Thursday, February 03, 2005

Bubble Tea - Important Pearl Warning!

Hey, have you ever not been able to finish a cold bubble tea (with pearls of course...why do they bother calling it bubble tea when it doesn't have the bubbles? click on the link below to find out) and thought about saving it for later? Well, you've read this in the nick of time then. Don't do it! I did it the night before last, and tried it this morning, and the pearls (little spheres of tapioca, for the poor souls who don't know what I'm talking about) got all hard! I don't like hard balls! [yah, go ahead, insert your lewd comment here]. I had no idea that this would happen, so in a way, it's kind of cool to discover this. I knew that they got too hard when you have a slushy icy type bubble tea (I never get these anymore), and you take too long to drink/eat it. I guess the pearls got hard because I tried saving the thing in the fridge. I guess it's just temperature dependent. Of course. That's the very reason why I love hot bubble teas - the pearls are all soft and gooey. But not so gooey that they lose their shape. Just pliable. That texture is so wonderful. There are these these rice flour dumplings in Chinese food that is served in broth that gets that same texture. Though the cold bubble tea is a little more fun for a first timer because you get that big straw, and you get the whole sucking up liquid and solid in one mouthful thing. The hot is a little more awkward, because you have to alternately sip and fish around for balls with a long spoon. Wanna know more about bubble tea? Here ya go: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/133188_bubbletea.html Oh, I should also give you a recommendation if you haven't had bubble tea, and I have just sparked an interest for you, because not all bubble tea is created equal. I like Bobble Zone (3618 Kingsway), in Vancouver, just before Burnaby, for that total late-night-Asian-youth-bubble-tea experience. The bubble tea at the food fair stand in Tinseltown is good too, if you are seeing a movie upstairs. They seal a lid onto the cup - perfect for sneaking outside food/drink into the movies. Only for the cold ones, of course. Spooning the balls from a hot bubble tea is pretty awkward when you're engrossed in a movie. By the way, I just tried nuking my leftover pearls for 10 seconds, and it got them all soft and gooey again. So there ya go, all is not lost! Bubble disaster avoided.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The funny thing about bubble tea... I find I get so full after drinking one! It's ... food substitute! Or maybe it's because I've been having the mongo-size bubbleteas from Fairbee, in Richmond, over on Garden City and Cambie. Prices run about $3.75... and they are almost double the size of the regular ones.

Dumpling-girl said...

Thanks Jeanette! I'll check them out the next time I'm out that way. I usually wind up sharing one with someone else because it is too much food. I guess since the whole concept is fairly new to our city (as in within the last decade), we have to retrain ourselves into considering this thing as food, not just a beverage.

saya said...

what a great timing! my family is totally addicted to bubble tea!! But you can get fabulous ones at Bubble tea house at the five corners at MCcallum and SouthFraser Rd. Sure they run about $4.50 but you can choose from tons of fresh fruit and powder flavors and even a variety of cheweys all for this price! You can even mix and match flavors and cheweys for this price!

We wanted to try and make our own bubble teas because we thought it would be a lot of fun. But i discovered the tapioca balls are so hard to make! They seemed almost perfect this morning and the instant they hit the fruit slush they hardened. I was so very dissapointed. i tried the heatup in the micro for a few secs. and it worked but hardened again when touched the slushy. \how do they do it in the store? i always buy smoothies?