At
home or in a restaurant the teapot always appears on the table
before any meal for the guests to refresh themselves while waiting
for the food, and afterward to aid its digestion. Tea is not served
with food unless the guest asks for it. In Chinese style this is
always green or oolong tea, never taken with milk or sugar.
Sometimes at end of a seafood course, such as lobster or prawns
which diners have had to shell with their fingers, the waiter will
bring a basin of hot tea and a few pieces of lemon to be used for
washing hands before the nest course. Jasmine or some other
strong-flavored tea will likely be served to drink at the end of the
meal, again to combat the fish odor.
As
a rule tea comes with the price of a meal in Chinese restaurants in
the United States, and many serve only one kind of tea according to
their type of customers. Pu-erh is popular in Cantonese restaurants,
and Jasmine with Beijing and Shanghai cuisine. Restaurants serving
Western food have black tea.
Chinese teahouses, on the other hand, specializing in tea and
serving lighter snack food, tend to offer a wider selection.
Cantonese ones may have Pu-erh, Ti Kwan Yin, Shui Hsien, Lung Ching,
Show Mee, Jasmine, and Chrysanthemum (not true tea, but made solely
from chrysanthemum flowers), and Pu-erh with Chrysanthemum, commonly
called Gookpu.
Public bathhouses are big sellers of tea, as after a hot bath people
often lie down to cool off and complete their relaxation with a cup
of tea. The hot weather brings out numerous tea stalls. When small
private businesses started up again after 1979 in China, these were
the first to blossom out along the busy streets.
