn't cook eggs in a microwave (reheat, maybe, but never cook). That's just asking for them to be overdone. Bacon can be great from the microwave (I like mine crispy, which some may consider overdone), so if yours tastes funny then, I dunno, clean it or something. Or if you're cooking the eggs and bacon at the same time, don't do that.
As for tea, I like drinking a white tea with mango and peach from Lipton (yes the people who make Brisk, now hush) during the winter. Also if I have a sore throat. It's nice and soothing, with a good peachy flavor.
Goodbye, I guess.
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Easiest way, for me anyways, to avoid rubbery meat (that's already been cooked, just warming it up as leftovers) is to spread a little bit of butter over it and then cut it up into chunks to reheat. You get the added water/fat content of the butter to buffer against the dehydrative effects of microwaving it plus a little bit more flavor. Since it's cut up, it takes less time to heat through as well.
| All depends on how you use the microwave. If you don't want meat to come out rubbery or completely dry, you have to use a lower setting and cook it longer, just like cooking meat on the stove or in an oven. Just because you can roast a turkey at 500 degrees in the oven doesn't mean you should. At that temperature, the outside is going to be completely dry long before the heat can penetrate to the center of the bird. Similarly, just because you can microwave a piece of chicken at full 1200 watt blast doesn't mean you should. |
Personally, I don't cook meat in the microwave, I got a stove and an oven, and I like to cook. My George Foreman grill does bacon and burgers, though (with less grease).
And I like bacon chewy, it lasts longer.
For eggs, scrambled and cooked brown. I hate runny eggs. Blech.
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I think it's a bad idea to heat a lot of foods in the microwave.|
Originally Posted by BlackArachnia
Personally, my fiance and I hate microwaves. The food tastes weird after heating it. Meat becomes rubbery, water tastes stale. Eggs and bacon taste bad.
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I use it to reheat some leftovers, or cook some canned or frozen pre-cooked food, and some stuff is still better in the oven. You can get decent food out of it, but not from scratch usually.
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Yeah, it's true. That's why I decided to delve into the lost art of cooking. That and chicks dig a guy who can cook (except my home ec teacher, she apparently had a problem with it, but that's another story).|
Originally Posted by BellaStrega
I think it's a bad idea to heat a lot of foods in the microwave.
I use it to reheat some leftovers, or cook some canned or frozen pre-cooked food, and some stuff is still better in the oven. You can get decent food out of it, but not from scratch usually. |
[B]The Once and Future Official Minister of Awesome[/B]
[I]And don't you forget it.[/I]
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My ex used to cook hamburgers in the microwave.|
Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Yeah, it's true. That's why I decided to delve into the lost art of cooking. That and chicks dig a guy who can cook (except my home ec teacher, she apparently had a problem with it, but that's another story).
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Grossest ever. I'd then get a lecture for frying hamburgers being unhealthy, but you know, I wanted to eat.
On topic:
I tried to get into tea a couple of years ago, but utterly failed to get it together. I should try again because it'd be nice to give up soda. Again.
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I don't recall anyone mentioning this, but have you searched for a tea room where you live? Or even a place that sells loose leaf tea that does tastings? Both are great places to check out some of the variety of teas that are out there.
In addition to what's been mentioned I'd like to add this. Some teas taste better with milk, some don't. In some teas the milk would curdle. Some teas taste better with some sweetener, such as raw sugar or honey, some don't. Some teas are great if you add a small lemon rind twist or some lemon, most don't. How you fix one tea for drinking doesn't mean that it would work for the next.
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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Microwaved burgers are just as bad as fried, it's not like the grease goes anywhere. Matter of fact, more grease gets left in the frying pan, so one could contend that microwaving leaves the burger less healthful.
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Originally Posted by BellaStrega
My ex used to cook hamburgers in the microwave.
Grossest ever. I'd then get a lecture for frying hamburgers being unhealthy, but you know, I wanted to eat. On topic: I tried to get into tea a couple of years ago, but utterly failed to get it together. I should try again because it'd be nice to give up soda. Again. |
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Yeah, I don't even have words for the logic, but anyone who could microwave a hamburger patty and eat it, you know, there's something off there.
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Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Microwaved burgers are just as bad as fried, it's not like the grease goes anywhere. Matter of fact, more grease gets left in the frying pan, so one could contend that microwaving leaves the burger less healthful.
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Can't believe no one has posted this yet.
"No," he said, "look, it's very, very simple ... all I want ... is a cup of tea. You are going to make one for me. Keep quiet and listen." And he sat.
He told the Nutri-Matic about India, he told it about China, he told it about Ceylon. He told it about broad leaves drying in the sun. He told it about silver teapots. He told it about summer afternoons on the lawn. He told it about putting in the milk before the tea so it wouldn't get scalded. He even told it (briefly) about the history of the East India Company.
"So that's it, is it?" said the Nutri-Matic when he had finished.
"Yes," said Arthur, "that is what I want."
"You want the taste of dried leaves in boiled water?"
"Er, yes. With milk."
"Squirted out of a cow?"
"Well, in a manner of speaking I suppose ..."
- from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", by Douglas Adams.
I enjoy Twinning's of London, whose teas are mercifully available in the U.S.
Their Ceylon Orange Pekoe is delightful.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Erm no. Any decent cook who cooks a burger in a pan will drain the pan as it cooks. The microwave heats in an entirely different manner than the pan and plus no one really takes time to drain it, which leaves it dried out and tasteless by comparison, yet still swimming in grease.|
Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Microwaved burgers are just as bad as fried, it's not like the grease goes anywhere. Matter of fact, more grease gets left in the frying pan, so one could contend that microwaving leaves the burger less healthful.
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So cooked in a pan can be healthier if your cook has an ounce of culinary skill, and will definitely taste better.
But grilled is absolutely the best way to go for burgers.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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I can't believe you mentioned having a stove and an oven and liking to cook then went and mentioned the george foreman grill.|
Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Personally, I don't cook meat in the microwave, I got a stove and an oven, and I like to cook. My George Foreman grill does bacon and burgers, though (with less grease).
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My gods man. Buy a cast iron grill pan and throw the gimmicky late night infomercial special in the bin where it belongs!
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Where as coffee is never described as "delightful."
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Originally Posted by Smurch
... is delightful.
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I do enjoy coffee as well. I never understood the cold-war between tea and coffee... both are perfectly valid and enjoyable beverages...|
Originally Posted by QuietAmerican
Where as coffee is never described as "delightful."
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But no, coffee is never really "delightful", that I will give you.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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They way you people abuse tea by leaving it hot and putting weird flavors in it I can only assume you are also the people who put sugar into grits. 
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Plain iced tea (unsweetened) is also very nice. |
Originally Posted by Knight_Marshal
They way you people abuse tea by leaving it hot and putting weird flavors in it I can only assume you are also the people who put sugar into grits.
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Grits are horrid, sweetened or no.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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There was no tax on coffee.
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Originally Posted by Smurch
I do enjoy coffee as well. I never understood the cold-war between tea and coffee... both are perfectly valid and enjoyable beverages...
But no, coffee is never really "delightful", that I will give you. |
A microwave!
God, it's like Europe is living in the Stone Age or something.
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