Our youngest daughter is living in Alameda, California, a quaint, small island community in the San Francisco Bay Area, connected to Oakland by bridges and tunnels. We were out for a walk on the last night of my visit when Rachel asked if I’d ever had bubble tea. When it became obvious that I had no idea what she was talking about, she took me to Quickly, an Asian Fusion Cafe with franchises in Northern California and Nevada.
I was so enthralled with the rose bubble tea she bought me that I went back the next day for another tea, a bit of lunch, and asked if I could video the tea making for this post. The staff were a little surprised by my request, but they graciously complied. The packaging process was as fascinating to me as the black tapioca pearls (bubbles) in my tea. We made the tea video just as their lunch rush began. The restaurant filled up with high school students on their lunch break. I can understand why the kids go there. The food and drink are delicious, perfectly and “quickly” prepared and very affordable.
From what I’ve learned in my research, bubble tea began as a drink for youngsters in Taiwan. It’s popularity has spread globally in Asian communities and now comes in all kinds of flavors, some of which include no actual tea – more like a non-carbonated Italian soda.
The bubbles are large tapioca pearls, kept in a syrup after cooking. In the video, I ask my server about the liquid in which the tapioca is stored. You may not be able to hear her answer; she says that’s honey flavored. The end result is a gummy bear texture and taste.
So here’s a peek at the actual process. We start of with a serving of the bubbles (also known as bobas, remember my fascination with the filled, popping bobas at the yogurt shop?), rose syrup, ice, cold water, and then the top of the cup is sealed. You drink bubble tea with a special straw. It has a pointed end to pop through the sealed lid and is big enough to allow the blueberry sized tapioca to travel up the straw. So tasty and so much fun!
My food was great too:
I couldn’t pass up the shrimp, something we don’t find in Poland |
I believe the sesame balls are a white sweet potato dough with a dab of black bean in the center. At the WOOK restaurants in Poland, these are served with a drizzle of caramel sauce for dessert |
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
Dennis
I had something like that in Vancouver. It was interesting. I haven’t seen in it Chinatown here though.
Dennis
The small fried balls might be done with rice flour. There is a Korean dessert you can find here that is steamed dumpling made from rice flour filled with sweet bean curd. A little goes a long way!
Anula
That sounds like fun food 🙂
Pozdrawiam,
Anula.
P.S. Your blog is ‘short listed’ as one of my favourite ones, on my main page 🙂
Lois B
Anula, thanksnfor the listing. You’re on my blog roll too!
Lori
I have a friend who lives in Hawaii who studied Mandarin in Taiwan, and so there he met bubble tea. He has not lived on the mainland for more than 10 years, and so when I told him I had bubble tea in Lincoln, NE, he was quite surprised!
And no shrimp in Poland — McDonald’s serves shrimp in the summer — at least in the places I go — and it’s quite good — and never served in the states. The first time I noticed this I thought it had something to do with the Beijing Olympics, but when I got home, no similar shrimp in the states. So try a McDonald’s in July and see if you have any luck. It’s actually quite good — with the idea, every place can have an ‘off” day.
Lois B
Lor – we will have to check McD. I haven’t eaten in one here, just usually stopped in for coffee and very nice pastries on road trips.
We can buy frozen shrimp in our supermarket, but after several tries, we always found them full of water and tasteless. So I had given up and thought I should just try eating the local specialities, pork and chicken.
Bubble tea in Lincoln, NE? There is hope for me when I go back to AZ!
RLKS
Where is there bubble tea in Lincoln Nebraska?