I like my oats on the firmer side, and the play between the bite from the oats and the occasional chewy bounce from black tapioca pearls, couched in a sweet and slightly smoky milk tea with just enough caffeine to do double-duty as a wake-up call, was enough to make my whole morning. It is every bit as joyfully quirky as I thought it would be. Then, halfway through my creamy-sweet bowl, I suddenly thought of another comfort food (drink) I love, with milk and plenty of sugar - and boba, instead. So I made an oatmeal like my dad used to make on sleepy schoolday mornings, just milk and oats and plenty of sugar on the side, served with a reminder to eat it around the edges of the bowl first, because that’s where it’s coolest. The idea landed in my lap when I was making, not any other kind of kooky oatmeal, but the simplest one I’ve had in years - on a particularly blustery day in this reluctant spring we’ve been having, I had a hankering for super simple, childhood-basics oatmeal, a hug in a bowl in protest of our chilly February-like April. (Or bubble tea out of oatmeal?) I have no idea how it happened. I went and made oatmeal out of bubble tea.
