Good Taste Keeps Getting Me in Trouble.

Here’s the problem with being curious:

One thing never stays one thing.

Tea sends me looking for an ingredient.

The ingredient sends me looking for where it’s grown.

That sends me to a dish.

Now I need to know what’s in the dish.

Then I find a spice I’ve never used.

Then there’s a sauce.

Then somebody mentions the way their family makes something and suddenly I’ve forgotten what I originally came looking for.

This happens more often than I’d like to admit.

But this is my favorite kind of trouble.

Food is one of the easiest ways I’ve found to become curious about somebody else’s world.

Give me something I’ve never tasted and I’m immediately asking questions.

What’s in this?

Where’s it from?

What do you normally eat it with?

Is this how everybody makes it, or is this how your family makes it?

And PLEASE don’t tell me there’s a “right” way unless you’re prepared to explain why, because now I need the entire story.

😂

Somewhere along the way, I realized the thing I love isn’t only tea.

It’s discovery.

Tea just happens to be one of the places I started.

Which presents a small problem.

Because every interesting thing I find makes me think:

Wouldn’t this be good with…

Or:

People need to try this.

Or the particularly dangerous:

“I could do something with this.”

And there we go.

Another idea.

I’m not announcing anything.

Everybody calm down.

Mostly me.

But I am paying attention to where my curiosity keeps taking me.

Tea.

Spices.

Food.

Culture.

Ingredients.

Stories.

Tables.

People.

Maybe they’re not as separate as I’ve been treating them.

Maybe there’s something there.

For now, I’m just following the flavor.

Which, historically, is how I get myself into these situations.

— RI