Lady Pamela in the Kitchen

When important guests are coming over to watch you do the dishes (or when you just want to indulge your Cinderella fantasies), the de rigueur handwear is these Chinese-made rubber evening gloves, available in formal black with pleated gold cuffs and plastic grape clusters. They’re $10 at Super Drugs in Westwood and some Kmart stores.

Asia File

When we first saw these beautifully rustic Chinese cooking utensils, we assumed that they were designed by a fancy artist charging fancy prices. Turns out the clay pot, whisk, grater and spoon each cost less than $7 at Han San in Chinatown’s Bamboo Plaza.

Tea for Flu

Recovery has begun for many cold and flu sufferers, but there’s still a lot of tea drinking going on. There’s no hard scientific proof that tea can cure what ails you, but it is soothing to sip, and many believe that certain herbs infused in tea have benefits for the body. In China, herbal teas have long been drunk for health. Taiwan’s Soon Young Ancient Herb Tea, available at 99 Ranch markets and other Asian food shops, is popular in the Southland for its range of purported benefits, from improving skin and beauty, metabolism and even foul breath to aiding those with sore throats and hangovers. In more modern packaging is the Herbal Comfort line of teas sold in many Southland health stores. Choose from Steady Stomach, Diet Partner, Detox A.M., Antioxidant Assurance and, for those cold sufferers, Echinacea Extra. We can’t promise you’ll be cured, but the teas do taste pretty good.