Rosie Lee Imports

We parked for free up near City Hall and walked a few blocks down to explore.

We noticed the British import shop across the street and wanted to check it out...

Chocolate, chips, and macarons....

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting up with the newly married Kirbie (along with her DH)...

She had brought back some goodies from her Parisian honeymoon, which was really sweet and generous of her...

What treasure lay within?

Gelato and British snacks

After our lunch at Sicilian Thing Pizza, we did a few errands at Fashion Valley before heading here...

May as well use it up, right?

Plus we wanted Bert to check out the British store...

KD's Birthday Tea Party...

At last, the big reveal...

Diamond sugar crystals from Extraordinary Desserts in Little Italy. I dug up an old green floral silk placemat set I hadn't used in years (Pier 1). We had to use our red Christmas tablecloth as well. I thought it looked festive. You can also see the HP Sauce bottle (we tried that with the sausage rolls) and the Branston Pickle (before I moved it to the other room).The beautiful assorted platter of baklava in the middle was from King of Nablus Sweets. Man, D and I had a fun time that night gathering all of the sweets. The lovely tea set is courtesy of TORC...

Guess who got the cup with the flowers inside?

Tea Party preview food - The condiments and accompaniments

During the winter break, TC and I had fun scouring the local British food shops for the KD's upcoming tea party birthday. Although we didn't use this tea (seen below), I bought it for future us. It smelled so good!

I don't really like traditional tasting tea, but if it's fruity, I will drink it! This wasn't all there was either...

Rosie Lee's

[Update - Rosie Lee's closed earlier this year]

TC and I tried going here a few months ago not knowing Rosie Lee's was closed on Mondays. This establishment caught my eye because the FoodBlogger bakesale last May featured a gift basket from Rosie Lee's. Plus, they had a way cool mod looking postcard.

Rosie Lee is not the name of the owner but rather is Cockney Rhyming Slang for the phrase "cup of tea"...

Centifonti's

We'd never been to downtown La Mesa before. It was like a slice of Americana walking down that street. There were all kinds of mom 'n pop stores mixed in with restaurants, antique stores, and so on.

The not-British guy at All Things Bright and British recommended Centifonti's for ice cream.

All Things Bright and British

Well, chip chip cheery-o!  (Okay, now that was lame and possibly insulting to any British folks out there).

Here we are at All Things Bright and British in downtown La Mesa.

Even though we've never been to England or the U.K. for that matter, I'm so fascinated by all things British...

Spotted What?

Ooh, this is new! Picked this up at Fresh and Easy. They also had the Heinz brand of Spotted Dick at North Park Produce.

Spotted dick, a British dessert, is a pudding that is steamed and contains raisins.

(info below from wikipedia's entry on "Spotted Dick"):

"Spotted refers to the dried fruit (which resemble spots) and dick may be a contraction or corruption of the word pudding (from the last syllable) or possibly a corruption of the word dough or dog, as "spotted dog" is another name for the same dish with the use of plums rather than currants. Another explanation offered for the word "dick" is that it comes from the German word for "thick", dicht or dick."

It's not like this (Warning! NSFW!!!!)!

Bert warmed up the pudding in the microwave (but not on our good China which is edged with metal!). Fire anyone? Despite me not liking warm desserts, this was not bad at all. The pudding was quite moist and I really liked the "sultanas" (raisins) in there.

We only heated up one and will save the other for another time.

Ha ha, here is a BBC News article: Pudding Renamed Spotted Richard. Seriously?

Say it. Out Loud.

Spotted...


Dick!

Scotch Egg!

Last month when I took TC and her friends for tea at Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe, we all shared a Scotch egg. It was the first time any of us had one of those. I figured, hell, I can make one of these on my own. I looked up various recipes online and it really was a no-brainer. The difference with this was that I baked the Scotch egg instead of frying it.

Just get 1 to 1/1lbs of ground pork. I seasoned mine with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Then break up into round balls. I boiled about 5 eggs.  These photos are from my 2nd attempt at making Scotch eggs.

Flatten the meat patties and wrap them around the peeled hard boiled egg.

Like this...

Dip it into beaten egg...I used only one beaten egg. There will be leftover but you'll have to throw it away since it will have been contaminated by the raw meat. Unless you want to have tapeworm or something, be my guest.

Dip the egg dipped ball into breadcrumbs. I used about 2 cups worth and again, that was probably more than enough.

I would have put this on a baking pan but the girls across the street still had it. TC and them made cookie graveyards with marshmallow tombstones and ghosts a few days before. Here's the five Scotch egg balls...Heh heh, she said balls.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. I took them out halfway to rotate them. I know it's not quite the same as frying but I really hate frying stuff. Too messy. Plus, I didn't have enough vegetable oil. And I am afraid of burning myself.

I bought this HP Sauce at North Park Produce near our place (Chula Vista location). At the tea place, the owner said this was the sauce they used back home to eat with Scotch eggs. This cost $5.29 (yikes). There was another bottled brown sauce called "Daddie's" (or was it "Daddy's"?) that was about $1.50 cheaper but I wanted the same sauce we had, so I splurged.

They have a British food section in North Park Produce which includes cans of Mushy Peas (that does not sound appetizing at all), Digestive Biscuits (same with that name), Spotted Dick Pudding (I swear, one day I will buy one can of this dessert), cans of treacle, jars of Ploughman's Pickle, as well as Branston Pickle and much more. One of the cashiers said they have a lot of British ex-pats who shop here. That's what I like about my local NPP, they have everything for everyone - Mexican, Filipino, Mediterranean, Eastern European, Indian and British foodstuffs/ingredients. It's really quite cool and international...

Here's the Scotch egg sliced up. As you can see, the meat layer was kinda thin and not a thick layer like at Shakespeare's. Notice "Edward" on the "Twilight - New Moon" napkin (hangs head in shame)? Ha ha, two of my friends, Mi Firme Heina as well as TORC got me a pack of those along with matching plates.  I liked the first three books, but I draw the line at buying party products for myself.  Plus, I hate the way the normally hawt RPattz wore his sideburns in that movie. Ugh!

If you're reading this TORC and MFH, thanks!!!! Now I'm finally using the napkins!

The sauce is kind of like A-1. Tastes pretty good. I used it sparingly to make it last. This damn bottle cost me $5+!

These were pretty easy to make. Apparently they are a popular snack in the UK and are commonly eaten cold and can be found at convenience stores everywhere. Kinda like hot dogs in 7-11 or Spam Musubis at ABC stores, eh.  They also tasted pretty good. Next time, I want to use Jimmy Dean sausage instead of regular ground pork. I want it to have more of that "sausagey" flavor.

If you haven't done so already, check out the Scotch egg video on YouTube. I already posted in in a previous post but don't feel like embedding it right now. It's hilarious!

Who else had a Scotch egg?

Dennis from A Radiused Corner had one here too!
So did Darlene from My Burning Kitchen!

Shakespeare Corner Shoppe Tea

Last week I took TC and a couple of her friends (who happen to be sisters and our neighbors) for tea at Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe and Afternoon Tea in Mission Hills. You have to call a few days in advance for reservations (check the yelp reviews here). Tea for adults is $18.95; for children it is $10.95. Kids can have a choice of this decaffinated fruit punch-like tea, hot chocolate, or juice.  Just go up the steps, eh.

The shop is right above some New York style pizza place that's next to Saffron on India St. It's also near the Shakespeare Pub and Grille (which is on the upper level).

Although the morning started out kind of chilly, it was downright hot by the time "tea time" rolled around. Our reservation was for 11:30 a.m. but we weren't served until  45 minutes later. They were having problems with their water heater so the owner had to boil the water through other means.

To kill some time while they were setting the table, the girls looked around the store which is jam packed full of goods from the U.K. In the foreground are authentic bone china tea cups and saucers from England. Man, these are expensive; a small cup was $24! Along the back wall were little teapots and puzzles depicting scenes from the Motherland.

There's a little side wall(on the right if you are facing in) which has anything and everything you can think of with the Union Jack on it, including cocktail toothpicks, napkins, paper plates, coin purses, magnets, and actual flags. (Wut? No Union Jack shorts like the kind worn by Def Leppard drummer, Rick Allen?).

Okay, wait,ha ha, I found a band photo that has two of the band members wearing the Union Jack! Nice! For you non-rockers, this was Def Leppard circa 1983 during the "Pyromania" Tour. The album was a megahit back then and was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who also produced AC/DC's classic "Back in Black. More recently Lange was also known as the former Mr. Shania Twain (I think she divorced him because he cheated on her, prick! You don't do that to Shania!).

From left to right, poodle-haired bassist Rick Savage, co-lead guitarist Phil Collen who replaced original guitarist Pete Willis who was sacked due to drinking problems, the late great co-lead guitarist Steve 'Steamin' Clark who sadly died of drug problems, drummer Rick Allen (then with both arms before his tragic accident), and frontman Joe Elliott, whom I went as for Halloween in 2006; I stole his look directly from the "Photograph" video which is one of my favorite songs of all time; here's the story of how I had to put that costume together in this old post- you'll need to scroll down past the Halloween kid food photos!)! Yeahhhh! Rock on!!!

I swear, one of these Halloween's I will definitely go as Angus Young of AC/DC! Dude rockers are cool! This year I am debating to be either Bellatrix Lestrange from "Harry Potter" (she's an evil female Deatheater who was played by character psycho actress Helena Bonham Carter, who I loved in "A Room with a View"), Death from DC Vertigo's "Sandman" (I actually dressed up as "Death" in March 2009 for a costume party but sadly, no one knew of her character...cretins I say!), a sexy librarian (I have the sweater set, pencil skirt, black high heels, and the retro glasses!), or the very awesome Elektra Assassin (referring to the graphic novel version circa 1986 by writer Frank Miller and painted by Bill Sienkiewicz; not the shitty movie version played by Mrs. Ben Affleck Jennifer Garner); Okay kidding on that last one bercause I'm not brave enough to wear THAT get up! But man, "Elektra: Assassin" was a great series and groundbreaking at the time because the artwork was all watercolor).

There was also more stuff from Ireland and Scotland, in addition to British souvenirs. There were also items which had British football teams on them.

This was the porch where we were going to have our tea.

Ooh, Scotch Egg (Note - turns out that the $3.75 price refers to the "take-out" price"; kind of misleading because it doesn't specify that. I ordered it a side with our tea and was charged $4.95, fk! I noticed after I asked about it, the lady took the sign down.)

The back page of the menu...I sat with my back to the sun and I was sweating like an animal! Ugh!

The girls thought this was so cool - the little containers that held strawberry jam, cream, and sugar cubes. Let's put it this way, that sugar bowl was empty by the time we were done with tea! They ate the sugar straight!!!

TC's younger friend chose the hot chocolate which was served in this cool mug. She also had her own pot of hot chocolate! Cool!

Here's that Scotch Egg with a side of HP Sauce. This was a first time for all of us.

Here it is cut in half. Man, they used a lot of meat for this!

And here it is dipped into that HP sauce which kind of tastes like A-1 Steak Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce...Very delicious! Almost all of the girls loved it and I was glad they were all willing to give it a go!

That's the owner of Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe pouring tea for the girls. She was really an attentive server and so kind to the girls. She kept checking on us to see if we were enjoying ourselves or if they needed beverage refills.

I had a mango flavored tea which was quite good! Very fruity. I prefer these fruity teas to the more traditional ones that taste like grass and burnt herbal things.

TC and her older friend's tea was the decaffeinated fruit punch-like tea.

Ooh, we also got cheesestraws! They didn't give this to us last time!

The girls had their own little tea tray with a fancy handle. Quite lovely! They had the same stuff as me, but smaller portions. They got plainer sandwiches (no ham and cheese or smoked salmon). They got a sausage roll, and an assortment of tiny little cakes, a scone with Double Devon cream and fresh fruit. There was also a bit of the half-eaten Scotch egg on TC's friend's plate. I was happy that she tried it because she is kind of picky with food. She was quite adventurous today though, trying a little bit of everything!

The top tier of my plates....Assortment of finger sandwiches, a sausage roll and Branston pickle.

Here's the first view of the bottom tier of my plate...Mmmmm, so much to choose from.At the upper right was Double Devon cream which was for the raisin scone. Normally I don't like scones because they are so dry and gross; this scone was perfect (not dry or too moist) and didn't crumble when I slathered it with the cream.

Here's the other side of the bottom tier. The pink thing was a chilled Strawberry cream dessert. It was so smooth and tasted like yogurt. I shared it with the girls since theirs didn't come it with. Turns out that they would later get one of their own towards the end. You can see the raisin scone in the top left corner and little Shoppe baked cookies (butter, almond, and chocolate drizzled coconut macaroon. The chocolate square was a double chocolate fudge dessert; to the right of that I don't remember, but I want to say it had Nutella in it. The heart shaped topper on the cupcakes was a hard sugar top; it was a lavender flavored cake (which the girls liked, but I didn't).

This was the top tier of my tea snacks. I had different types of tiny finger sandwiches which included  smoked salmon, ham and cheese, "Coronation Chicken" (curried chicken salad which was actually made up and served during QE2's coronation in 1953), cucumber with watercress, and some other kinds I can't remember. There was a bit of fresh fruit as well as a ramekin of Branston Pickle (a savory type of jellied sauce with bits of fruit and vegetable; sounds grosser that it tastes, but it's really quite good). I also forgot to mention the baked sausage roll (slightly to the right of the silver handle); like last time I was here, I wished this was bigger or they had more of these! Loved the sausage roll in puff pastry!

Cross section of one of the sandwiches...

My pot of tea was off to the side on a small side table. There was a burning tea light/warmer underneath the pot. I was scared that I was going to knock this over and burn myself because I'm clumsy like that.

I also got an Apricot bread pudding with some sort of liquered whipped cream. I'm not a fan of bread pudding so I only took a couple of bites and left it at that. The girls got individual strawberry creams, which were nice and chilled. They thought it tasted like ice cream.

These hard candies were lime flavored with a chocolate center. I haven't eaten mine yet but the girls really liked theirs. That's kind of a wierd flavor combination, in my opinion.

The logo on the check folder...

TC bought these fruit flavored fizzy candies before we left...


See my moldy old post here from back in 2007 when I went out with TORC and another post on the shop from when TC and I went out for gelato and British snacks that same year....

[Update - I just made Scotch Eggs earlier tonight. Close but no cigar. The recipe I used called for 6 eggs to 1 lb of ground pork. I used 5 eggs. I think the one we had here used more than 1/2 lb. of pork for that ONE egg because there was more meat surrounding the egg than mine had. So, in the future, I will use either less eggs for that 1 lb of meat or more meat for 6 eggs! I also bought HP Sauce at my local North Park Produce - damn thing cost me more than a 5 spot, but it's the authentic sauce to use when eating Scotch eggs.] Man, what a long parenthetical post note!

Easy Scotch Egg Recipe (bastardized from the Internet):

4-6 peeled hard boiled eggs
1 lb of ground pork (I seasoned mine with salt and pepper)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup of bread crumbs

Divide the ground pork into 4-6 patties. Flatten. Wrap the meat completely around the egg. Dip into beaten egg. Dip into bread crumbs.

You can fry this shit up or you can bake it like I did at 400 F for 40 minutes (20 minutes, then take out and turn the eggs over).

Serve with HP sauce. I've seen other recipes where you can eat it with mustard as well. But I don't like mustard, so that's not gonna happen for me. Enjoy. I'll be posting the Scotch Egg pix eventually.

Here's a cute video about Scotch eggs for ya:

"What's that on your leg? Is it a Scotch Egg?  Scoooootch egg...It's a Scotch egg!" (imagine Groundskeeper Willie singing this song or Mike Meyer's Scottish father, who was played by Mike Meyers, in "So I Married An Axe Murderer"; either that or Shrek or Fat Bastard from "Austin Powers 2", also voiced by Mike Meyers).

The melody will haunt you forever...

Up next - more shave ice at Donut Star!