Tea Time!

Last week after our Ethiopian food outing, my friend and I went to Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe & Afternoon Tea, a cute little place that sells British goodies. Seeing that they offered a proper British tea for $17.95, we vowed to come back to try it. It was cool because the owner remembered me because she complimented my hairstyle last week. Note - You have to make reservations a day in advance so they can prepare the sandwiches. Our appointment was for 12:30 in the afternoon on their lovely shaded patio. Carolyn, our server, was expecting us. [Update on 8/12 - here's a review of this place from a new San Diego food blog]
That's part of my new Gama Go "Colorful Birds" quadrant bag on the chair (I got it for $20 at the Con - the website is selling it for $32!) . The sugar bowl, jam bowl and our teacups with strainer, and tea pot warmers were ready to go. I'd never seen one of these before. There is a tea light in the warmer which Carolyn ignited to keep our tea nice and hot.

I'm not normally a tea drinker, so I chose the fruitiest tea they had, which was Mango. My friend, on the other hand, selected the Gunpowder - Traditional Green China Tea. We each had our own personal pot (mine is pictured below).

After pouring my first cup and then tossing in a couple of sugar cubes, I forgot about putting the strainer back on for my second cup. Oh well! Oh yeah, my friend liked my tea so much, she had an extra pot of that (and wasn't charged extra either, cool!). I didn't bother putting any cream in my tea - somehow the idea of cream with a mango based drink didn't seem appealing to me.

After enjoying our first cup of tea and basking in the glorious dappled sunshine on the patio while wee birds sang merrily and dainty butterflies danced in twirly wirly spirals, Carolyn brought out a loaded three tiered server with our tea courses. It felt so "veddy proper" and we joked to ourselves that we should curb our language. As we were the only people on the patio, we didn't bother with a 'genteel' facade and proceeded to be as vulgar as we normally are while heartily scratching our crotches with abandon and hawking thick viscous logies into the air.

The first tray had fruit and scones with Double Devon cream (imported from England):

The second tier had baked sausage rolls with Branston Pickle (in the ramekin), and an assortment of finger sandwiches which included (but are not listed in order) egg salad, smoked salmon with cream cheese, ham, cheese, and cucumber. These were cute, but not filling. I know that tea is not meant to be a full meal, but I wanted something more substantial I guess. I joked that maybe we should go to McDonald's afterwards (not!).Here's a closer look at the baked sausage roll. It was kind of small and had a flaky crust. I wished it was bigger. I'd be down with that. The sausage, however, was a bit flavorless. Maybe that's what the Branston Pickle was for - to add much needed flavor.

The bottom plate held mini cakes, sweets and biscuits (cookies). There was also a bit of carrot cake, fudge, and a sweet coconuty citrus concoction. The mini cakes in the back had a hard sugar center - I wasn't expecting that. The cake was a bit dry and I thought the center would be a soft fruit and cream cheese center. It was like biting into candy. I like sweet things, but these were a bit much. We didn't really eat everything here. Carolyn seemed concerned that we didn't finish the sweets and asked us twice if we wanted to take the leftovers home, so I said, "Yes, I'll take it home" to make her happy. When I got home, the cookies were soggy, but that was my fault because I threw in the fruit from the top tray and their moisture messed up the crisp cookies.

Hmmmph, flavorless meat....

Spackling the scone with cream and the "pickle" which I mistook for jam. I wasn't expecting to taste the spices and unknown bits of vegetables in there. As mentioned earlier, the pickle was kind of like a chutney - sweet, but with a bit of spice. Not the flavor sensation I would have liked on my scone. I ate it anyways, then attacked the jam bowl afterwards. The cream had a thick consistency, like frozen Cool Whip - which is not really a great comparison because it tasted way better than Cool Whip! Devon Cream good. Jam good.

The strawberry jam which I should have put on my scone instead.

The service was very attentive at Shakespeare Corner Shoppe. Our server Carolyn was super nice and she came in several times to check on us and see if we needed any additional items. She was helpful in explaining Branston pickle to us Brit food neophytes. The last time I had tea was nearly five years ago at the Westgate in downtown and the 'pickle' was not something on their tea menu. Although I wished the tea sandwiches were more 'substantial' and there were a bit too many sweets, my friend and I had a great time - our vacations are the only time that we have to sit down, enjoy each other's company while having "tea" or a meal in many of San Diego's restaurants. Can't complain about my vacation time - we educators have it pretty good in the summer (at least those of us on the traditional year calendar).

Below at street level, the mouth watering aromas of the roasting chicken were irresistable...so we headed downstairs after a quick stop to the "loo"! For a quick "dinner shortcut", we got some stuff to go at Saffron Chicken. Although it looks like we had a bit to eat for our "tea", in all honesty, I was still pretty hungry. There was only one savory item, the sausage roll, and it was devoid of any flavor. There were too many sweet things (some of which we left untouched) that were offered.

Roasted chickens...

Menu:

There was also a wall of the owner Su Mei Yu with photos with various celebrities. The three I remember were Julia Child, Tom Hanks, and uber beeyatch, Martha Stewart. Off to the side was a small table with a basket of ziplocked snacks. These were fried rice crisps drizzled with palm sugar. There was also a lone bag of Thai beef jerky. Maybe next time.

I got a half chicken which came with jasmine rice, a sort of coleslaw (?), and your choice of two sauces ($7.15). The first sauce was sweet chili and the second was peanut. The chili sauce ("and in my bedroom...I have a brass....waterbed" ---Morris Day, from the Time's "Chili Sauce" from the album, "Ice Cream Castles")...where was I? Oh, the chili sauce was indeed sweet but watery. The peanut sauce was quite nice and went well with the chicken. Oh my gosh, the skin!

This was the Thai papaya chicken salad. As this item was bagged to go, I didn't actually see this until I got home and I was very disappointed. When I saw the sign for Thai papaya salad, I assumed it was the green shredded papaya so I ordered this as a light accompaniment for our chicken. I really dislike orange papaya, so the fruit was enjoyed by Bert and TC instead while picked at the chicken and fried shallot garnish (tasty!)/

Only one more week of vacation left. Gotta fit in more spots to eat next week! After the 20th, it's back to the office to prepare for the school year. Goodbye to eating out and hello to brown bagging it.