Conversion!

My friend Sharon: "I never liked boba before I met you, Cat."

VICTORY! ^-^

Ho Ho Boba!

Know what makes the holidays even better?

Hot chocolate with boba. Try it! I had my first at Tea Storm, a China chain. It's quite the dance party for your tongue.

Happy holidays!

Chengdu, Sichuan Province - The boba here is definitely not spicy, but it provides short-lived relief when you're eating FIRE (a.k.a. Sichuan food...any Sichuan food). The place we went to near our hostel was sub-par: tepid milk tea and tapioca that clumped together. I've come to accept that boba around China, especially outside the big cities, is nothing to cheer about. But for <5 RMB, I can live with that.


Meh boba


Place that serves meh boba


Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province - A gorgeous locale with decidedly less impressive boba. In fact, the chocolate boba I ordered DIDN'T EVEN COME WITH TAPIOCA. I felt so cheated. The tea was decent, though. It tasted a little hot chocolate but not as thick, and pleasant enough. But you know what would've made it more pleasant? That's right. Boba.


Boba stand right outside the nature reserve

Too hot to boba?

Tomorrow, I'll be traveling to Sichuan, a province known for its spicy food and hot pot. Do you think they'll have SPICY BOBA?!

That would be disgusting. But not disgusting enough to not try it. (What a confusing sentence. You understood it, though.)

Nanjing nai cha

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China - Boba lives outside Dr. Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum (Zhongshan ling).

It tasted like tepid soup, the tapioca was mush, and the cup had a picture of a man pulling a million-pound fish out of the water. The word "relaxing" is written above said picture. Is reeling in a fish the size of Texas really that relaxing, really? REALLY?

And what would the founding father of China say if he knew they were serving such an atrocity outside his resting place?

Also, at 5 RMB, it's considered pricey. For China. Really, though, the experience of visiting Dr. Sun's mausoleum far surpasses any criticism of mediocre boba I could ever think of. I might be losing my edge.

OH, and did I mention that the hostel where I stayed was attached to a boba place? Honestly, China, you're just making it too easy for me. More on hostel-boba later. No time right now to write about the many complicated drinks this place serves (including milk tea with boba, pudding and ice cream. In ONE DRINK. I know!)

Also stay tuned for DIY boba. We're talkin' milk tea in a teapot, a mug of tapioca, and a spoon. Mix it to your own liking. As my friend Nick (creator of the phrase "no-ba") would say, "Oh, boy!"


Outside Dr. Sun's mausoleum. That sign says "boba" in Chinese.


Relaxing indeed


DIY boba at Mao Kong


Shhh, not while I'm mixing

No-ba

Jiujiang (九江- Nine Rivers), Jiangxi Province, China - On my way to Lushan Mountain (where many famous Chinese poets have gone for inspiration...also where Chiang Kai-shek lived during Kuomingtang rule and, later, where Mao Tse-tung and the Communist Party met during the Cultural Revolution) I stumbled upon a boba stand.


Bei Fu

And by "stumbled," I mean I asked every store owner in sight, and proceeded to drag my poor travelmates around a freezing drizzly night until success was found.

The result: very disappointing. Have you ever heard of a boba place RUNNING OUT OF BOBA? I know, that was my reaction too.

Cat: Yi bei zhen zhou nai cha (One cup of milk tea with tapioca, please).
Boba man: Zhen zhou mai guang le (We ran out of tapioca).
Cat: (gasp) Oh my god!!!
Cat's friends: Hahahahaha!

Not cool. So I begrudgingly settled for regular milk tea with no tapioca. It was mediocre. I suppose that if nothing else, it was nice having hot tea on a cold night. At least it helped warm my cold, cold heart, in which there is a void left by the lack of boba in Jiujiang.


Milk tea, sans boba. Hrmph.


Note: the title of this blog entry must be attributed to my friend Nick who, when another friend refused a sip of my boba, said, "No-ba?" Credit where credit is due, indeed.