Tea, Glorious Tea -- Indian Style

Pouring Malaysian teh tarik

  Arguably, the beverage Malaysia is best known for is "teh tarik."  The "teh" part means, logically, "tea."  But the other part means "pull" or "pulled."  Until I went on a tour of Little India the other day, I didn't know why.  But this is how it was explained to us:  When Indian laborers were brought over to Malaysia, they were allowed tea breaks, but only for ten minutes.  It was impossible for them to gulp down boiling hot tea in such a short time.  So they would ask the tea seller to "tarik," or "pull" the tea to cool it down.  This fellow in the picture here is doing just that--pouring the tea from mug to pitcher to make it cool enough to slurp down easily.  
  
      The tea itself is given a huge dollop of sweetened condensed milk before it's poured back and forth like this.  It seems that Malaysians like everything sweetened, from their tea to their cheese buns, for Pete's sake.  

Indian restaurant style teh tarik

Pouring Indian teh tarik at the table

   In the Indian restaurant where we had breakfast before sallying forth into Little India, the tea was served like this, in two tin cups, one sitting inside the other, with milky tea in both.  (See the little ring of tea foam around the bottom of the smaller one?)  After it arrives, it, too, is poured from one vessel to the other until it cools.

      Along with the tea, we had a whole array of Indian food and specialized breads.  Can you imagine having spicy Indian curry before going off to school or work?


    Yum! Yum!  The Breakfast of Champions!