“and the field beyond the window is a body”

The Poem
White - Pierluigi Cappello

Translated from the Italian by Todd Portnowitz

From a ways, the sky and your hands
come to my eyes, from some distant part of you;
it’s snowing out, you’re all in the white of the snow
every track in the candor a wound
and the field beyond the window is a body
a glance that becomes a pronouncement,
the heat of breath, your head adrift in sleeplessness;
that’s where it returns, in a word translated into silence
where the sparrows tie loose knots
your palms on your eyes, chest on your knees
forehead in the snow.

The Beverage

Turmeric Milk/Turmeric Latte/Golden Milk

Hello, I am basic as ever and late to a questionable trend. And today’s beverage is the westernized health industry take on haldi doodh, which I usually see labeled a turmeric latte or golden milk. Haldi doodh means turmeric milk, and that’s basically what we are talking about here, except not haldi doodh but instead its Core Power Yoga-style cousin. Minimal shade to Core Power, who have given me a lot of free classes for very sideways reasons over the years.

I have not had traditional haldi doodh, which really just requires turmeric in milk and I could easily make like...right now, but I have enjoyed a couple of the western takes on the concept of a milky turmeric beverage. I also have a little kit to make it in my cart at One Stripe Chai. Their's has cinnamon and pepper in it. My suspicion is that this could be an addition to the long-term adoption of another delicious bev from the Indian subcontinent. My hope is that we as a giant phage blob of a culture do a better job this time. Doubt it?

(Hopefully, the next one is lassi. I love drinking yogurt.)

Anyway, I have been enjoying my thoroughly westernized turmeric milk beverages.

During the late summer, I got a couple Daily Harvest boxes, and one of the things I most enjoyed was the Ginger + Turmeric Functional Latte. (I do not really understand what functional means there or in the term functional medicine. I assume it’s some sort of pseudoscience alarm bell.) These I usually blended with oat milk and honey and had frothy over ice. That was good!

More recently, my friend Rachel sent me a sampler box from Golde, who has a number of turmeric powder blends to add to milk. They have a turmeric+matcha and a turmeric+cacao in addition to the original turmeric, and I am a real sucker for all of it. There is a good spice level, and the little packets dissolve easily into warm milk. They have a few other serving recommendations, as well, which I have not tried. The cacao didn’t taste like hot chocolate, but I pretended it did. Really, Swiss Miss doesn't taste like hot chocolate either, and the Golde cacao option had a lot more flavor than that.

The real benefit of the turmeric milk family of beverages is that the ones I have liked have a nice kick to them. Similar to masala chai, there is also masala haldi doodh, which I would like to have very much. In the meantime, I will continue to seek out products and recipes to enjoy this winter, with the great combo of a warming, slightly spicy beverage that is also really visually pleasing. This is what I am looking for in my winter food and bev.

I’m hoping if I consume enough turmeric, I will not get a winter cold and also turn nice and gold like a flamingo eating a healthy diet turns pink. My skin is the color of skim milk right now.