and though I like to act the part of being tough...

After a long day of touristing, my mom, sister, and I needed to refuel. I took them to Russian Tea Time for the restaurant's, well, Russian tea time. We didn't do the full $23 per person high tea service. We did, however, enjoy assorted sweet treats and the house black tea served out of glasses nestled in ornate pewter holders.

The waiter brought lemon slices, white sugarcubes, and brown sugar in a roughly cubed shape. He told us to put lemon and white sugar in the tea. Then we'd hold the brown sugar in our mouths as we sipped the tea. The brown sugar would dissolve and sweeten and sediment as the tea would flow and hot and smooth. The sensation was lovely. What was happening in my mouth was a microcosm, a miniature of how I feel when I sit down for tea time.

i'm a fan

I love to root root root for the home team. In any sport really. Man, living in a city with 5 professional sports teams is awesome. Especially when you can score some free tickets to a game thereby off-setting the cost of the $7.50 Heinekens.

i didn't make it to the formal

One of my friends told me that the Lettuce Entertain You restaurants would be where she would go in high school before the big dance.

Well, I had a gift certificate and we had some fun plans in the foreign Streeterville region so we went to Ben Pao which is much like a P.F. Changs. When did I last eat at a place where I had to have one of those buzzer things while waiting for a table? Not sure.

Well, I couldn't order a respectable drink like a glass of wine, decent beer, or true martini at this establishment. I had to, of course, get an Asian Pear Saketini which includes a laundry list of ingredients:
- Grey Goose la poire
- Sake
- St. Germain
- Funkin pear puree
- Pineapple juice

The drink was just fine, you know? Ambiguously fruity and decently boozey. So many ingredients to ultimately create vanilla.

a-muse-ing

I'm not sure that I've ever been inspired to create art by beer, but I am quite fond of PBR. I wish I had an artsy bent so I could win a year of free beer.

ritual

It's fall now. The new school term is underway, and I'm beginning to settle in to it all. While Tecate needed to be brought in with a drum roll and exclamation points to represent its season, I will just whisper to fall. tea. tea time in the afternoon. as i read. as i finish a day of internship. it's a break and continuation.

To: Vacations.

As those Corona commercials pun-fully remind us, vacations shift our attitudes. Through disrupting comfortable monotony with new geography and new/renewed relationships, we're jolted to remember what's just so wonderful or what needs to go in our lives. Lists and promises made while away generally fade yet re-emerge in quiet moments - unexpected stay-cations. And here I find myself again, needing to raise a few glasses to my rollicking, recentering trip to Portland.

Here's to occasional, amazing over-indulgence: Bacon Bloody Mary.


Here's to enjoying the best without any snobbery: Right Turn with amazing desserts at Clyde Common.

Here's to being challenged: Salted Plum Collins

Here's to taking the time: Agua Fresca Margarita

Here's to a holistic approach: Milwaukee Mule enhanced by icy cold copper mug

cheers.