I have tried green tea, white tea, red tea, flavored tea and dozens of teasans. But Tea in a Jar? Not only had I never tried it. I had never even heard of it until two pint-sized jars arrived in the mail.

The jars, which I have say straight off are NOT TEA, look like marmalade, but not quite as thick. One was made of aloe, one citron. There isn’t a stitch of camelia sinensis in either jar.

Curious about why this jam is called tea, I called Ellen Kim, Puripan Tea’s vice president of marketing. The tea, she explained, is a traditional drink in Korea. There, it can be found in an array of flavors. It is drunk year-round, at any time of day. It’s even served in coffee shops.

The “tea,” is made by cutting up fruit, then fermenting it in sugar in clay pots. After the fruit has fermented for 3 days, it is ready to be stirred into hot or cold water. After drinking the liquids, Koreans chew on the pulp.

“In Korea, we ferment more than 50 percent of our food because it brings health benefits,” Kim explained. “Fermenting preserves the vitamins and helps to make the fruit more digestible.”

The fermented tea is believed to help fight a host of ailments, including poor digestion, anxiety, sore throats and colds. Aloe, for example, is great for digestion. The pomegranate is an immunity booster and antioxidant. The citron delivers a burst of vitamin C.

Since I loved the first two “teas” so much, Kim insisted that I try the other varieties, including pomegranate, ginger and papaya. I enjoyed all of them, but especially loved the ginger, which is the perfect after-dinner drink since ginger promotes good digestion. I also like chewing on the hot ginger slices at the bottom of the cup.

One pint of puripan tea makes about 40 cups of tea, depending on how sweet you like your drink. The tea, $9 per jar, is available at specialty stores in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara, or online at www.puripan.com. Call (888) 259-3915.

If you love Asian flavors and want to learn how to work them into the food that you cook in your own kitchen, clear part of your weekend for a trip to San Francisco, to the Asian Art Museum’s Taste of Asia gala and exhibition.

On Friday, you’ll need to shell out $125 if you want to taste your way through Asia at the gala event. But on Saturday and Sunday, $45 will get you in to one of a selection of culinary workshops led by such chefs as Alexander Ong of Betelnut restaurant, Joyce Jue, author of “Savoring Asia,” Martin Yan of the Yan Can Cook television show, and Ranjan Dey of New Delhi Restaurant.

Dey, who also hosts the PBS cooking show “My India,” hopes the turnout for his cooking demonstration will be big — mainly because he is convinced that a lot of American favorites could use an Indian makover.

“As baby boomers get older, our palates get a little duller. We need more spices and herbs so that we enjoy our food,” he says. “Indian cooking offers that.”

The key to tweaking everyday foods Asian, he says, is to think about how foods taste, and to then think about the different flavors of Indian spices. “What you need to do is to create a flavor profile in your mind. When you think about it, would it taste good?”

This kind of flavor-profiling, he admits, is extremely personal. Last fall, for example, he and his wife disagreed about how the Thanksgiving turkey should be prepared.

“I thought to cook it in the tandoor. She was not pleased. So we came up with a plan. She cooked her turkey the traditional way. I cut mine up and barbecued it in the tandoor. Instead of cranberry we served mango chutney.” Dey is convinced that his turkey was the best since it disappeared fast.

The first step to infusing any dish with Indian flavors, he says, is to learn a bit about Indian spices. “You have to understands the basic flavors. We know that black pepper is sweet and nutty when you cook it whole, but it is spicy when you grind it.

“Mustard has a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde persona. Americans usually grind it, which makes it very pungent. But in India we use it whole. We cook it, and temper the flavor so that it becomes sweet and nutty.” The same flavor variations are true of cumin, coriander and cardamom.

Here are some of Ranjan Dey’s suggestions for giving everyday American favorites a shot of Indian flavor:

Vegetables: Any vegetable will work, including carrots, green beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower or any melange. Place a pinch of panch phoron (a Bengali spice mix of equal parts cumin seed, fenugreek, anise seed, onion seed and mustard seed) in a skillet with butter and oil. Stir and saute for a few minutes, or until the spices are aromatic. Add vegetables, stir and cook, covered until vegetables are tender.

Salad: Mix your favorite chutney with extra virgin olive oil and dress salad. Sprinkle with Punjabi mix.

Roast chicken, pork or beef: Rub roast with garam masala and roast according to directions.

Barbecue: Mix masala with oil and marinate meat for at least 30 minutes before grilling.

And just in case you think making Indian curry at home is way too difficult for you to try, here is Dey’s Indian curry cheat-sheet, which he calls the “two trinities.”

Trinity One: The wet ingredients.

Puree or mash together 3 parts onion, 1 part garlic and 1 part fresh, peeled ginger. Place wet mixture in a pan with a small amount of oil and saute, stirring, until the mix is caramelized.

Trinity Two: The dry ingredients.

When the onion mixture is fully cooked, add 1 part ground cumin, 2 parts crushed or ground coriander and 1/4 part turmeric. Cook, stir and add any kind of meat, potato or vegetable you desire. After adding food, fill the pan about 1/2 full with water and cook until well done.

If this is too confusing for you, then let the chefs at the Asian Art Museum do the cooking. Tickets to the Friday gala or Saturday cooking workshops must be purchased in advance. Call (415) 581-3788 or go to www.asianart.org. _ Jolene Thym

Lemon Mustard Karahai Murg
Recipe courtesy of Ranjan Dey

Serves 6 to 8

1 pound boneless diced chicken

2 tablespoons Calcutta Lemon Mustard Curry (available at www.NewWorldSpices.com or make a paste with 1 teaspoon mustard powder, 1 minced small jalapeno, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon brown sugar or honey, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon Panch Phoran — see above for Panch Phoran recipe. Add a little water if necessary.)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup cashews

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 pound green bell pepper, cut into matchsticks

1/4 pound yellow bell pepper, cut into matchsticks

1/4 pound red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks

1/4 pound yellow onion, thinly sliced

1/4 pound purple onion, thinly sliced

1/4 pound tomatoes, diced

Garnish:

A few fried cashews, lemon slices, one or two jalapenos, sliced.

1. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan.

2. Add cashews and fry until they change color and take on a golden hue. Take off the fire. Set aside a few for garnish.

3. Return the pan to heat.

4. Add chicken and Calcutta Lemon Mustard Curry or the spice paste and cook for 6 minutes.

5. Add vegetables and stir fry until vegetables have a soft crunch.

6. Add salt and check to taste.

7. Garnish with set aside cashews, slices of lemon and jalapeno.

8. Serve with steamed rice.

Class! Come to order! There will be no chatting. No blinking. No gum, heavens no.

The subject: The shape of your wine glass.

Before you chuckle, let me mention that our teacher Georg Riedel comes all the way from Austria, a member of the Riedel family that has been making superbly engineered wine glasses for 251 years.
Now, I never doubted that the glass that I drink my wine in matters.
Even before I had heard of the name Riedel (or knew how to pronounce
Reeed-l) I was very particular about the shape of my glass. I can’t say why. I didn’t have a clue that it had anything to do with taste. I just knew that some glasses made me happier than others.

Still, I was more than happy to sit up straight and pay attention for the two-hour lecture and discussion about glasses. After all, why have a good glass of wine when you can, from the very same bottle, have a GREAT glass of wine?

Listening hard, I learned much. First, I learned the reason why I like certain wine glasses better than others _ and also why the shape of those glasses matters. I knew that the shape of a glass has to do with the bouquet of a wine _ I learned that during a wine-tasting class.

What I didn’t know is that the shape of a glass also determines how the wine flows out of the glass and onto my palate. Bowl-shaped glasses deliver a round of liquid that spills to the sides of the tongue, where we best register qualities such as sweetness.

Diamond-shaped glasses that are wide in the middle, then narrow at the top deliver a V-shape of wine that misses the tip of the tongue, avoids the sides, but satisfies the full middle of the tongue. The wine flows all the way to the back of the throat, where we can register the tannins, which I really like.

What I loved about this class is that our teacher Georg Riedel didn’t just talk, talk, talk. He poured small samples of very nice wines in hilariously gigantic glasses and instructed us to nearly spill them out off the glass so we could see the shape of wine that would be headed into our mouths.

Next, we were commanded to smell and taste. Then we dumped our wines from glass to glass, tasting them from all shapes and sizes of glasses. Our lineup of classes included two “joke” glasses that are very common in shape _ and as we discovered, perfectly horrid for wine-drinking.

Some glasses quashed the fruit. Some allowed the aromas to slip away entirely. Some rounded up the tannins and delivered them with such a bang at the back of our tongues that we wanted to spit it out. Some did. I suffered quietly.

What some of us came to realize is that many times when we don’t like a wine, it has more to do with the shape and style of glass that we are drinking it from. A wine I loved in one glass, I hated and refused to drink in another. I suspect that part of the reason I don’t enjoy a lot of white wines, for example, is that I drink them out of glasses designed to show off red wines.

For me, the most exciting revelation is that I actually enjoy a nice Champagne out of a giant bell glass, a glass Riedel specially designed for pinot noirs and burgundies because of their more delicate aromas and more pronounced minerality. Normally, I turn down glasses of Champagne because I know even before the first sip that it will not please. To me, Champagne out of a flute tastes sour and has no aroma.

But a few sips of that same Champagne out of the bell-shaped glass reveal flavors and fruity aromas that I didn’t even know were there. From this glass, the Champagne has a delicate, pleasant sweetness that makes me want to take another sip. Just in case you are curious: That Champagne that I disliked at first was a Champagne Pommery Cuvee Louise 1995 that retails for roughly $160 per bottle.

Riedel, pleased that his students were beginning to understand, shared lots of details about the science behind the glass shapes, including information having to do with the density of molecules, specific gravity and the porosity of lead crystal.

Much of this was way too technical for me to remember. For me, the take-away from the class is this: I must not to drink all colors and types of wine out of my favorite glass. Instead, I must have many favorite glasses _ one for each kind of wine I like.

Even if you don’t happen to have $20 to $95 to dump on a Riedel glass, you can still improve your enjoyment of wine by simply matching the shape of your wine glass to the type of wine you pour into it.

Ball shaped glasses that are round or nearly round with a wide opening at the top are great for chardonnays, pinot gris and other white wines, as they allow the aroma of the alcohol to escape instead of attacking your nose.

Diamond-shaped glasses are best for merlots, cabernets and other wines that have complex aromas. You want a big glass for a nice red wine because it will intensify the aromas in the wine.
(Riedel’s finest cabernet glass is a 36-ouncer!) Don’t over-fill the glass. Four to five ounces in the bottom of the glass is perfect.

For pinot noirs, Champagne and burgundy wines from France, your best pick is the bell-shaped glass that flares gently at the top. Again, this should be a large glass in order to make the most of the fruit aromas. _ Jolene Thym

$395 per plate may not be unusual for a fund raising dinner. But for a wine-and-food dinner?

Curious about whether or not the invitation and price was a joke, I contacted Prima Vini in Walnut Creek and asked. In fact, a group of 14 turned out for the dinner, happy to pay the bill since the least expensive bottle of wine they will uncork retails for $150.

So exactly how much per bite and per sip did they pay? My contact didn’t say, nor did he care to comment on whether or not this rather expensive meal was worth the cash. And since my invitation seemed to have been lost in the mail, I cannot report first-hand.

But I did learn that the wines served were all Bordeaux, from Comte de Vogue’s Grand Cru Musigny Vielles Vignes, shared by non other than the domaine’s Director-General Jean-Luc Pepin. He served the winery’s Grand Cru Bonnes Mares, Musigny Premier Cru and the `97,`98,`99,`00 vintages of Musigny Vielles Vignes, the `91 and `99 vintages of Bonnes Mares and the `01 Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru.

If any of this makes sense to you, then you may want to book a seat at Primi Vini’s next soiree, Friday May 4th. The event is “An Evening Of Chateau Cos d’Estournel With Winemaker Dominique Arangoits,” and this one is only $345 per diner, including tax and gratuity.

Highlights of the evening will include wines from Chateau Cos d’Estrournel Dominque Arangoits. Only the first 18 people get a seat! Contact Prima Vini at 1-800-70-PRIMA, or email at info@primawine.com.

_ Jolene Thym

I got sidetracked while making polenta topped with portabellas the other night and forgot to add what is apparently the secret ingredient to great, flavorful polenta.

When the grains of corn were tender, I added some herbs de provence and a little garlic oil. I threw in a handful of pecorino and asiago, some white pepper and a bit of salt. But I forgot to jump over a country and grab a little Greek magic — a few tablespoons of crumbled feta cheese from the giant, Costco-sized box I keep in the freezer.

The resulting polenta was good. It was smooth and satisfying. But it just didn’t have that final flavor kick that you get when you stir in a bit of feta. The key here is to use feta as a flavor booster, not to go crazy with it. Used right, those who hate feta will never even know it’s there. _ Jolene Thym

When I opened this month’s issue of Cook’s Illustrated, I was shocked. I felt like a kid in a classroom who had given the wrong answer. Only the answer was right, RIGHT, right, I tell you!!!

At issue is a long lecture that appears on the reader tips page, a lecture that I am certain was prompted by a letter that I personally wrote to the magazine.

OK, so I submitted the letter under my sister’s name. But it was I who came up with the super-cool tip for storing ginger in the freezer. I’ve been doing it for years. I toss the root into the door of freezer, where it stays until I next need it. When a recipe calls for ginger, I pluck it out and use my rasp to grate as much as I need _ actually a little more because the iciness of the ginger makes it extra fluffy so that a little looks like more than it is.

What I love about freezing ginger is that I don’t have to worry about my ginger going moldy. I don’t have to think about whether I will need it this week or next. It’s just there, anytime and everytime I need it.

What I have also learned is that frozen ginger actully grates up finer and nicer than fresh ginger, mainly because those annoying fibers don’t get the chance to defy instructions.

Taking all of this personal experience into consideration, and the fact that I took the time to share my secret, you can imagine my response to the news that MY TIP DOESN’T WORK. Say what?

It turns out that the testers at Cook’s Illustrated didn’t follow my clear instructions to grate the ginger while it’s still frozen! So they report that what they have is a soggy mess of ginger that won’t grate.

Of course Cook’s considers the entire ginger matter a closed case. They think they have delivered the one and only best answer. My response: Cook’s isn’t often wrong. But this time they are.

If you are still wondering if this no-name cook knows what she’s talking about, click over to our Web site, where our food editor Jenny Slafkosky demonstrates the beauty, ease and downright inspired method of grating frozen ginger. _ Jolene Thym