versatile mint

mint sprigs are something i’m always glad to have. if you have some in your kitchen garden, they sure will come in handy when you add the finishing touch to drinks and desserts you prepare. like the fresh blueberries i had (they were also in the food parcel i posted last week), bright green mint leaves made it look gorgeous. as i froze some of them, i can enjoy a bowl of ice cream with frozen blueberries any time, adding a mint sprig of course. indeed, mint is very one of versatile herbs. as you know, i love using mint not only for garnishing but for cooking as well. naturally, mint is essential for me to grow amid my herbie babies.

on a hot afternoon especially in hot summer months, having hot mint tea works for me to chill out, really. i learned how to make proper mint tea when i travelled around morocco. in london, i could easily get a bunch of fresh mint and a small packet of gunpowder tea from ethnic north african grocers in kilburn high road. besides, baklavas were sold there. i’m now living in a suburb of osaka, you know. i make kind of “fusion” mint tea substituting japanese green tea for chinese gunpowder tea. what would i have instead of baklavas? i’d have some traditional sweets, 落雁 rakugan (made from beans and sugar) for example. japanese sweets surprisingly go with mint tea.

with summer winding down, people can’t help but get sentimental, can they. i am missing that short (and often cool) english summer right now… i just imagine myself sitting in a pub near hampstead heath sipping a glass of pimm's as the sun sets. in reality, i fancy a cocktail i can make myself – mojito? why not? -- so i stand up to fix. i think i have all the ingredients at home, by the way. as my local super market does not always have limes, I’ve got a small bottle of squeezed lime juice imported from turkey; i have enough fresh mint sprigs, while i now grudge even a drop of my havana club that i brought from cuba. accordingly, i’ve recently bought white rum from a local shop.



lemon is refreshing; has no season that i have fresh lemon juice all the year around. still, if fresh mint is added, it gets fresher. so i make minty citron pressé in summer. meanwhile, like other drinks i’ve named as above, citron pressé has a story to make me smile, too. years back, i had the most elegant one in the bar of hotel le bristol paris. the taste was the same, however. i was there to interview phebe philo, the creative director of chloé at the time. she suggested meeting there since the hotel was just a stone’s throw from her atelier. in fact, it’d been cancelled at the last minute once before and my client (a magazine) had gone panic. for me, it was so lucky to visit paris from london twice within a month.




pic 1
in the herb garden of my local park, mints are in bloom. what lovely flowers!
pic 2
plum little blueberries… picked, packed and delivered to me from 静岡 shizuoka. so fresh.
Pic 3
fusion mint tea with 落雁 rakugan from 小布施 obuse for summer afternoon tea.
pic 4
for mojito: white rum, lime juice, soda, a few sprigs of fresh mint, sugar and ice cubes.
pic 5
voilà. mini mojito for two. click here for recipe and i bet you’ll enjoy this cuban experience.
pic 6
my own citron pressé avec les rameaux de menthe served hot or iced. but i prefer brown sugar.
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destino cuba

la habana. that’s where i was leaving on the last day of my week-long package holiday 3 years ago yesterday. this unbearable steamy weather we’ve been recently having here in osaka is a bit of reminder of how i was covered in sweat when i was touring around cuba: the country where my forever hero, my forever heartthrob, che guevara, succeed the revolution. it had been my ultimate destination since i visited a korda’s exhibition, including that famous che’s icon, at the proud gallery in london. years later, the very first thing i actually saw in cuba from the round window was a billboard-like propaganda along the tall palm trees at holguín airport when the cubana aircraft was dropping half the passengers off before its final destination. the sign said ‘socialismo o muerte (socialism or death)’. as soon as i made it out it gave me a blow to my sleepy head. wow…
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on arrival at josé martí airport in la habana, i joined the group of three couples from the uk and our local guide, davel, and our driver, pupi. before going on a tour of cuba we stayed for 3 days at a hotel located in a suburb, forty-minute-drive away from the central area. i took a wander around the hotel and i happened to find ‘my place’ near the swimming pool. it was an airy lounge with caged birds. i thought the shabby décor, which got a cuban feel, was lovely and perfect. i’d go there to sit back alone, listening to the sweet birds singing in the late afternoons during my stay. funnily enough, i didn’t see anyone else showing up. only fidel greeted me shaking his compassionate fist as i walked down the corridor. his bonafide gesture made me more curious about the country’s future when his socialist regime ended.
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then, we hit the sizzling hot road to cienfuegos, sancti spíritus, trinidad and santa clara. everyplace we went we were supplied with good live music. and a necessary demand of generous tipping to follow, of course. time slipped into the last century in cuba. i wanted to miss nothing. i saw people hitch-hiking to work and home among coco-taxies, camellos, classic cars and trucks running in the city. cubanos willingly help one another. i meanwhile was busy spotting wild horses in hills and mango groves in sleepy villages from the car window. we experienced pretty much everything -- white pristine beaches with crystal-clear waters – showers and thunders -- frequent blackouts, mosquito-bites and heavenly mojitos that cooled my burning throat off. our visit to the sublime mausoleum, where che was reburied but his spirit still wandered around there, reached my personal climax of the tour. the next day, i said adios to my fellow travellers who were spending an extra chill-out week in varadero, while i was taking a night flight alone from la habana for london.
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on july 7th in 2005, the morning after i got back in london from cuba, something dreadful happened to londoners, which i did not notice until i switched on the tv. in four separate locations, london was attacked by islamic extremists who carried handmade bombs that caused hundreds of casualties. i promptly texted two of my expat friends who commuted by tube, making sure they were safe. they both texted me back, letting me know they were walking home in one piece. london’s public transport system was literally paralysed, while the traffic went chaotic. the whole city was left in a complete daze. ugh, what a day…

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like my fond memories of cuba are always associated with that day, many people can’t get over haunting memories of the 7/7 bombings, i suppose. has the situation progressed towards the better world for the last 3 years? all things considered i can’t be optimistic. what’s more we are now facing even more formidable and complicated obstacles such as the global warming and food shortages than ever. obviously, it’s not time for us to hate each other. cuba may be rigid enough to deal with this harsh situation far better than so-called rich countries, don’t you think?