A lovely spot of tea

[ellen_datlow]

A friend and I discovered a lovely place to have tea in the east village: Podunk, which is much nicer than its name. At 2:45 it was empty so I had time to read a few pages of Simmons' The Terror while waiting. I had a pot of lady grey tea and a high tea (it wasn't called that) with cucumber sandwiches (no crusts of course), cookies, scones and jam and cream, plus some cake (I brought home the cake bits and cookies). I gather it was packed a few hours earlier and it started filling up again by the time we left at 4:30. Definitely worth another visit.

Comments

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

There really is a place called Podunk? I thought my mom made it up!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well, I THINK the word connotes a very out of the way little one-horse town and nothing specific, although we can also google it :-)

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

It's in Massachusetts. I've been there. It doesn't exist as a town anymore, but several streets still exist with the name. If I recall correctly, it was one of our local Native American tribes' word for "that backwater tribe over there."

[lagilman]

Actually, the Podunk Indians were in Connecticut-- the Hartford area. But there are a bunch of towns/rivers/schools using the name throughout New England.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

In Virgina, we have Pungo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pungo,_Virginia), which is pretty similar. It got eaten up by Virginia Beach when they annexed the county, but it was an Indian name for a small out-of-the-way place.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I checked on google and there are several towns all over the place that currently use the name.

[defenestr8or.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "high tea" is usually served much later (around 6pm), and has meats, fish, or eggs.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

It was called by a specific name the restaurant gave it: "Friends tea" but the overall name is indeed "high tea" --afternoon tea around 3-5 pm with sandwiches, and everything else I mentioned. I've never had meat, fish, or eggs with it. I think you mean the kind of obsolete "tea" that was considered "supper" at one time.

hmmm...

[themadblonde]

according to Wikipedia (which agrees & sumarises other research I've done), High Tea "is an early evening meal, typically eaten between 5 and 6 o'clock in the evening. It would be eaten as a substitute for both afternoon tea and the evening meal."

To me, it sounds like what you had was "afternoon tea:"
"a light meal typically eaten at 4 o'clock....Traditionally, loose tea would be served in a teapot with milk and sugar. This would be accompanied by various sandwiches (customarily cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste (bloater), ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with butter, clotted cream and jam — see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge)."

Re: hmmm...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yup--that's what we had (although only the cucumber sandwich). Thanks for looking it up :-)

actually...

[themadblonde]

I'm a tea nut. That's how I remembered it but I wanted to confirm that my memory was correct (so often it isn't) so off to Wiki I went.

I have a few friends in town who are sales reps for Simple Graces (an at-home tea sales company) & we're going to the only tea "manufacturer" in the Cities for their annual tea tasting this coming weekend. We've got a few tea rooms in town, & a few more coffee shops that also serve an afternoon tea, but I wish there were more.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading The Terror, and loved it. I need to ponder it a bit more so I can write something coherent in my blog. But I really loved the way Simmons captured the world of the arctic--how the strange and terrifying and brutal could also be beautiful.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I agree--even though I've only read about 100 pages so far.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. Have you ever been to "Sympathy for the Kettle" on St. Marks? The teas (and the sweets) are great, but the place can fill up quick.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

No, but I'll have to check it out another time. Thanks for the rec.

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, that sounds fantastic!! And I was already hungry.

[readwrite.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, since it's in my neck of the woods, I looked on citysearch. You should check it out--the comments are split about halfway between those like yours and "the crazy lady who runs the place was totally rude to us."

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well, don't know if it was the same person. There was one lady and she had on very weird eyeglasses and seemed to fit in perfectly with the children's books all over the place. And she was not rude at all, but very helpful.

[(Anonymous)]

High tea is tea served late in the day (the hour hand high on the clock). The later tea is served, the more lower class it is. Tea that substitutes for supper is very lower class indeed.

Rick Bowes