Dragon’s Kiss

The recipe originally came from Lee, but he lost me years ago at the spicy chicken wings. Even then, I somehow felt that there was a serious gap between our tolerance levels for chili.

Then Tamás invited me for breakfast and I tried the „Dragon’s Kiss.” The first thing I remember was the strange texture—right after my eyes started to water.

— „You don’t necessarily have to put in this much chili, but that’s how I usually do it,” he said.

The drink, based mainly on green or chamomile tea, should be consumed pleasantly warm while stirring continuously. When the clove berry reaches your mouth, it’s polite to chew it—and unless you grew up in Felcsút, instead of spitting out the stem, you may leave it neatly on the edge of the plate.

The bold flavor comes from turmeric, pepper, ginger, and garlic extract, softened a bit by cinnamon, clove, lemon juice, and honey. For certain reasons, I leave out the ground cumin, though it is undoubtedly part of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/3 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 clove of garlic, soaked
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
• 4–5 cloves
• A slice of ginger, about the size of a pinky nail, sliced and soaked
• 200 ml chamomile tea
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Preparation:

Crush the garlic and ginger and let them soak overnight in 5 cl of water. In the morning, add the lemon juice. Prepare the chamomile tea as described above and allow it to cool slightly. Add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. It is best to add the honey and the garlic-ginger extract mixed with lemon juice at the very end.

Consume while stirring continuously. The effects of this mixture on gut flora regeneration will be discussed in detail—down to the level of ingredients—in the Microbiota Manipulation Handbook.