831: Maria Geyman Thinks Anyone Can Be a Tea Person

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
NFL football season is here, which means when you switch to Verizon, it feels like, because you get NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube on us, when you buy an eligible 5G phone on Select Unlimited plans, which means you can watch every out of market game every Sunday afternoon, and it's all on us.
Now that's the Verizon way to kick off the NFL football season right. Switch and get NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube on us, only with Verizon.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling, just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

**Maria Geyman** (1:04)
With Masha, one of the first teas I ever developed is called Calm Tea, and it's just chamomile, lemon balm, and calendula. The calendula isn't even really a nervine, it's just really pretty. When I make blends, I also think about that. What is pretty, what smells good, what is beautiful, not necessarily what is the biochemical function of this.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (1:26)
This is TASTE. I'm your host, Aliza Abarbanel.
Maria Geyman is the founder of Masha Tea, a board-certified naturopathic doctor, and the author of With Tea, Culture, Accoutrements, and Rituals. It's a great new book all about the wide world of tea, paired with recipes for brewing it and desserts to serve with it. Today on the show, we talk about her tea travels, her huge collection of teaware, and all other things tea.

**Matt Rodbard** (1:54)
And at the top of the show, it's the return of Three Things, where Aliza and I talk about what is exciting us in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. Aliza, we are back with Three Things. How are you doing?

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:08)
I'm doing well.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:08)
How are you?

**Matt Rodbard** (2:09)
Let's talk at Los Angeles, your hometown.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:12)
Yeah, we both were in LA. We did not hang out while we were in LA, but that's okay.

**Matt Rodbard** (2:17)
I think it was okay. I was there for only two days. You had family stuff with each other in New York. I didn't want to.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:24)
We were separating our recommendations in service of you, the listener.

**Matt Rodbard** (2:28)
Exactly. We divided and conquered.
I found myself in Santa Monica. I found myself way out on the East side. I was driving around. What neighborhoods were you hanging out in mostly?

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:38)
I'm from the West side and I stay on the West side, but I go back to LA and that's where most of my recommendations are from this go-around. I obviously love visiting my friends over on the East side more, but that was not really my truth on this trip. My truth was eating tacos and hanging out with my parents' dog.

**Matt Rodbard** (2:56)
What's your first thing?

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:57)
My first thing, I want to give a shout out to Emily Wilson of the newsletter, The Angel, for recommending this restaurant to me, Jasmine Market & Restaurant, close to Culver City area. It's a Burmese restaurant and I really liked my meal there. They have so many delicious things going on in the menu and this nice little outdoor patio where you can sit and eat. Some of the things I really enjoyed, their tea leaf salad which has pickled tea leaves, a lot of crunchy beans, roasted peanuts, fried garlic, dried shrimp, all of those good textural contrast moments.
Apologies for my Burmese pronunciation. I had a coconut chicken noodle soup, I believe it's called Anno Khao Soi, which was really delicious. Obviously, that name sounds like Khao Soi a little bit and it doesn't go quite in that direction, but I think a little similar to me. I had a Shami Kebab which is these minced beef patties that have dal and garam masala blended into them, which is served with a roti kind of flat bread and some soft vegetables which was really good. Another thing that I really enjoyed was this rice noodle salad they were doing that had diced chicken breast, eggs, cilantro, garlic, and tamarind sauce with also some chickpea flour on top that gave it this unctuous body. Apologies for saying the words unctuous body.

**Matt Rodbard** (4:11)
You're forgiven.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (4:12)
But yeah, I loved all of these things and then of course, they have the market component so they sell little desserts in the case, and drinks, and juices, and all sorts of groceries that I couldn't let myself look at or others I would buy all of them. But I love this place. So this was Jasmine Market.