Mohan-san, the supplier of our Darjeeling tea came to visit Alishan along with his brother. They set it upon themselves to teach us a little more about tea, preparing a whole array of Assam and Darjeeling blends. The Darjeeling tea was very light coloured but with a strong, sweet flavour; surprisingly different from the Assam tea. High grade darjeeling tea has a very strong, fruity fragrance making  Assam tea a better choice for milk tea. We were amazed to hear that in India there are at least 100 different types of tea. Fay’s parents were visiting from Taiwan and were determined to prove that their oolong tea was better by far!

Once we had drunk our fill of tea we then learned how to make curry, Indian-style. The menu was dahl, raita, spicy potato, asparagus and tofu salad (Japanese Italian??) and salad. The quantity of spice we used was amazing; at least two or three times as much as any of us use (especially cumin!). The dahl and the spicy potatoes were particularly good.

Here are our favourite recipes from the party. As there were so many of us and it was all judged by eye we an only give approximate amounts.

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●Dahl Curry

Ingredients：garlic, onion, yellow spit peas, ginger, oil, turmeric, cumin seed, cayenne pepper and butter.
Method:
①Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the garlic and onion and saute until golden brown.
②Add the butter to another frying pan then the spice – there was about a dessert spoon of cumin seed per person. Heat until fragrant. Add some more garlic and onion. Add the cayenne pepper and continue to heat.
③Place the turmeric and yellow split peans in a deep pan. Add the onion/spice mix, salt and three times the quantity of water to split peas. Once the split peas are soft add sliced ginger, the spice mix and a little more salt.

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●Spicy Potatoes

Ingredients：Potatoes, cumin seed, coriander seed, cardamon, cloves, black peppercorns, salt.

Method:

①Boil the potatoes。
②In a frying pan, heat the cumin seed, coriander seed, cardamon, cloves and peppercorns until fragrant and golden.
③Mix the spices in with the boiled potatoes and serve.
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