beXnlog

Oh Crap!

Right before our first visit to Great Tea International on Wednesday, i read this:

In The Book of Tea, his treatise on Japanese tea's relationship with the Western world, Okakura Kakuzo explains that the tearoom is an ephemeral structure based on poetic impulse — not intended for posterity. It should be no surprise, then, that on June 9, Charlotte Lin, owner of Great Tea International ... , is closing the space she consecrated almost five years ago as an escape from her accounting career. The sanctuary was immune to the vulgar hustle of busy streets and cafes, but apparently not Philadelphia's dreaded business privilege tax. ... —Sam Tremble

Bonesli and i really liked GTI. The space was cozy and the other customers seemed to be regulars. The selection of imported teas (mainly from Taiwan, it seemed) was quite large, and my $4 order of Oolong was enough for 3 cups worth. To eat, i chose the light lunch of 2 lotus leaf rolls and 1 bun, while Bonesli had pistachios and pumpkin seeds with green tea powder with her herbal tisane. (They were out of the tofu sandwich that day.) The lotus leaf roll was filled with sticky rice and a few kinds of mushrooms, very tasty and fragrant. The red bean bun was good as well. Bonesli couldn't crack open the pumpkin seeds very well, so i ended up opening the majority!

I adore pumpkin seeds. Wait, clarification: pumpkin seeds with the shells ON. The fun is cracking open each little seed with your teeth, tasting the salt on the shell, extracting a perfect seed to eat, and repeating until you develop two matching sore spots on your lips from the salt.

I bought a 1 lb bag of salted shell-on pumpkin seeds from Nuts to You, but any Chinese food store will have a few varieties. The dish at GTI was comprised of the very large seeds, roasted in green tea powder - a very different yet also addictive version.

In addition to the tea house, GTI also sells clay teapots, ceramic teacups, loose tea to go and tea accessories. It's so different from the 2nd generation tea houses who focus on mixed tea cosmos and tea lattes with fake flavors. So be sure to check out GTI before June 9th. It's on Sansom at 17th Street. They're still going to operate the online shop, but Philadelphia is sadly losing a great place next month.

posted by beXn @ 10:49 AM