Tea - with a Chinese twist! :-)

So, Karen recently discovered that there was a Chinese restaurant in Gainesville that has tea time! Since we all love going to the tea room this seemed like something that we just had to try out - especially since drinking tea originated in China. So, we went this afternoon and while it was totally different from our usual English tea time experience it was still pretty good! Most of the tea on the menu was green tea (which I've tried really hard to like but sorry, I just can't stand it) but there were a few other options. I chose to have cinnamon tea and Karen got her favorite - chai tea. The food was vegetable spring rolls, crab rangoon, a bowl of soup, tea sandwiches (where were WAY different from our usual English tea sandwiches!!), fruit, and fruit curd, cream puffs, and cheesecake bites. The spring rolls, crab rangoon, and soup were all very good. The tea sandwich was okay. The fresh fruit was good - but how can you mess up fresh strawberries, kiwi, and mango? :-) The fruit was served in these great little ice bowls...Karen's was in the shape of a boat and mine was in the shape of a leaf - how did they know that I adore autumn leaves???? There was a Chinese fruit in there (lychee) and that I would not suggest eating...I didn't like it at all!) :-)

Now that leads me to the fruit curd. Ahhh, the fruit curd. Our waitress brought it out to our table and said something (but she had a VERY thick Chinese accent and honestly I only understood about three words that she said the entire time that we were there). So, she brought out the bowl of what we later learned was fruit curd. Neither Karen nor I had any idea what it was for. Karen was pretty sure the waitress said something about it being for tea so we both put a little scoop in our tea but it never dissolved. Plus, it was a pretty big bowl of stuff for it to be for our tiny little sake cups that we had for our tea. Eventually when no one was watching we both fished out the curd from our tea cups and put it back in the bowl. :-) We finally asked another waitress who spoke English a little more clearly and she told us it was fruit curd. We both tried a bite once we found out it was supposed to be eaten :-) but it was just gross. It was like biting in to a very cold boiled egg but with a weird taste to it. Just strange.

The atmosphere of the place was nice so overall it was a really good experience. For my birthday I had intended that when we all went to celebrate my special day that we'd all go to Strawberry Tea Room (which is where we normally always go for tea - and it's my favorite!!) but instead I now want us all to go to the Chinese Tea Room so that everyone else can experience it, as well. So, January 24th we'll have a party of about 8 heading back there to see if it is just as good the second time we are there! :-)

After the tea room we came back to my place and watched the Gators destroy South Carolina in football. 56 - 6!!!!! Haa!! I love beating the snot out of Steve Spurrier. :-)