My cousin is in town this weekend and we have spent our time seeing 27 Dresses, discussing the power of positive mental attitude coaching from The Secret, and confessing the crowning indiscretions of our youth. Marie is always on my side—she commends my strength but validates my weaknesses. We high-five each other all around.
She told me this whole gossipy narrative about me as filtered through my mom, to our grandmother, to her mom and back to us. She said that the moral of the story came down to, “it was all on Emily’s terms,” and Marie said, “Well I’m sure it was!” Like, tell her something she doesn’t know. High five for that.
Last night, we had dinner at Rice Thai Kitchen on 7th avenue, which is celebrating its twelfth anniversary with a 50% off special. We each ordered a glass of Thai Iced Tea, which is a sweet drink with a comforting spice. It’s served a little like a tequila sunset, with a creamy layer that hovers atop the crushed ice and tea.
It would be easy to replicate with chilled black tea brewed strong, maybe with two bags, a little cinnamon and sweetened condensed milk or half and half. Twinnings makes a loose Ceylon Orange Pekoe (it comes in a dashing little tin) and a bagged black Ceylon tea. CurrySimple, a mailorder Thai food supplier, makes a real Thai tea syrup concentrate and has a pictorial of the process online.
Apparently, the beverage is served in a plastic bag with a straw on the street in Thailand. I’m trying to picture how that would fly on the streets and subways in New York, where we really depend on our cans and cups and bottles.
Whenever I have something with condensed milk, I think about manjar or dulce de leche, which means “milk candy.” It’s a creamy, caramel sauce that’s popular in Latin America. I spread it on pancakes, toast, sweet crackers and sometimes just my fingers when I went to Chile. It comes in a jar there, but you can make it on the stove top.
1 quart whole milk
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Bring milk, sugar, and vanilla extract to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and continue cooking, and continuously stirring until the milk has thickened and turned a caramel color, about 1 hour. Stir in baking soda. Continue cooking until the milk has reached a pudding consistency. Pour manjar into a bowl and cool completely in the refrigerator.
I’ve heard that you can also whip this up with nothing but a can of sweetened condensed milk submerged in a pan of simmering water for three hours, but that sort of sounds like a science experiment and I’m not asking for any explosive disasters in my little kitchen.
