Need nods. "Tea's important, then." She hasn't asked about the climate where he's from but by context it's too cold to grow tea as a regular crop. Most of it must be imported, which says something about the elflands that they can move so much of it around.

"We had it when I was growing up, but we didn't prepare it like the housefolk did. You would hate it," she says with serene confidence. "It was salty and half milk, with fried millet and sheep's tail fat. Sometimes we'd cook rice or noodles and dumplings in it and make a soup."

She hefts up the pot of rice as explanation. Rice would have also been imported and wasn't a common foodstuff, it needed water and settled cultivation. She has no idea about tea.