"Tea Culture" has a Little Sister!

Exciting news!

My book on tea in modern day culture, has just been published in a paperback version after enjoying nearly two years exclusively as a hardcover book.

I'm proud and excited about "Tea Culture's" little sister.



I know it will be showing up in bookstores and online soon, if not already. For the past several months, Amazon.com has been taking pre-orders on the paperback version. For now, Amazon is selling off its remaining inventory of hardcover books (4 copies left) at an amazingly low price of $6.82! This price is significantly lower than what I pay for the copies I buy from my publisher for my personal resale. The paperback copy retails for $12.95, $11.01 on Amazon.com.

While the quality of the paperback version is excellent, I personally prefer the hardcover.

So, if you are looking for a Valentine's Gift, a coffee table book for yourself, an extra copy for your cookbook shelf (there are over 30 recipes) or just want to stock up on hostess gifts, I suggest ordering the hardcover from Amazon.com (this is the link to the book). This is a real deal!

Book Club Tea Party

It's been a little over a year since "Tea Culture" was published and I'm still being invited to speak at an amazing variety of events.

Today I joined a friend's book club for afternoon tea and talk about "Tea Culture" which was this month's book selection.

For me it was a perfect opportunity to meet new people, share a meal, and sip tea.

They were a great group with lots of questions about drinking and growing tea.

Our menu was two kinds of tea sandwiches: Chicken Salad and Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese.

The hostess made the sandwiches and a delicious salad.

For sweets, she bought mini Key Lime Tarts and Canoli at a local bakery and I made the Green Tea Madeleines from the book.

We drank iced tea, iced tea with lemonade, and hot flowering green tea. I brought some alcoholic tea beverages for them to sample. The Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka was the most popular alcoholic tea....terrific on a hot day like today.

As for those in the group who are not regular tea drinkers, I think that after today's book club meeting, they've all found some tea that they will continue to enjoy regularly!

TEA FOR TWO IN LAFAYETTE

Melia and I like to meet from time to time for a cup of tea and an hour to two of conversation.



We meet everywhere from Whole Foods, to Peet's, to one of our homes. We like to try new places.

And now that Tea Culture has been published, I feel I have an obligation to try more and more tea places because people are asking me for recommendations and advice on where to have tea and what kinds of tea to drink.

I had recently read about The French Bakery in Lafayette. It is located in the building that housed Lisa's Tea Treasures, another tea room, several years ago. What intrigued me about The French Bakery is that it sells baked goods as well as serving lunch and afternoon tea. Another intriguing feature is that included in its tea selection are several teas from Mariage Frères, the French tea company whose teas I adore and whose teas are not sold very extensively in the United States, at least not in places near me.

I must preface my description of our visit to The French Bakery by saying that I don't go out for a full afternoon tea service very often, mainly because, the offerings are more than I generally want to eat if I am having dinner that evening. And, at least at local tea houses, the full tea service frequently includes more sweets than I prefer.

So, in anticipation of Melia and my tea visit, I called ahead to The French Bakery to ask if we could simply order a cup of tea with maybe a pastry or two. The person on the phone told us we could do that but then confused me by saying that it was advisable to make a reservation for one of their seatings. I did not reserve, but told Melia that if this did not work out, we could go to one of the nearby cafés where we knew we could order a cup of tea.

When we arrived at The French Bakery on a Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., there was nary a customer in the place. In fact, while we looked at the pastries and some of the tea items on diplay, there wasn't even an employee there to talk to us.

After a few minutes, someone came out to greet us and offered to seat us. This being a warm day, we asked to sit outdoors on the patio rather than at one of the formally-set tables in the several small rooms indoors. We also told her we were just going to order tea and a pastry.

She was agreeable and said it would be just a minute while she set a table for us. Well, rather than the bare lawn furniture that we expected, she covered the outdoor table with a table cloth and set the table with cloth napkins, silverware, and china cups. Still wondering exactly what we had gotten ourselves into, we ordered a pot of Mariage Frères Red Marco Polo tea and a scone for me and a little berry cake for Melia.



Everything was lovely. Our server offered to warm my scone and, for a few dollars extra, serve it with clotted cream, strawberry jam, and lemon curd, each of which was served in a small ramekin.




We lingered over our tea for nearly two hours...a lovely way to relax and visit.

While we were the only customers for tea, we did notice a steady stream of people coming to buy baked goods from the bakery. Owner Lynn Appleton previously operated Pâtisserie Lafayette. At The French Bakery, she has combined her pastry shop with a tea room.

The Bakery serves lunch and afternoon tea/desserts. At the bakery counter there are a few informal tables for those who just stop in for a quick pastry and tea or even coffee. It is open every day but Monday from 11 a.m. (10 a.m. on Saturdays) until 5 p.m.

ANNOUNCING TEA CULTURE

Many of you know that I have been awaiting the release of my new book, Tea Culture.

Well, it is finally here...in bookstores and on online booksellers in the entire English-speaking world.

Having seen the book in all its stages of production, I had a pretty good idea of what it looked like. But, when I finally had a copy in my hand, I was surprised and delighted at how beautiful it actually is.

In hard cover, Tea Culture's focus is on tea in modern day culture. It discusses all the different kinds of tea we have available to us. The debate over tea bags vs. loose tea is addressed. Herbal teas, or tisanes, are described. How green tea differs from black tea differs from blue tea or yellow tea or white tea, are explained. There is a section on possible health benefits of teas (yes, they do contain anti-oxidants, but so do fruits and vegetables). And ways to socialize with tea are explored. I've even discovered a company that creates art from used tea bags! To set the stage for tea in our modern lives, I provide a brief history of tea and tea ceremonies.




And, there are lots of tasty original recipes for tea drinks (hot, cold, and alcoholic), as well as recipes for foods to enjoy with your tea.

Tea Culture is beautifully illustrated...so beautiful that some people are treating it as a coffee table book.

I am keeping two copies for myself..one for the kitchen and one for my coffee table. I'm so proud of it!

The price in the United States is $18.95; some booksellers, Amazon.com in particular, are discounting it.

WEEKEND ADVENTURES: A Can't-Do-Without Resource

Carole Terwilliger Meyers' Weekend Adventures and Family Fun books have been an importance resource to me in my travel writings since her very first Northern California guide in the late 1970s.

Meyers main emphasis is on travel and adventures in Northern California.

Whenever I am setting out on a trip, I always consult her books...I never throw away even the oldest ones because they might just include a park or a restaurant or an attraction that didn't make the cut in an updated book version.

Carole's newest book, Weekend Adventures in San Francisco & Northern California was published almost a year ago.

While her earlier books emphasized traveling with children, because that's what she was doing at that stage of her life. Now that her family is grown and she isn't always traveling with children, this newest book (her 9th edition) has even broader appeal. But because her roots are with family-friendly travel, she makes sure that all concerns of travelers with children are addressed.

The book is organized by geographical area. She takes her readers through San Francisco and all its neighborhoods. Going North and South, she follows Highways 1, 101, and 5. Heading East, she covers travel destinations along Highways 80 and 880. She dedicates special chapters to travel along Highway 49 in Gold Rush Country, in the High Sierra, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, on the Delta, in Napa and Sonoma Wine Country, at Lake Tahoe, and to Snow Country. About her only omission is Contra Costa County which happens to be where I live. This omission might mean that she feels that there is nothing worth a visit in Contra Costa, or it could mean she's saving it for a future guide...we will never know.

I particularly like her "Annual Events" sections. Just glancing through her Oakland entry, I see that March and April is Tulip Bloom time at the Mountain View Cemetery. While I am familiar with the cemetery's location on Piedmont Avenue, I did not know that more than 22,000 tulips are in bloom there at this time of year. Guess I know where I will be off to next week.

Weekend Adventures is available in most bookstores and online, including Amazon.com. And, her book is constantly being updated online on the Weekend Adventures Update blog.

George, Being George

I met George Plimpton once, at the wedding of his sister-in-law, a dear friend of mine. I am sure the meeting was not an occasion that George remembered; it was more a courtesy that the bride extended in introducing me to her sister, George, and their twin daughters. There was a nanny present that day also.

But, I've always been intrigued by the life of George Plimpton and the Paris Review, which he founded.

George died in his sleep in 2003, while I was vacationing in Paris. My thought on reading the news was, "How appropriate that I be in Paris when George dies."

Last year, his widow, Sarah Dudley Plimpton, with input from at least 200 people who shared their lives with George, published the book George, Being George.

When my friend alerted me to the book, I bought it immediately and saved it until now, when I had a bit of extra reading time, to savor it.

And savor it I did. The book touches on events in Plimpton's life from his early school days in 1934 until his death. I love the way it is written, with brief interviews by friends, family, associates, lovers, and just people who knew him. The way it is written sometimes makes me feel like I am there with them. But, other times, especially when I read about his social life in New York City in the 1960s, when I was also there working at IBM, makes me feel like I lived in a total other universe. His lifestyle was so different from mine in the same city.

All the same, George, Being George is a fascinating read, whether you have a personal connection to him or not.

Isaac Mizrahi Comes to Town

Designer Isaac Mizrahi made his San Francisco stop on his book tour for his new book How To Have Style in the sleepy suburb of Danville, close to where I live.

The event was planned by Rakestraw Books, a thriving independent bookstore in Danville. It was also a fundraiser in benefit of Wardrobe for Opportunity, an Oakland, California, based organization which provides its clients with clothing and accessories, head to toe outfits, for job interviews and, when the clients get jobs, with a week's worth of work outfits. Wardrobe serves both men and women.

As a fan on Isaac, I could not pass up the chance to meet him.

Many years ago I splurged on an Isaac Mizrahi jumper and still remember how elegant and fashionable I felt whenever I wore it. Most recently, I've been buying my Isaac Mizrahi clothing at Target...Isaac was the first "name" designer to make his clothing available at moderate prices.

At any rate, the event was at a local country club and started promptly at 7 p.m. with Isaac talking a bit about himself and his work. He answered audience questions and offered his advice on style. One of his words of wisdom was to treat yourself to a REALLY good haircut and color so you will know what your hair should look like when it is "right." When talking about his 8-year old Collie mix dog, Harry, he described Harry's energy by saying,"Harry is 8, which is the new 5." Lots of laughs from the audience.

After the formal part of the program, there was a receiving line and that's when I got to say hello, shake his hand, and even tell him about my "vintage" jumper.




The evening ended with a fashion show of Isaac's Target line, modeled by Wardrobe for Opportunity Clients.

A fun evening!