Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Food, glorious food
Nanaimo bars and shortbread cookies
Deep dish sausage pizza from Pizzeria Due
Made the first of what is likely to be many more visits to the new Zia Taqueria that opened a few weeks ago in the former Fez location.
This place is full of yummy. The atmosphere is casual, and very conducive to just hanging out. Most items on the menu you can order a la carte, or you can choose from a few platter dishes instead. Order placing is kind of a hybrid between a fast food place and traditional sit-down. You go up to the counter, place your order and go grab a seat. After a reasonably short wait, during which you can munch on tortilla chips and salsa, one of the servers brings your meal out to you.
The salsa, while very fresh tasting was pretty heavy on the cilantro. I probably would have enjoyed it if not for my anti-cilantro gene or if there was no cilantro in it.
I opted for the Beef Barbacoa platter with the Borracho Beans and Mexican Rice as the sides and wasn’t disappointed. With the New Mexico Red Chile sauce, I could have easily stuffed myself with 3 or 4 more. The enchiladas were stuffed with tender, flavourful shreds of beef, and the chili sauce provided a nice chile flavour without a lot of mouth-searing heat.
The Borracho Beans were just as tasty. Kind of like a bean soup, it had a rich tasty broth and a little bit of spicyness for kick, but not too much. The Mexican rice was a little under seasoned, but was good as well and helped cut the heat from the Habanero sauce (one of 3 hot sauces you can choose from at the cutlery/iced tea table) I added to my enchiladas.
Tables outside provide additional dining space, perfect for the milder fall temperatures these days. Now when I’m craving Mexican, I can save some gas and just walk up the road to get some.
Finally getting around to trying out the teas I picked up at the Charleston Tea Plantation‘s First Flush festival a couple of weeks ago.
Before me, I have in one mug their regular American Classic tea. In another mug, the 2008 First Flush tea. Both were brewed using water just off the boil and steeped for 3 minutes.
Both teas brew up quite a bit lighter than I would have expected for black teas, about the same colour as an oolong tea. The taste is remarkably similar too I think, only milder. Admittedly it has been a while since my last cup of oolong, so I might be mistaken. I’m all out of oolong tea too, so I’ll have to go find some and do a comparison.
The first flush tea is definitely different than the regular American Classic. It brews a little bit darker with a little stronger and somewhat more ‘green’ and woody flavour (to my very untrained palate).
They’re both pretty mild flavoured teas compared to other black teas I’ve had, but quite enjoyable when sitting down with a book or lounging in the rocker on the porch. Stop by for a cuppa and we can compare notes.