Taste And See

Taste and See on the Northside is now open on Holland Street!


OLD REVIEW:
Taste and See is a Tea House on the South Hill in Spokane.
(NOTE: As of January 2011 they have closed this location with plans to reopen on the North-side of the city in the spring.  Check their website for more information.)

)Having never been to such a place before I was delighted when a friend of mine asked me to join her for a Christmas tea.  This is something I would definitely enjoy doing again, and I most certainly recommend it as the kind of thing to do when you want to dine with someone and spend time talking and enjoying one-another's company.  The experience of enjoying tea with a friend was fun, relaxing, elegant, a bit whimsical and most definitely a delightful way to spend an afternoon in anticipation of the Christmas Holiday. Taste and See is the brainchild of Thada Ziegler.

This place is quite elegant and it's run as a "ministry," a not for profit business organized around the intent of helping women who are transitioning from shelters, they say that they "provide a paid internship program for these women, in the venue of the tea room, to help them get ready to transition back into the work place."  It's a cool concept to help others, and the "Taste and See" name comes from the book of Psalms in the Bible, (Psalm 34:8.)

The shelters I saw listed that they are associated with were Anna Ogden Hall and the Union Gospel Mission, Christian ministries, so one might assume it is a Christian oriented ministry organization, but whatever it was specifically, was not particularly obvious to me, except for the reference to the Psalm in the name, and most certainty the kindness and respect they showed all the customers there, including us.  There is definitely a spirit of serving here. As for cost to the customer, each reservation was $20.00, which I thought was reasonable, especially as we were there two hours.  Tips and donation all go directly to the ministry.

Having made prior reservations, our table was ready for us and  we were seated to a beautiful salad and invited to "tea."  Our waitress also graciously explained the process of eating at a tea house to us, telling us what we could expect throughout our visit, as well as about their little gift shop.Our first tea was Cinnamon Stick.  It was sweet and cinnamony, a lot like my favorite Good Earth blend.  Each subsequent tea was brought out in another teapot and all were unique and quite ornate.

We were greeted and made to feel right at home immediately.  There were quite a few other people there, and not just women only, there were men. In our room there was a couple at another small table and a large group of about ten dining in our room while we were there.  On the other side of the house there were people also.  We were told that people there were "walk-ins", people who did not make reservations who had just walked in, like they were going to a restaurant, and ordered a lunch.  Our server told us that they were discontinuing that after January and would only be taking reservations after that.

After our tea and salad, we were brought two more pots of tea that we selected from a tea menu.  Shortly thereafter we were served Lemon Scones, severed with Devon-shire Cream as well as Lemon Curds.  (above)

After these were were offered more tea and  then we were brought fancy little lunch treats.



There were stuffed potatoes, Chicken Salad Croissants, Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato English muffins and Turkey and Cheese wreath-shaped white and wheat  sandwiches.  (pictured to the right)

Next there was more tea and then dessert

The desserts were assorted samplings of several tasty morsels.  I do not remember exactly what all we were served but I do remember that in the center were balls of peppermint ice cream that had been rolled in coconut.  It sounded a little odd to me, not something I would have chosen for myself, but it was delicious.(below)

It was really nice to spend time with my friend, talking laughing, and not having to think about what to order except for tea.  (The meal was preplanned by the kitchen staff.)  We were there for two hours.  They told us to expect that when we made our reservations, and that is exactly what occurred. 

We tried numerous teas, mostly Roobios types.  I think may very favorite was the Cinnamon, although  the others were delightful to experience.  I understand that Roobios (pronounced like "roy-bos") also known as Red Tea is a very healthy drink.  Tea in general is supposed to be good for you, so, drink more tea.  And, if you can, get together with a friend, someone special to you, and make reservation for a tea party of your own at the tea room,; it's fun.

Here is a photo of the house.  Upstairs, I  understand, is a Bed and Breakfast!

A Taste of Thai, (another taste)

Rather than try somewhere new to us, tonight we revisited A Taste of Thai, first of all because it was close to where we were, second of all, because we like Thai food and thirdly, because this place is good.

If I need another reason, I can think of more... like I did not have pictures of it before and tonight we took some pictures to add to this blog!  (that's four!) Here is our table...

I took some other photos as well, but they did not come out so great ...so I will not post them. The food looked terrific too.

We ordered Thai Tea, Spring Rolls, Thom Ka Gai, and Red Curry.  The Red Curry dish is in the foreground.  It has chicken, basil, green peppers, bamboo, and red bell peppers.  this is a tasty curry dish!  The Thom Ka Gai was excellent, and I even liked the Thai Tea.

I love the cozy atmosphere here and the fact that this is a small family-owned restaurant.  Tonight ww also saw some people we know eating there at the same time we were, and it was fun to talk to them.  They said that they go there to eat often. it's one of their regular places.  When I asked them what they liked the best, Mike said, "the menu!" He likes it all!  This night he had tried something new that was served with spinach leaves.  He loved it.

This lovely little restaurant is located at 419 West Hastings Road in Spokane.  It is in the same shopping center where Calvary Chapel Church is. 

Another reason to go there to eat is that the food is definitely good.

China Dragon

China Dragon is not a new restaurant to us; we have gone there often and for years.  They have great lunch specials and fantastic Chinese food of all kinds.  Geo really likes the Beef Noodles, which is actually more like a soup in my opinion, but they call it noodles and it is listed under "Noodles" on the menu and our waitress tonight told us that even in China, they just call it "Noodles."  This is a spicy dish.  Geo ordered it again tonight and it was fantastic as usual.  Spicy, and Mmmm- Mmm good!

I am so sorry I did not take pictures tonight.  I kinda forgot, until we were halfway through our meal.  A picture of this would have been terrific, for it was a sight to see.   The bowl of soup was enormous... and my plate was very appetizing.

Having never ordered a combination plate for dinner, just for lunch, I was surprised that the item selections were different.  I chose to have the combination dinner #2,  consisting of Chow Mein, Barbecue Pork, Fried Rice and Spicy Crispy Chicken.  I have to say though that I didn't particularly want to have things offered in this combination, but I liked it once I had it before me on the plate.  Everything was very good.  It was just not all my favorite things in the group, or any of the groupings for that matter and I had to compromise.

My favorite things on my plate were the Chow Mein and the Spicy Chicken.  I love the Chow Mein here.  It is filled with celery and cabbage and onions.  I have tried ordering Chow Mein other places... but it is not the same as here.  I think I am finally getting the idea between the difference between Chow Mein and Special Chow Mein though.  Special Chow Mein is soft noodles.  I like the crunchy... most of the time.  I am still working on differenciating between items like Lo Mein, Chow Fun and Chop Suey.

In the olden days, they used to have a piano player on Sunday afternoons.   I loved that.  It was kinda different, eating Chinese food while a piano master played requests from the audience and serenaded the after church Sunday dinner crowd, and quite fun.  They do not do that anymore.  It's Chinese music.

The decor inside this place is really interesting too.  There is a lot of Chinese art, mostly reliefs, and etched glass throughout and since Christmas is this month the place is done up for the holiday.

I like seeing the cooka cooking in the kitchen through the window and I also like checking out the fish in the fish tank as you come in.  It was a Silver Arowana.  He has been there a long time.

The workers at this restaurant are always really nice and tonight was no exception.   Eating here is always an enjoyable experience.

And then of course, there is the cookie of wisdom that you get after the meal: