Tea Station (revisit)

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! This food blog is a compendium of road trips, vacations, food store shopping, events, meals, snacks,  events and general food-centric posts.  Kirk usually posts here, but is catching up from his recent vacation.  Ed (from Yuma) is also recovering from his recent San Diego vacation. Cathy is writing today, about another meal during her staycation in the County.

I discovered Tea Houses and Boba places several years ago when one day a friend took me to one and realized that snacks were served in addition to beverages.  It was so fascinating as well as tasty. Since then, I've written two  individual posts about visits here.  It's simple, good and a nice place to share a snack or meal with friends. (I'm the White girl on this blog and there were no Tea or Boba places when I was at the Unversity of Michigan…heck, there was no Zingerman's when I was there).

IMG_3884
IMG_3859

IMG_3863 IMG_3865

The exterior and expanded interior have remained the same; neat and clean.  Once you order, a basket of utensils, bowls and napkins are brought to the table. IMG_3880

The teas and all beverages are made to order here, (which is why you can get a beverage with half, quarter or no sweetness added-something you can't always ask for from other boba shops because they use pre-mixed syrup bases) and this pot of Kuan-Yin (monkey picked) tea ($5) actually was brought to our table last, perfectly brewed. We usually ask for a bit more water to be added after we finish the first serving; the tea leaves are just about as strong on the second pour. (A brief explanation of 'monkey picked' meaning premium tea is here.)

IMG_3878

One order of Taiwan sausage ($5.50)…my 2013 obsession (see this post ).  Served with slices of raw garlic, the combination of the sweet in the sausage with the slight bitter of garlic is amazing.

IMG_3871

Inside the menu was a "monthly special" card -the 'fried shrimp roll' ($3.99) was really a version of  Vietnamese Tau Hu Ky (beancurd wrapped shrimp paste), which I order with bun at Vietnamese restaurants.  You can see this is a large serving and that there were pieces of whole shrimp as well as paste inside the delicately fried tofu skin. This was excellent.

IMG_3868

We were handed a "Daily Specials" ($6.50) card with the regular menu and the day we were here, the special was  chicken curry (quite a bit of chicken, onion, carrots, potatoes and green pepper in a not spicy but a sweet, medium-hot Japanese curry). The football shaped mound of rice divides the curry from the three daily side dishes (which change). This day it was green beans with slices of dry tofu, delicate (rice) noodles with beef pieces and pickled vegetables with pork pieces. A tasty variety that complimented the semi-spice of the curry.

Another nice visit with good food and a really good pot of tea.

Tea Station 7315 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858) 268-8198 Website