Food on Screen: All in This Tea

Les Blank is known for making lighthearted films about food, such as Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. This film, All In This Tea, simply follows an American tea importer as he criss-crosses China in search of the best tea to buy and sell to his clients. He runs into some trouble for wanting to deal directly with the farmers (rather than going through a syndicate) but still comes home with tons of tea, meanwhile trying to get the farmers to go organic.



The film is loosely structured around different kinds of tea (Oolong, Pu-ehr, etc.). It's interesting for someone who has any interest in tea, it's history, and the complex culture that developed around it in China. On Netflix instant!

Dining Out: Cinamoon

Some weeks back I visited Greenpoint, a neighborhood in northern Brooklyn known for having a large Polish population. Immediately out of the subway I saw a large and elegant vodka window display, and further down the block was Cinamoon, where I had lunch with a friend. The food was delightful and pretty exotic for a Texan.

Pierogies: some potato and cheese, some mushroom and potato

Borscht, and a "cutlet," which seemed like a kind of spring roll whose wrapper was made out of a crêpe, and then the whole thing rolled in crumbs and fried.