(Photo from Gizmodo.)
Often, tap water gets a bad rap (thanks, BMH). The debate between tap, bottled and filtered is a long, familiar one with no commonly held conclusion. It seems that everyone has their own strongly held opinion of which water is fit to drink.
Accordingly, each country that I've visited this summer has their own way of handling tap water in restaurants. In Spain, tap isn't even offered, forcing diners to shell out a few euro for the bottled variety. Here in Korea, tap water is brought out immediately, but is generally served in small ceramic cups that barely sate thirsty American tourists, who are used to large cups of constantly refilled water. Back in the states, it can get even more specific, with some swearing by the tap water in one city, and avoiding it completely in another.
The whole concept of the taste of water, or what's in your water is sort of funny, if you think about it. I'm imaging an H20 tasting room where people hold glasses from different regions up to the light. They swirl, taste and spit, commenting on the metal, mineral, or chlorine finish, and the mouth feel. Since tap water sources are so localized, we never have any way to really compare - though, we don't let that stop us from insisting that there are differences in taste.
(Mini aside - Short post today, or tomorrow since Korea is 16 hours ahead. With all the exploring and eating, and the one shared computer for the family, it's been more difficult to get posts done. Seoul is complete sensory overload, but in the best way possible. Unfortunately, I left the cord that connects my camera to the computer in LA, so all pictures will have to be posted once I'm back.)
1 comments:
Oh man, the water tasting thing really does exist, I promise you. There's a lot of discussion on it in the tea community for example; bottled water brands, filtering, using bamboo charcoal to treat water, what kettle materials (iron, ceramic, glass, steel, silver) produce what effects, what kinds of heat source to use (among proponents of open flames, even what kind of charcoal to use), how long one should boil it for optimum flavor, etc. etc. There's also a romantic notion some hold that water from springs near where the tea was grown is the best for that particular tea.
It gets over the top sometimes, but I'm pretty convinced that several of these actually do make a difference.
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