chai tea

I've come to find that certain situations are handled best with a hot beverage. Waking up to a gray morning, for instance, or stretching out on a quiet afternoon with a book in hand. Or, say, after getting caught in a warm August rainfall on a Sunday walk (hey, since when does it rain around here?). My beverage of choice for these times: a steaming cup of chai tea.

There’s something endlessly soothing about the warmth and spiciness of chai tea. The heat of ginger and spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and peppercorns – steeps with black tea to create a rich, spicy concentrate. Mix this in equal parts with milk, and you’ve got a rich, creamy drink that’s unlike anything else.

I’ve ordered chai at coffee shops all around town. My favorite versions have a strong punch of spice and just a hint of sweetness. But why shop around? It turns out that the perfect cup of chai can be made right in your own kitchen.

"There aren't very many good frozen potstickers," Rashmi Bhattachan tells me. I don't disagree. But when I bite into one of her new beef momos, filled with Thousand Hills Cattle Company ground beef, I don't care about potstickers. I just want more of Rashmi's delicious, warm pockets of Nepalese goodness. These tasty momos, seasoned with traditional Himalayan spices (cumin, coriander, garlic, and ginger) and served with a tomato based chutney, disappear quickly in my belly. I think I've eaten four of them before I stop to take a sip of my mango lassi.