"Xi Fan", Morning in the East!

As we look to expand the Cha-Bei experience, we have recently focused

on our food offerings.  First with the addition of our tea snacks.  The tea snack baskets provide some unique and fun items that are found in tea houses in China.  Some sweet, a few savory, and interesting for sure, these snacks provide dimension and variety to your tea experience, but they are far from providing the susitinence of a meal.

We wanted to take Cha-Bei to the next level of offering a meal, but where to start?  Thinking back to early morning street food, we settled on breakfast.

Many a morning, wandering an uncrowded street before the traffic madness began, we would come upon a street vendor with boiling cauldrons and temporary stools set on the sidewalk.  What was served seemed so simple, so plain, but amazing! "Xi Fan". Literally translated as watery rice, known as porridge, or congee this is a staple breakfast throughout Asia.

Xi Fan is a canvas, a simple, and filling breakfast to apply bursts of flavor.   

From a second cauldron pratically boiling over with sweet smells of thick black tea comes the "Tea Egg".  These eggs are slightly sweet from the tea, but salty at the same time providing the back bone to the porridge.  But what is truly amazing about Chinese Food is the ability to create so many flavors and textures within a single dish.  In Xi Fan this additional element comes from a various selection of condiments. These offerings change greatly between each road side stand and vary even more when moving from city to city.  From flavored oils, and sauces, to a never ending array of pickles, and freshly chopped herbs, these small spoonfuls of exploding flavor transform "Xi Fan" from watery rice, to an unbelievable culinary delight!

At Cha-Bei, we look to recreate this street fare atmosphere.  We slow cook our rice for hours to develop the perfect texture.  We also add a small dose of millet, "Xiao Mi" which adds a wonderful roasted aroma to the porridge. This is a practice much more common in the North of China, where you may find porridge made completely of millet, mung bean, or red bean.

We can think of no better way to start a day, than with a wonderful cup of tea, and healthy warm bowl of filling "Xi Fan".  A meal that instantly transports you to the far east, an amazing experience we would love to share with all of you.

"Zao Shang Hao" (Good Morning)

Manda & Tyson