Milk teas happen to be an "in" thing for teens judging from the amount of milk tea posts that appeared in my timeline in the last quarter of 2018. I don't know if this has something to do with Maymay Entrata's TV commercial Nestle Milk Teas.
I'm no Maymay, but I'm so endorsing Nestle Milk Teas, the Hokkaido and Wintermelon variants. Have yet to try Thai and Taro since they are not available at Puregold where we do our grocery. I like 'em best iced. They're already sweet, no need for sugar.
I was actually hesitant to get a box of these since I'm used to boiling tea and steeping tea bags. I thought they'd have synthetic taste to them since they're in powder form. They don't. I can taste the tea with milk and an extra flavor. I'm glad our neighbor gave us a box of the Hokkaido-style to try.
Nestea Hokkaido Style Milk Tea has a slight chocolate-y aftertaste.
I remember my brother and sister-in-law excitedly introducing wintermelon tea to us while we had hokkien mee at a food court somewhere in Suntec City, Singapore a decade ago. Two green cans with a picture of a gourd were plunked right in front of us.
"It tastes like gulaman drink but it says wintermelon on the label." Sister-in-law had said, urging us to lift the tabs and take gulps.
Upon tasting the tea, mom had asked, "does gulaman come from wintermelon?"
Well, no. It's from agar-agar which is from seaweed. Second year high school biology. Nerd alert. When she used to make gulaman drink, mom would mix vanilla extract and arnibal or brown sugar syrup to flavor the liquid.
And yet, wintermelon tea tastes somewhat like a gulaman drink. Caramel, but not vanilla, is listed as an ingredient in the can of the tea we consumed.
Nestea Wintermelon Milk Tea tastes as a wintermelon milk tea would. It's that can of wintermelon tea made creamy by milk.
Aside from Nestle Milk Teas, my sister and I are currently into chili garlic sauce (garlic paste with bird's eye chili flakes in oil). We get our supply from my sister's coworker's sister who makes and bottles sauces. She offers three chili garlic sauce variants: original, salted egg and bagoong or shrimp paste.
My fave is the Chili Garlic Salted Egg Sauce. It has real salted egg not salted egg powder so when you dig your spoon into the bottom of the jar, you're sure to get bits of it mixed with the garlic. The heat of the sauce is tapered off by the salted egg which also lends to it a certain creaminess.
The Chili Garlic Bagoong Sauce is slightly salty sweet and of course, shrimpy.
We have been adding chili garlic sauces to our dishes, as panimpla or condiment and to give them that oomph. Pancit, noodles and lomi, siomai and dimsums, sauteed dishes particularly veggies, fried rice, etc.
I am excited to know what 2019's trending food will be. For now, I'm quite happy with our jars of chili garlic sauces, boxes of milk teas, packages of brownies, chocolate chip cookies and faux chicken skin. The latter three are for a later story.
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| Chili garlic sauce and Nestea Hokkaido-Style Milk Tea |
I'm no Maymay, but I'm so endorsing Nestle Milk Teas, the Hokkaido and Wintermelon variants. Have yet to try Thai and Taro since they are not available at Puregold where we do our grocery. I like 'em best iced. They're already sweet, no need for sugar.
I was actually hesitant to get a box of these since I'm used to boiling tea and steeping tea bags. I thought they'd have synthetic taste to them since they're in powder form. They don't. I can taste the tea with milk and an extra flavor. I'm glad our neighbor gave us a box of the Hokkaido-style to try.
Nestea Hokkaido Style Milk Tea has a slight chocolate-y aftertaste.
 |
| Bagoong chili garlic sauce and Nestea Wintermelon Milk Tea |
I remember my brother and sister-in-law excitedly introducing wintermelon tea to us while we had hokkien mee at a food court somewhere in Suntec City, Singapore a decade ago. Two green cans with a picture of a gourd were plunked right in front of us.
"It tastes like gulaman drink but it says wintermelon on the label." Sister-in-law had said, urging us to lift the tabs and take gulps.
Upon tasting the tea, mom had asked, "does gulaman come from wintermelon?"
Well, no. It's from agar-agar which is from seaweed. Second year high school biology. Nerd alert. When she used to make gulaman drink, mom would mix vanilla extract and arnibal or brown sugar syrup to flavor the liquid.
And yet, wintermelon tea tastes somewhat like a gulaman drink. Caramel, but not vanilla, is listed as an ingredient in the can of the tea we consumed.
Nestea Wintermelon Milk Tea tastes as a wintermelon milk tea would. It's that can of wintermelon tea made creamy by milk.
 |
| Salted egg chili garlic sauce and (Hey! What are you doing in this pic?) Red Ribbon Almond Mamon. |
Aside from Nestle Milk Teas, my sister and I are currently into chili garlic sauce (garlic paste with bird's eye chili flakes in oil). We get our supply from my sister's coworker's sister who makes and bottles sauces. She offers three chili garlic sauce variants: original, salted egg and bagoong or shrimp paste.
My fave is the Chili Garlic Salted Egg Sauce. It has real salted egg not salted egg powder so when you dig your spoon into the bottom of the jar, you're sure to get bits of it mixed with the garlic. The heat of the sauce is tapered off by the salted egg which also lends to it a certain creaminess.
The Chili Garlic Bagoong Sauce is slightly salty sweet and of course, shrimpy.
We have been adding chili garlic sauces to our dishes, as panimpla or condiment and to give them that oomph. Pancit, noodles and lomi, siomai and dimsums, sauteed dishes particularly veggies, fried rice, etc.
I am excited to know what 2019's trending food will be. For now, I'm quite happy with our jars of chili garlic sauces, boxes of milk teas, packages of brownies, chocolate chip cookies and faux chicken skin. The latter three are for a later story.
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