Hi everyone! I’m Chloe Chai and I love tea. Not really, but I feel obligated to because I have been asked countless times if I’ve tried the Starbucks drink (Chai Tea Latte), cause y’know my last name is Chai and its CHAI tea. I have and it’s really good.
Anyways, I grew up in Flushing, Queens where you can buy extremely cheap and delicious, that’s very important, food right off the sidewalk. There are also plenty of bubble tea places so you can always get your fill. If you’ve never tried bubble tea and don’t know what it is, bubble tea is a popular Asian drink that consists of two parts. The first is the liquid; this could be anything from juice to tea, but the key trai
t is that it has to be sweet. The second part, and the most important, is the bubbles, or tapioca balls. Tapioca balls are starchy, chewy, soft, delicious and also sweet and when you put these two components together you make the Queen of all drinks, the bubble tea. If you are a first timer at a bubble/boba/pearl tea place you might be overwhelmed with all the different liquids you can choose from, but the best is always the original. So I would recommend the milk tea.
Another fun fact: the Queen of all drinks originated in my native country Taiwan! So there might be a bit of a bias here. Just a little.
My parents were born in Taiwan and so my sisters and I grew up swimming in Taiwanese culture, since my parents really only enjoyed Taiwanese food and only spoke mandarin. Thanks to my parents, I am fluent in speaking, writing, and reading traditional Chinese characters from all the years spent slaving away at a Chinese school.
As you can probably tell, I quite enjoy food and am always open to trying different delicacies, so if you have any recommendations, please do share!
Aside from my interest in food, I enjoy playing sports and if you can find the little hint I put in the previous paragraph, I am swimmer, a trackie, and a volleyball player. I am a Biochemistry major, and although I truly enjoy the sciences my high school has cultivated in me an enjoyment for the humanities.
Speaking of high school, I graduated from Townsend Harris, a relatively small humanities high school located in the outskirts of Flushing, Queens. Our graduating class was 283 students, or 283 family members, so this transition to a larger school like City College has been quite an experience. There are over 12,000 undergraduates and it is hard to believe that when I’m walking through campus, I will most likely not see the same faces again.
This post is getting out of hand, so Ill just end it here. I am really looking forward to exploring this city with you all!
I loved the introduction to bubble tea. Now I’m craving some. Know of any places on the upper west side?
I didn’t frequent a near by bubble tea place yet, so I had to yelp this one, haha. Yelp located one on “3111 Broadway New York, NY 10027 b/t La Salle St & 123rd St in Harlem” called “Culture Tea Bar”. It has four and a half stars, and the responses seem great, so I’ll have to check it out also!
I only just recently got into bubble tea, but I really do love it. I did learn that you should never get bubble tea at the ferry terminal. It is made terrible and the tapioca balls there can taste a little strange sometimes. I really like red bean flavored bubble tea. But I am curious if you have any favorites so I can give them a try sometime.
On a completely different note, but about Asian cuisine, have you ever tried mochi? It is absolutely amazing and it is my favorite desert, though I find it really hard to get.