Well, first and foremost, I got a lot of work done on Locked Away today. After I posted last night, I went ahead and started the edging, because I was impatient. Then today I finished the edging. I really like how it looks, and I was going to take a picture and have another post about it, but I'm pretty tired from the rest of my day!
This evening my friend Alex took me and Chris out to a really cool place as a belated birthday treat. The place is called "Seven Cups" and it as an Asian-style tea house. They have a huge menu of all kinds of wonderful teas, and a small menu of Japanese and Chinese desserts -- you know, the kind you always see people eating in anime, and you wonder what they're like? Yeah, those. And by the way? They're delicious!
Seven Cups is nothing short of awesome. The tables are wood with beautiful shell inlay patterns. The teas are artfully presented. The waitress was very nice. And we got tiny little forks to eat our dessert with! So cute! Plus they sell all of their teas packaged up, and a nice assortment of tea sets and cups and pots and things. It's the sort of place where you can spend over an hour drinking tea and talking -- they provide you more hot water for your tea as long as you're there, and we never felt rushed. A very nice experience all around, and one we hope to repeat in the near future.
After that we went out for a Mexican dinner. Yeah, we had dessert first, we live on the edge :D All in all it was a fun night, lots of talk about life and gaming and movies and things.
Oh yes! The tea that I got was very cool! It was one of those flowering teas, you know, the ones that are tied in an artful bundle that unfolds as it steeps? I had to order it because it was called the "Faerie's Basket." It unfolded into a basket-y shape with a chrysanthemum flower in it, a handle formed of jasmine flowers, and a pretty pink flower at the apex of the handle. How neat is that? We all had fun watching it unfold :)
So they had the clear teapots, then? I have some friends who get the teapots so they can have the flowers at home. I wish we had a place like that here.
ReplyDeleteAnd the tiny fork? We call that a dessert fork.
Ok, so clearly none of us grew up in households where multiple sizes and types of forks were used, because we were all amused and mystified by this "dessert fork" you speak of ;)
ReplyDeleteMy flowering tea actually came in a large wine glass kind of thing. Alex's green tea came in a clear pot. And Chris's oolong came in a yixing clay pot, and had all kinds of accouterments for ceremonial tea drinking.
If you ever happen to find yourself in Tucson, we will take you out for tea!
There's dessert spoons, too. ;) We had all of them, but only used them a few times. The Admiral understood that Mother was sick and I would be acting as hostess and let us host more casual things out back with the pool and tennis courts. Dad was FlagSec CINCLant. That means the Flag Secretary (right hand) of the Commander IN Chief Atlantic (clearly I inherited my stage manager ability from him), and it has a formal role, too.
ReplyDeleteWhen Dad was promoted to officer from enlisted -- one of the last Mustangs -- I went to the school that Mother would have if she could: Ladies Training School. You learn how to set tables and use cutlery, how to leave and accept calling cards (with all the corner folded bits), how to behave with important people, and how to dance with a man wearing a sword.
Now, I had chocolate cake with ice cream today, in memory of Henry, and Ruby Tuesday's brought me a soup spoon. The idea of the small spoon or fork is that dessert is something to savor -- small bites -- while talking genteelly.
I would love to have tea with you guys!
Well, seriously, who wouldn't want to learn how to dance with a man with a sword? (of course, it's more fun to learn to dance with a sword, with or without a man) Not sure about the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteEven with a normal-size fork or spoon, I like to take little bites of my dessert to make it last longer.