Morning: Arty Animals

The embroidered cartoon on your bag is a cat. Probably? Sure, your stupid husband called it “ugly”, and “incomprehensible.” You called it SOLD. It hangs from a chair, somewhere between a house pet and a minor CoBrA dispute.

Ava's artistically-rendered pancake mascots are easier to identify: the Birch Benders beaver and Kodiak bear. One builds dams. One could remove your screen door. Both have chosen breakfast merchandising.

Kodiak's story starts with eight-year-old Joel Clark selling pancake mix from a red wagon in 1982. His mom packed their family recipe in brown lunch bags with handwritten instructions. Door-to-door flour business: an excellent way to get the child out of the kitchen. Today's Power Cakes keep the whole-grain approach, with nutty flavor and buttermilk tang.

Birch Benders Plant Protein takes the vegan route. Both need only water for pancake batter, eliminating the frantic, one-egg trip to the store. We respect their work, despite the lost egg sale.

Stir until dry patches disappear, then stop. Small lumps are fine; overmixing develops gluten and makes pancakes tougher. Nobody ordered a chew toy. Make one big pancake and two little ears. Add a berry face, then syrup: one stern Barnett Newman zip, followed by considerably more syrup because you have to eat this thing.

Afternoon: Paintings You Can Drink

By afternoon, you've eaten the wildlife. Time for abstract art.

The Rishi tea boxes at Ava's make a gallery wall: green terraces, orange blocks, purple petals. Arrange them beside the kettle. Move the sponge. It's lowering the tone.

Jasmine green tea is scented by spreading blossoms among tea leaves over successive nights. The leaves absorb their perfume, giving fresh green tea a soft floral lift. That's a lot of effort for something you're going to boil. Enjoy.

Earl Grey uses the first winter pressing of Calabrian bergamot oil over black teas from Yunnan and Thailand. That almost floral smell comes from a bitter little orange. Lovely with buttery shortbread. Use a cup without fur; Oppenheim has already explored the other option.

For milk-friendly tea, English Breakfast draws its malty depth from Thailand, Yunnan, and Myanmar. Well-traveled for something sounding so committed to England (the land of boiling their tea AND meats). Masala Chai brings ginger and cracked black pepper to keep the fragrant cardamom from floating into the curtains. Milk rounds those spicy edges.

Blueberry Hibiscus pairs hibiscus's red color and cranberry-like tartness with juicy blueberry. Try it over ice. It's caffeine-free, so afternoon art appreciation needn't become a 2am ceiling critique.

Keep the empty box. It explores the tension between thirst and cardboard. Untitled (I Needed a Biscuit), 2026. Mixed media. Crumbs on counter.

Evening: The Gallery Has a Screw Cap

Monday: survived. Hangover: forgotten. Only the cat bag remembers everything, and fortunately nobody can locate its mouth.

For the final exhibition, we're going to Japan. Via Ava's saké shelf. Considerably less airport.

The koi on Tozai Living Jewel and Snow Maiden explain the former's name: those ornamental fish are nicknamed “living jewels.” Sensible artwork. Take notes, linen cat.

Living Jewel tastes light and crisp, with citrus and herbal notes for grilled fish. Snow Maiden is a nigori, cloudy with fine rice particles left by coarse filtering. Creamy texture, melon notes: lovely beside spicy tuna. Gently turn the closed bottle to mix before pouring chilled. Finally, a pond you can invite to dinner.

The blue Hakutsuru Superior Junmai Ginjo brings pear, melon, and nuttiness. Its rice is polished to 60% of its original weight; the yellow-box Hakutsuru Daiginjo goes to 50%. Those numbers mean rice remaining. Half the grain has left the building with Elvis.

The yellow box features Sharaku's 1794 woodblock portrait of kabuki actor Ōtani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei. (Sharaku did not supply customer-service eyebrows.) Inside: gentler berry aromas, melon, and mandarin notes. Serve chilled beside something salty and crisp.

Momokawa Diamond is brewed in Forest Grove, Oregon: Japanese brewing tradition, Pacific Northwest address. Our gallery tour has acquired a connecting flight.

Pick a bottle for dinner. Pour a small glass. Later, put a flower in the empty bottle and spend twenty minutes moving it half an inch. Morandi will understand.