Boba Tea

My friend Kahlil broke me out of my work-home-sleep-wake-work rut with one simple text message asking me to come hang out with him at the What? Cafe. So I schlepped myself over there after work for a little break from the routine and the possibility of a good conversation.

And I got that, yay! And I also met a cool young lady by the name of Kelsey with the staff music for the Moonlight Sonata tattooed around her ankle (and an Asian symbol on the other foot whose meaning I cannot remember for the life of me!).

Before leaving, Kahlil offered me some tea. Now, being the automatic Google-r that I am, I had already done some research on where  What? Cafe was and what was on their menu. I found out that one of their featured items was boba tea (or bubble tea), which Wikipedia will tell you is “pearl milk tea and other similar tea and juice beverages that… contain small chewy balls made of tapioca starch, called “pearls” in Chinese.

Excuse me. My picky eater self retched at the thought of tapioca. I always envision it in my mind in tapioca pudding form which, to me, looks like fish eyes floating in white eye goop. Yum.

Against my picky eater’s better judgement, I decided “hey, let’s cross something off my 30 Before 30 list“ (namely, item 7).

I received a mini tea cup portion of taro tea with the boba balls in it.

As you can see, the straws are bigger than standard drinking straws, so you can get both the liquid and the balls at the same time. My first inhalation proved to be a fail because a  boba ball came rushing up with the tea and I freaked the freak out. But after that I was good.

What the boba ball looks like, even though my smartphone camera chose to focus on the tea.

So what do I think of the boba tea?

1) The taro tea was cold, wasn’t expecting that, but it tasted really good. Sorta of “herbal” but very sweet. Must have been the mixture of the milk and the taro (found out later that taro is sort of like a potato and very toxic if not cooked properly. Thanks Kahlil).

2) My description this morning of the boba tapioca ball was that it tasted sort of like a raisin and had the texture of a gummy bear. Not at all as bad as I was imagining.

In all, I didn’t hate it. I would love to try the taro tea again sans the boba balls. Mainly because I’m not quite over my weirdness about food textures and to me, randomly sucking up a gummy bear while drinking your tea is VERY distracting.

Ah well, 1 down, 19 to go!

30 Before 30: New Year, Let’s Get It!

So, if you didn’t already know, I turned 29 this past November which means the next one is a biggun’. That’s right, the Dirty Thirty. And now as we start this new year, I am going public with my 30 Before 30 list. That is, a list of things I would like to do before November 6, 2012 (coincidentally Election Day here in the US).

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

1. 1. Go to the Essence Music Festival
2. 2. Go to Mardi Gras – it’s a drive-able distance from Tallahassee and I’ve never been. What better time than now? Wanna come with? Let me know
3. 3. Plan my birthday cruise – Caribbean island hopping, yes!
4. 4 .Travel internationally by myself – every international trip I’ve made has been with my parents or family, so I would like to go somewhere and explore by myself (or with a small group of friends)
5. 5. Put at least $2000 back into my savings – 2011 was been a year of extra spending for me (most of it unexpected) and I ended up taking a bunch out of my savings. Time to put it back!
6. 6. Maintain a continuous blog posting regiment – hey there, no laughing about this one!
7. 7. Try a least 20 new foods - I’m a notorious adult picky eater. Ask anyone who’s ever had to place an order with or for me. I could go on about my food neuroses but that’s a post for another day!
8. 8. Get a second tattoo – sorry Mom.
9. 9. Learn to cook new foods, including staple Nigerian foods – see #7.
10. 10. Run a 5K
11. 11. Lose at least 15lbs and MAINTAIN it! 
12. 12. Go skydiving! – I’ve always wanted to try this! Maybe it would help me get over my mini-phobia of falling.
13. 13. Doing something “rustic” like berry picking or wine tasting
14. 14. Try a “weird” fitness class like hot yoga - if nothing else, it’s a conversation starter
15. 15. Go to Las Vegas - Vegas, baby!!! I want to see if what happens in Vegas really stays in Vegas
16. 16. Get my credit card(s) to 30% of the balance or less – financial responsibility FTW
17. 17. Go to a pro-level sporting event – I’m not the biggest sports nut, but I think it would be fun to experience it
18. 18. Flirt shamelessly with someone – don’t get it twisted. I’m not looking for a one-night stand or trouble or anything. I honestly don’t care if it never goes past this one interaction, but I would like to just be extra flirty with someone without too much worry.
19. 19. Learn how to apply a full face of makeup – foundation, concealer, blush, eye shadow, lipstick, the WORKS! I’ve been told I have a good face for makeup, but I don’t have the patience for it.
20. 20. Finesse my hair care regimen and find my gorgeous go-to style – I’m still relatively newly natural and any success with my hair has been by luck, but I would like to set up a routine and figure out what really works for my hair.
21. 21. Incorporate more “bold” (sexy???) choices into my fashion style – if I can successfully color block this year before the trend fades, I’ll be elated
22. 22. Get certified in something – I’m a techie and have no certifications to show for it, maybe HTML5 certification? Or even something less techie like massage therapy certification
23. 23. Open an Etsy/online store – I’m kinda sorta stealing this from my co-worker, but I did want to start making jewelry and selling it

Aaaaanddd… that’s where I stopped for now. You would think that it would be easy to compile a list like this, but I ran out of steam! I’ll come back and add more as I think of them. Either way, I’ll try my hardest to document a lot of these things on here.

If you can think of anything else that might be fun for me to try, please let me know in the comments section!