Drink (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

There's no two ways about it: I do like my drink. Contrary to what some people might think, however, I don't only care for alcoholic beverages! And it really is the case that I tend to choose what to drink based on the occasion but also, for meals, what food is being eaten.

For example, on my German holiday last year, during which I ate much traditional German fare (like was the case when visiting Heidelberg), there was no question to my mind that beer -- particularly local draft beer -- was the ideal drink to have at lunch as well as dinner! (Equally, lots of Japanese food -- including sushi, yakitori, kushiyaki, "Genghis Khan" and, most definitely, izakaya offerings -- go great with alcoholic drinks like beer but also sake or umeshu.) On the other hand, bar for seafood, I feel that Chinese dishes are best paired with non-alcoholic beverages, including -- of course -- Chinese tea.

In Hong Kong, tong lai cha (translated as cold milk tea) is the cold drink of choice for much of its populace. For my part, I find that this rich-tasting sweet non-alcoholic drink made from a blend of black Indian and Chinese teas mixed together with condensed milk (or evaporated milk and sugar) can sometimes be a bit too rich or sickly sweet for my taste when not made well. So when in doubt (which is often), I tend to order the less sweet -- and seemingly more difficult to not make well -- tong leng cha (cold lemon tea that's far more "lemony" than that favored by the "sweet tea" favored in the American South!) instead.

However, I have no qualms about ordering tong lai cha at any of the branches of Tsui Wah, a chain of 24 hour cha chaan tengs that really is of a surprisingly reliably good quality. And for its packaging alone, I do find some fun in ordering and getting a bottle of Tsui Wah's smooth and nicely chilled milk tea champagne (which, for the record, does not contain any alcohol in it -- and yes, is meant to be drank with a straw)! :b