what the *heck* did they serve us??

On the weekend we went for dinner at our usual sushi joint. It's a nice, sit-down place: neither a hole-in-the-wall take-out joint with a couple tables, nor a fancy high-end "experience" place, but a decent place, offering both Japanese and Chinese food (you can't specialise too much in a small town. )

We always get good food there, and did on the weekend too.

But when we sat down we asked our waitress for "green tea ... Japanese green tea." What she brought us was ... um ... yuck! It was brown with a tinge of red ... sort of what my green gunpowder tea looks like when I leave the teapot on the stove and fall asleep in front of the TV for a few hours ... and tasted about the same. SWMBO and I both thought we had been given old, burnt tea that had been hanging around since lunchtime. Our waitress, bless her heart, insisted that it was fresh "Japanese tea" and some sort of special variety. Um ... yeah.

On the off-chance that she actally knew whereof she spoke, does this sound like some sort of Japanese-style tea to anyone?




(FWIW, the waitress did not speak very good English, which kept us from discussing the tea much. But she did substitute what I would consider a normal green tea for us, so it ended well. Interesting story ... the waitress also had some sort of mental block going on ... SWMBO ordered a couple of rolls, one tamago nigiri, and a plate of tempura ... the waitress proceeded to warn her that she only got one piece of tempura with that order ... at this point, please insert "who's on first" conversation between me and the waitress where every time she means to say "tamago" she says "tempura" ... without realising it ... even when pointing at the tamago on the menu. )

Genmaicha?

There are certainly brown Japanese teas. Just no brown "green tea". Not surprising for a restaurant that isn't truly Japanese. Very few around here are.

Could have been Houji-cha or Houji-kukicha. They are roasted green teas. I find them to have strong roast and wood flavors. They tend to sport a fairly simple flavor profile. I quite like the ones I've had from Den's.

Perhaps she was just color blind.

Thanks,
Mike

just a thought;i find it hard to screw up tea,and i can make bb's out of ball bearings with a rubber hammer:}

Next time you go with Japanese friend and I bet tea will not be same.

I cannot remember the name now but there are a brownish japanese tea roasted with rice corns wich gives them a very special flavor, I´ve been served that a couple of times in Sushi bars in sweden and even more often here in Hong Kong. I like it, but if you expected Japanese Green tea I can understand your surprise!

Edit: realised that Ouch already mentioned Genmaicha...

Sounds like roasted green to me which is pretty common in Japan, and not green in leaf or liquor at all.

Thanks for the suggestions, all. Looks like we might have been served "real" tea after all, just not what we were expecting. I suspect it was a lower quality version though ...

Balcmeg said:

I cannot remember the name now but there are a brownish japanese tea roasted with rice corns wich gives them a very special flavor, I´ve been served that a couple of times in Sushi bars in sweden and even more often here in Hong Kong. I like it, but if you expected Japanese Green tea I can understand your surprise!

Edit: realised that Ouch already mentioned Genmaicha...

Click to expand...

I've had "popcorn tea" many times ... have some at home, which SWMBO just loves ... and this wasn't *it*.