I was born in Discovery Bay, an outlying island in Hong Kong. Our island is covered with forestry with a ferry that runs every half an hour to take us to the mainland. The South Plaza is where the villagers gather and it has everything one could need, including delicious restaurants, shops, a post office, and a small clinic.
Discovery Bay has a deep connection with the environment and Island residents can even rent a field and cultivate their vegetables. There are no private cars on the island so you could only walk, ride a bicycle, or take the community bus to get around. You can take a 25-minute boat ride from the island pier to Central, Hong Kong, which is the busiest downtown where my parents commute to work by boat every day.
Hong Kong is an international financial center with a capital market that operates with overwhelming efficiency, but it often feels like another world compared to the place where I grew up. All my life, I went to the same school and spent my afternoons playing on the local beach and even though people often migrated back to their home countries, I was lucky enough to grow up with the same group of friends.
My parents deliberately chose such a country life for my sister and I so we could have a peaceful and simple childhood. Ensuring we formed connections with our homeland, nature, and the people around us. There is rarely any traffic or flashing lights, as the island is mainly built for family life, so for dinner and weekends, we try to eat as well as we can. Our family kitchen is busy all the time and to preserve our health, carbonated drinks have never been stored in our freezer. I almost only drank water and milk as I grew up, compared to my friends who often indulged in such drinks on our frequent outings, I found myself finding carbonated drinks unpleasant.
As I was preparing for my last few years of high school, I noticed many students needed coffee to stay awake while studying. Many foreigners on the island liked to gather in bars to drink and watch football games and a lot of my classmates were also eager to try alcohol when given the chance.
After I was 13-14 years old, our family often went out on the island to taste Hong Kong food on weekends. After all, we are in Hong Kong, a dynamic city of food from rich and diverse cultures, and a gathering place of international food. Whenever we eat out, each person is always given a cup of watery squid or green tea in sit-down Chinese restaurants. I often drank cheap, Hong Kong-style, Pu'er tea, and after-dinner, Kung Fu tea in Chaozhou restaurants, which often made my mother shake her head in disapproval.
My mother used to go off saying: "Adrian, these are just substitutes for water, used to relieve boredom or alleviate the monotony of routine. This isn't real good tea." I just shrugged considering I knew very little about tea at the time. Later, when she tasted various delicacies, she deliberately brought out various good teas she had collected for a long time to match them. Gradually, I began to integrate tea into my daily life. I eat almost all my meals with tea now, I eat snacks with black tea, make tea when I wake up, and look for tea when I feel irritable.
One day in Taiwan, my mother’s friend Tea Parker Chi Zongxian (池宗憲先生）had lunch with us. He has been studying the field of "tea" for decades and he is a very respectable tea sommelier, expert, and mentor. During the meal, he taught me a lesson in tea pairing. I remember that Teacher Chi brought Mei Zhan tea from Wuyi Mountain that day. He asked the store to make tea for us. We had three cold dishes before the meal: smoked fish, rolls, and drunken chicken, which were paired with the fragrant fruity sweetness and slightly sour plum flavor of the tea, making the original taste of food more vivid and interesting.
The Mei Zhan tea has a mellow aftertaste which paired nicely with the present dishes. This made me realize the connection between "good tea" and delicious food. Teacher Chi has been patiently guiding my sense of taste and smell, asking me to concentrate and experience every taste carefully.
I shared my growth experience with Teacher Chi. I think "good tea" is worth introducing to today's young people and encouraging it to become another "good choice". After we go to college, we don't necessarily have to dive into alcohol or depend on coffee to keep up our energy levels. world. Tea can keep our sense of taste sensitive and make people feel calm and rejuvenated. The production, transportation, and recycling process of tea is far more environmentally friendly than red wine and beer, and drinking-related car accidents will also be reduced if more people substitute alcohol with tea. Teacher Chi suggested that I share my experiences of Tea Pairing at home with a personal blog and so Tea Pairing by Teen was born.
我出生於香港的一個離島Discovery Bay，樹林覆蓋著我們的島，出島靠每半小時一班的渡輪，這無所謂，村民聚集的廣場上應有盡有，好吃的餐廳，商店，郵局和一個小診所。 島上沒有私家車，走出家門就僅能走路，騎腳踏車或坐社區Bus，島上居民甚至可以租一塊田地，自己耕作蔬菜。
從島上碼頭坐25分鐘的船可以到達香港中環，這是最繁華的市中心，爸爸媽媽日日坐船通勤的上班地點。
香港是個資本市場運作到極致的國際金融中心，但我少年起對那「另一個世界」是很陌生的，我從小念同一所學校，在海灘上玩耍一下午。一直到現在17歲高三，和同一群朋友一起長大，感情很好。 等我逐漸成長才明白父母親的苦心，他們刻意選擇這樣的鄉居生活，讓我和姊姊擁有一個寧靜純樸的童年。盡量與土地和大自然靠近，與朋友們互相來往和關心。沒有聲光，島上主要是家庭生活，所以晚餐和週末，餐餐都研究要如何「吃得好」！我們家是日日開伙的。
為了保存我們的『味覺靈敏』，幼年家中沒有見過碳酸飲料，養樂多，真假果汁也都沒有，我幾乎是只喝水和牛奶長大的，相對於我的朋友們拿可樂當自來水，我覺得刺激性飲品，一點也不好喝。之後，許多同學讀書時需靠咖啡提神，島上有許多外國人，他們喜歡聚集在酒Bar喝酒看球賽，孩子們對上大學獨立後的酒精人生也躍躍欲試。
我13-14歲後，週末我們全家就常出島遍嘗香港美食了，畢竟我們身處香港這個美食的動感之都，富裕和多元，是國際美食的匯集地。 每當外出用餐時，喔，尤其是中餐，坐下來餐廳總送上每人一杯淡如水的香片或綠茶，港式飲茶時的廉價普洱，潮州餐廳的飯後功夫茶，常常讓母親搖頭。 母親鄭重地說：「Adrian， 這些都只是水的代替品，用來解膩，或例行的噱頭….你記得，這些都不是真正的好茶」。 對於母親心中，味蕾中堅持的『好中國茶』我知之甚少，後來她刻意在品嚐各種美食時，拿出收集已久的各式各樣的好茶來相配，逐漸的，『茶』成為我的第一個『成人飲料』，美食當前品茶，下午茶聊天時光，吃點心配紅茶，一覺醒來泡茶，心情煩躁時尋茶。
有一日在台灣，母親的好友Tea Parker 池宗憲老師與我們共進午餐，他研究『茶』領域已經數十年了，是很令人尊敬的侍茶師，專家和導師，當日他在美好的午餐氣氛中為我上了品茶的美好一課。 記得當日池老師帶來的是武夷山的梅占茶，他請店家為我們煮茶，餐前的三份尋常冷盤：燻魚，小卷和醉雞，搭配馥郁果甜，微微梅子酸的茶香，讓食物的原始味道更生動，已經讓人驚豔。後來的輕炸筍殼魚塊，干貝絲炒飯，伴隨著滑順甘潤的梅占茶，在口中產生微妙的變化，引出食物本身的滋味更鮮甜可喜。
梅占茶的餘韻香醇，當場讓我體會到「好茶」與美食碰撞時的奧妙。池老師一直耐心地詢問和引導我的味覺和嗅覺，要我專心，細心去體驗每個滋味。我和池老師分享自己的成長經歷，我覺得「好茶」很值得介紹給時下年輕人，鼓勵成為另一個「美好的選擇」，我們上大學後，不一定要一頭栽進酒精或咖啡的世界。 茶能讓我們保有靈敏的味覺，讓人感覺健康和平靜，茶的製作，運送和回收過程遠比紅酒，啤酒環保，少喝酒可以節省大筆金錢，而且減少交通事故或犯罪率。 推廣「好茶」配「好食」是一件環保愛地球的好觀念。 池老師建議我將在家中和外出時Tea Pairing 的美好經驗分享在這個Blog 。 Tea Pairing by Teen 於是誕生了。
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