Noon Tea at Shaktea

What's all this hype about high tea and afternoon tea? Why not noon tea?

Yes, you can do this with the fantastic food menu at Shaktea.

But first, I need to order a noon tea. The owner's recommendation was the Bi Hao Yin Zhen (a.k.a. silver needles white tea).

Fancy presentation, sophisticated yet smooth taste. 

The beauty of this tea, I learnt, is that you can steep it multiple times. Each time you add few seconds to the steeping and the taste varies with each cup. 

And it went perfectly well with the noon tea meal which comprised of...

A plate of fresh cucumbers sandwiches.

Those have been my favourites for over five years now - a Fourme d’Ambert mousse, fresh cucumber, topped with crushed pecans and sesame.

A year and a half ago I raved about Shaktea's Perfect Croque Monsieur.

What makes it so special is a touch of German mustard and Organic Lapsang Souchong dressing.

And for dessert, those cream brie melted on  a fresh slice of organic bread, with Shaktea's perfect French Earl Grey fruit preserves.

By the way, I had a guest with me sharing this noon tea (just saying).

Shaktea

3702 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

www.shaktea.ca

 

 

Life Is Full Of Sizzles...

... Enjoy!! is what Stephanie Yuen, author of the new and fascinating East Meets West cookbook wrote on my copy of the book at the book launch event today at Shaktea.

The word that comes to mind describing the book is unique.

It is a selection of Asian recipes from across Lower Mainland restaurants. 

Restaurants' featured cover the city of Vancouver and many of the suburbs all the way to Surrey, ensuring you have a selection of everything.

The book also features Asian kitchen cookware and listings of Asian supermarkets and eateries by country.

Flipping through it, recipes are written in an easy-to-follow way and most ingredients I have seen are readily available. I am already eying few of them to try out, but specifically craving the custard dumpling dessert!

My favourite Shaktea is featured in the book with Shaktea chef Maria Ma's Smoky Tea Sauce with Hard Boiled Eggs and Toast.

Those are served at Shaktea as part of their lovely afternoon tea and I have tried them several times - a very unique taste that is nicely fitting with everything else unique about East Meets West.

Samples of them were served at the book launch along with Stephanie's own cooking - tofu vegetarian crepes and Mo Gua (hairy gourd) & vermicelli warm salad. Very very nice.

The afternoon was enjoyed over a cup of Shaktea's Grandma's Fruitcake rooibos with the company of my favourite Vancouver food blogger of beespeaker saijiki and potluck canuck.

A beautiful event, lovely company and pleasurable meeting with Stephanie Yuen, author of East Meets West.

A Celebration Day

A day to celebrate and what's better way to celebrate than with food.
 
The kick off was home made Manakeesh with fresh zaa'tar from Lebanon.
 
They turned out the best yet. I should start selling...

Celebration with food continued with a gracious invite by Shaktea to enjoy their culinary excellence afternoon tea.

The tea was served in special beautifully hand painted Thai cups. Trays of goodies came out with special bread and cheese sandwiches for dad along with all the regular fancy savoury and sweets.

Ultimate favourites today were the Tea Egg Sandwich, the Maple Pecan French Pastry, Shaktea Tea Truffle, and lemon cream petit four.

Thank you Shaktea ladies for such a treat.

At night a bottle of champagne was opened to celebrate the day, and emptied very quickly.

It was accompanied by a fancy steak & frites dinner.

The grill got active. Steaks marinated with a bit of olive oil for four hours and grilled to perfection. The French Fries followed a French recipe where they were soaked in water for 15 minutes and fried twice.

Simple grilled vegetables - asparagus, zucchini, eggplants - were added to the mix. All stomachs were well satisfied.

Butterfly cakes's recipe by JM - the blog's official scouse ambassador. 

A top hat cake variation produced by her charming daughter and delivered right in time for the celebrations.



Two versions were served - one with Meyer Lemon butter icing and the other with Demerara chocolate icing. Served with Shaktea's delicious Vanilla Honeybush tea.

Thank you dad, mom, Shaktea, JM, ES for making the celebration day so special. 

These Are A Few Of My Favourite...

....things, places, stores, brands, hangouts, etc. (Part A)

London Drugs (5639 Victoria Drive & 9 other Vancouver locations)

My favourite weekend shopping kick-off. Saturday mornings are so serene there where I stroll the store to nice music, friendly helpful staff and discover all sorts of special one-of-a-kind items.

Those baskets were on sale this weekend ($6.95) and look great in my cellar. Food discoveries included Nairn's Stem Ginger (lent friendly) oat cookies and Nature's Path new Crunchy Maple Sunrise (can't wait to try both discoveries).

And cats loves my London Drugs trips - treats, canned food and litter. Most of what is on my shopping list (and chores like pics and cables) ticked off.

www.londondrugs.com

Fratelli Italian Bakery (1795 Commercial Drive)

All you need from savoury to sweet baked goods under one roof. The seasonal Hot Cross Buns are baked fresh and are a great deal - try them while they last. Lent friendly whole wheat buns were bought there as well as, what experts claim, the best Copenhagens in the city.

www.fratellibakery.com   

Front & Company (3772 Main Street)

Whether you need anything from Front or not, it is worth the visit. 

Two stores next to each other; one is mainly jewelry, accessories and consignment clothing. But right next door is my favourite section.

Unique cards, gifts, garden and kitchen items. The variety of notebooks (I just love collecting notebooks) are not matched anywhere in the city. The perfect gifts can be found, many items for under $15; even $10 dollars.

Nothing overly trendy, obnoxious or useless - simply elegant gifts and useful stuff.

www.frontandcompany.ca

Shaktea (3702 Main Street)

You simply cannot go to Front and not walk few feet down the block to Shaktea. Whether to relax with a cup of tea and delicious fare after all the shopping or to buy some tea and tea-related wares, Shaktea is not to be missed as part of a few of my favourites. 

www.shaktea.ca

Look for Part B of These Are A Few Of My Favourite ... next Saturday.

Fruit Teas of the Holidays

I received two lovely fruit-based teas for Christmas and they were brewed repeatedly over the holidays (oh I miss being on holidays).

 Shaktea Strawberry Banana Rooibos

Described by Shaktea as sweet and fun blend of rooibos, banana chips, pineapple pieces and strawberry pieces, this sure is a repeat purchase.

Available @ Shakea.ca online ordering or visit the store at 3702 Main Street in Vancouver, BC.

A beautiful red brew, closer to the pink than a typical rooibos. Surprisingly, the taste of the fruit is not overwhelming, but does provide a neat fun aftertaste. A wonderful treat.

Enjoyed several holiday afternoons with different home-made Christmas cakes.

David's Tea Forever Nuts

A fun gift from a tea distributor I have not heard of before. This is a fruit infusion of apples, almonds, cinnamon, and beetroot.


Caffeine Free and it seems David's Tea has three locations in the Lower Mainland. More information at Davidstea.com.

The label above was so true - the colour of this tea is surely a crazy, almost children colouring crayon shade of pink.

But it is very tasty. While it looks like tea, the taste is more like a fruit cake or jam pretending to be tea. And bonus that crazy ones like me will eat the soaked particles after drinking the tea. Deliciously enjoyable.

Sweet Sunday with Shaktea

Cats and I had our minds set to spend a leisurely morning in front of the fire today.

Off to the shed for wood we go. As typical of cats, mine marked his favourite chunks and we were set to start our day.

It was a perfect Mma Ramotswe moment (of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series) - she makes her Rooibos tea, cuts a piece of cake and enjoyes the moment.

So I pulled out my favourite Shaktea Rooibos - the Organic Cinnamon Swirl Rooibos - my Mma Ramotswe tea pot and mug, and a beautiful Anita Apple Cake (even though she calls it a loaf).

This cake was exceptional; sweet, moist, big chunks of apples. Like Mma Ramotswe, I helped myself to another piece as I read my Little Lulu (on Volume 4 now).

In the afternoon, a dear friend spontaneously invites me out for tea and off to Shaktea we go.

Many new teas to try and the choice was the new Ginger Pear Honeybush (click the name and read the ingredients).

To keep to an apple theme, the amazing blend of tea flavours matched well this deliciously freshly baked apple crumble.

Perfect crust, ideal sweetness, elegant platter design and high quality ice cream.

Back home, lounging around the fire after dinner and there, staring at me, is a gift of home-made apple strudel from an authentic Czechoslovakian recipe. 

This was enjoyed thoroughly with a perfect end of night Shaktea selection - Luna's Organic Karmic Peace tea.

Feeling very Karmicly peaceful now - good night.

Catching Up Over Food

A best university friend who I have seen only once in the past 20+ years whips into town for 18 hours' visit. How best to catch up than over food. 

While I won't bore you with the gossip, I will share with you the food that accompanied the catching up. 

The poor friend did not have time to catch her breath upon arrival. She dropped her bags and within 3 minutes, we were on our way to 3702 Main, for afternoon tea at Shaktea.

Nothing could have been better than catching up over Shaktea's delicious afternoon tea service.

After a two hour driving tour of the city, all went back to somerville kitchen where the morning was busy preparing a feast worthy of the special friend.

The appetizers were spread out; spinach pies Lebanese style, home made humus (click for recipe), stuffed jardin chard (click for recipe), halloom toasts, jardin thyme pickles (read more at Pickled Thyme), and lots of wine.

The dinner party moved quickly into le jardin given how pleasant the evening turned out to be. 

The main dish was nothing but the somerville kitchen specialty - chicken and beef rice cake sprinkled with fried almonds and pine nuts.

As we were emptying the bottle of wine, and all enjoying a pleasant evening, swiss chocolates gifted to me directly from Switzerland came out. We sampled the white, dark and praline chocolates. 

The night went by way too fast. Early morning, time for goodbye, a breakfast of sunny side up eggs, toast, and sour cherry perogies provided the required fuel for the long drive ahead.


Thank you for visiting, good luck with your new adventure and come back soon.