Happy Valentine's Day LilyOnTheLam.com Readers:
For this Valentine's Day, I give you my heart and my 100th blog post.
OK maybe not my heart, but certainly this is my 100th blog post for LilyOnTheLam.Com.
Don't cry - you wouldn't want my heart anyway. It's a festering ball of scar tissue, regret and fury. Ha ha- why don't I write for Hallmark again???
Since I cannot afford roses and chocolates for you all, I had to think about what I could give you that was worthy of both Valentine's Day and my 100th Blog Post. Neon green socks? Hmmm, no.
After much musing (OK 5 minutes worth), I decided to write about a place I truly love. A long time favorite that never lets me down. It is in New York City. I have visited this place each and every time I have been in NYC for the past seven years. It is my oasis in the big city. If you live in New York or are visiting, you absolutely must check this place out.
What place could possibly inspire so much love and loyalty from Lily? Is it foxy Chef Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin? No. (Although I did see him walking on the street in the Fashion District by himself once. It took every bit of my strength to restrain myself from jumping on his back screaming "Je t'aime! Je t'aime!")
Is it Chef David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar? No. (But I do love the Momofuku Ssam Bar, Noodle Bar, Milk Bar, Ma Peche ... sigh... David Chang, you rock.)
Is it Hooters? Um... NO.
The place in NYC that has my love, my heart, my admiration, my loyalty and my money every time I am in town is ... Podunk- An American Tea Room in the East Village. Podunk does not have a website, but the great folks at TheCoffeeBeaners.com have put out a YouTube video that shows you Podunk in all its homey glory. Check out their video! Or better yet, check out Podunk for yourself at 231 East 5th Street near 2nd Avenue, NY, NY 10003. They are open daily from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
When I was a kid, I fancied myself a tortured artist. Not really sure how tortured I was in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota; but I still wore all black and wrote poems about my desolate being. I'd listen to The Replacements' song "Achin' To Be" and know they were singing about me. (Thank you MTV for having the video on your website.)
Side note: don't get me started on how lead singer Paul Westerberg is the most underrated and under appreciated singer-songwriter of the 1980's and 1990's. He's a genius - I wish the size of his success was proportionate to the size of his talent. Grrrr. Like I said, don't get me started!
I was blessed to have an amazing Honors English program in my suburban Minnesota public school. (Thank you Minnesota tax payers!) But our poetry curriculum was more T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," when I was more Rilke, Rimbaud, William Carlos Williams, Kerouac and Baudelaire. I would try to write songs, but as the world's worst songwriter; I found poetry to be easier. I don't know if I was writing good poetry, but it flowed out of me in gushing, adolescent waves.
And after all, everyone needs a passion.
Our state had a literary newspaper with submissions by high schoolers. I had submitted some poems. Some had been accepted, some had been rejected. One day, while day-dreaming in French class; I wrote this poem about a squirrel hopping around a tree. A "What's It All About, Alfie?" type poem about the squirrel. By the time French class was over, I had finished the poem.
It was probably the most commercial, most "Hallmark Greeting Cards" thing I had ever written. I might as well have titled it "Sell Out - a Happy Squirrel Production." It was saccharine, nauseating and trite. I knew it was just the poem that could get published. So off I sent it to the literary newspaper and voila, it was published.
After the initial excitement of being published wore off, I realized I had just aligned my name - my soul, my being, my essence - with a cutesy, trite poem about a squirrel in a tree. A sudden wave of "Sweet Jesus, what have I done?" hit me hard in the face. As an overdramatic, "tortured" artist - had I just sold my soul to the commercial devil? What if I was hit by a bus? Would the Happy Squirrel be my legacy for the ages? The end all, be all of who I was on this Earth? Did I want my entire life history to be synonymous with a HAPPY SQUIRREL?
Ugh! The horror was almost too much to bear.
I should have thrown myself into some gigantic dark undertaking of poetry writing and found my artistic masterpiece! But if memory serves, I never submitted any other poems to this particular literary newspaper after they published the squirrel poem. I think I lost respect for their publishing my trivial poem. Obviously they could not judge proper "art" if they published the squirrel poem! Or maybe I was just lazy. Not really sure there. My revisionist history memory fails me at times.
I never did grow up to be the tortured artist I imagined myself to be. Which is probably for the best, because I like having money to travel all around the world. I also have a hoarders-type obsession with my foofy material possessions, including my beautiful convertible.
I still like to wear a lot of black clothing, but there are more colors in my closet than when I was a kid. And while I haven't written a poem since college, I still love to write. For me, it is my pressure release valve in an uncertain and often times unfair world.
When I first moved to Tampa, Florida, I didn't know anyone. In an effort to make myself get out of the house and see Tampa Bay, I started going to various tea rooms both in Tampa and Sarasota. While I often times forget that Tampa is "the South," the plethora of tea rooms definitely reminds me of where I am. I would take my journal, sip tea and write for hours, undisturbed. It was heaven. Plus I love a good scone!
On a trip to New York City to see as many Broadway shows as I could in a long weekend, I decided to apply my Tampa tea room strategy upon The Big Apple. New York may not be the South, but the city does have a wide array of tea rooms for all tastes. It was in my research of NYC tea rooms that I found a small blurb on Podunk - An American Tea Room in the East Village. Since one of my habitual NYC stops is St. Marks Place in the East Village to shop for cheap costume jewelry and peruse the clothing at Trash and Vaudeville (loves me some Tripp NYC clothing!), I was happy to have another place to check out in the East Village.
So around seven years ago, journal in my bag and a song in my heart (OK maybe no song); I headed to East 5th Street and 2nd Avenue to check out a tea room called "Podunk." And I fell in love with it.
By the way, I bet you were wondering how I would get back to the topic of tea rooms after my detour into Happy Squirrel Land. Trust me, my dear readers, I can go off on mile long tangents and then find my way back home. It's all part of the collective, big story. Now stop doubting me and keep reading! Muchos gracias.
Podunk - An American Tea Room is my definition of achieving zen. When I enter, I feel like I am sloughing off all the crude insanity of New York City and I am in a safe, quiet haven. There is no rushing at Podunk. There are no students/frustrated writers/porn internet viewers clacking away on laptops. There is no free WiFi. In fact, there isn't even a bathroom. (Yes, it is small enough that by NY law, it does not have to have a public bathroom. So pee before you go, people!)
The decor is Midwestern Americana. There are no servers. You peruse the incredibly diverse menu of teas and the accompanying treasure trove of tea treats. You check out the cupcakes and cookies in the case on the counter and you silently whisper under your breath "Cupcake, I am coming for you!" You then place your tea and treats order with the ever kind, ever sweet, ever wonderful, ever sassy Owner Elspeth. Then you sit down and relax. Good food takes time. Don't expect your tea and treats to come flying out of the kitchen.
There is a different time zone at Podunk. No rush rush. I feel like I reset my internal work/life balance clock when I am at Podunk. 80% of the time, I lead my life in a frenzy working for a gigantic international company. So time at Podunk is absolutely like a meditation for me. My frenzied, chaotic clock stops and I get to just relax. No cell phones, no TVs, no laptops. When I enter Podunk, I feel like I am scoffing in the face of all the stressors of life.
I am going to sit here.
I am going to drink some tea.
I am going to eat some of the best tea treats ever.
I am going to write.
I am going to relax.
I am going to just be.
I usually spend several hours lost in the delicious aromas emanating from Podunk's oven, sipping my tea and writing. I remember once I was in New York for work, but I managed to squeeze in a trip to Podunk before I had to head off and catch a train upstate. Unfortunately, I could only stay at Podunk for 45 minutes. Elspeth asked why I was leaving in such a hurry. I love that at Podunk, 45 minutes is "a hurry." I promised to be back the next time I was in town and I have been, each and every time.
When I was last in NYC in January 2012, I braved hail and snow to get to the East Village. Nothing was going to stand in my way of a relaxing tea at Podunk. I unwrapped myself from layers and layers of sweaters, scarves and a thick parka. Going to Podunk is like going home. It is warm, inviting and always makes me happy.
After catching up with Elspeth - I believe she must think of me as that crazy Broadway show-loving gal from Tampa, I decided to go with the coconut and vanilla chai tea. There are so many choices of tea at Podunk. I also love going to Podunk in the summer, because Elspeth serves these magnificently garnished iced teas in giant mason jars. I think for the sake of my blog readers, I will have to go to NYC this summer just to get a picture of the iced tea. (Yeah yeah, if you look at TheCoffeeBeaners.com You Tube video on Podunk, you can see the iced tea also - shhhhhh, you're ruining my rationalization to go to New York this summer!)
It had been a long time since I had last been to Podunk, so I ordered the big mother of all tea treat food at Podunk-- "The Bonne Femme." Podunk's menu has it all - items for people who love savory tea treats, those who love sweet tea treats and for gluttons like me who love it all! "The Bonne Femme" has a little bit of everything. All is made fresh at Podunk and everything tastes incredible. There are some items that are on consistent rotation and other items that just pop up. I have had the Bonne Femme before, but there were some nice new surprises waiting for me this time.
After you order, you sit down, relax and wait. Eventually all of the components of your tea are put together on a tray. Elspeth will call you up to the front counter and you pick up your tray. There is no table service here. At the end of your tea, you return contentedly to the front counter with your tray and pay your bill. Oh and believe it or not, no tipping. Elspeth believes that since there is no table service, there is no reason to tip. I hope in this economy she has reversed her stance on tipping!
After you have paid your bill, I challenge you to try to avoid buying a chocolate chip cookie to go. It's almost impossible to say no to buying several!
The Bonne Femme is so packed with lovely, tasty treats that I photographed it from every angle imaginable.
Sigh - isn't it beautiful? You cannot even imagine the aroma wafting from Podunk's oven and filling the tea room. I imagine it's what heaven smells like - cinnamon, chocolate and doughy goodness.
The Bonne Femme combines both savory and sweet tea treats. The following two pictures show a chai chicken tartlet, a French Onion tartlet and a Spinach Cheddar tartlet. Chai and chicken? Yes and it's incredible. I love the French Onion tartlet because it has all the warm, sweet, richness of a bowl of French Onion soup without the annoying long strings of cheese tugging at your every spoonful. For the Spinach Cheddar Tart, the spinach was fresh and ultra concentrated in flavor. Even in the middle of winter, I felt like I was eating fresh Farmers' Market spinach. All three tarts have a thick crust that I can only poorly describe as a cross between a pie crust and a biscuit. Descriptive words are failing me now!
In the following three pictures, you will see a stack of tea sandwiches, a cheese savory biscuit and a celery seed biscuit. The cheese savory biscuit was like two tons of cheese flavor in a small shortbread-like savory cookie.
To my taste buds' best guess, the tea sandwiches included: a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich, another tasted like butter and either watercress or cucumber, a butter and ham tea sandwich with this incredible tarty mustard and a turkey and cream cheese tea sandwich. The sandwiches had white bread on one side and wheat bread on the other side.
The first time I went to Podunk, I had a scone served with this gobsmackingly fresh strawberry preserves with mint. I have been an intense mint with my strawberries fan ever since.
But wait, there's still more treats on "The Bonne Femme" that we haven't covered! What is tea without a stack of assorted housemade cookies? The bottom one is the chocolate chip - it is insanely good.
If all that wasn't enough, there's also cake! In one corner, a thick wedge of apple spice cake studded with warm chunks of apple. Balancing out the platter on the opposite corner was a slice of orange chocolate cake with the most decadent orange chocolate ganache topping. To keep with the tea theme, there was a mini scone with strawberry preserves and orange marmalade served in tiny tea cups. There was also a dish of cream for the scone as well.
What was new to me on The Bonne Femme was a small bowl of melted chocolate. There was a bowl of mixed berries and I had my own little mini fondue experience.
I didn't finish everything that was on my tray, but I did eat enough of everything that I started a diet once I came back from New York to shed off a weekend's worth of eating!
There are usually some colorful characters that stop in at Podunk from time to time that make for good people watching and overheard conversations. I have so many stories of all the characters I have come across while sipping my tea.
On this particular day in January, an older man named Joe walked into Podunk for the first time. He was maybe 5 foot 8 inches tall, maybe a little less. He came in and ordered bacon and eggs. Um what? Does this look like a diner? Elspeth, who has heard every wild request in the book, diplomatically steered the gentleman to consider a bacon tart instead. He was quite happy with his tea and tart. He sat at Podunk for maybe an hour, enjoying the warmth on a snowy/slushy/hailing day. Finally, he got up. He had been waiting on a date and she had never arrived. Joe told Elspeth that if she saw a 6 foot 4 inch woman looking for a man named Joe, to let her know he waited an hour for her and then left. He then bought some cookies to go and with a twinkle in his eye said "Cookies are part of a balanced lifestyle."
I stayed a little longer than I had originally planned that day, waiting to see if a 6'4" woman would walk in looking for Joe. She never showed up. On this Valentine's Day, I'd like to think that Joe is somewhere out there embracing his uber-tall lady, enjoying one of Elspeth's chocolate chip cookies. Everyone deserves love and happiness, not just on Valentine's Day but all year round. Remember that.
In addition to stories of colorful patrons, I unfortunately, also have stories of the annoying people who run in thinking Podunk is like a Starbucks. How rude! Some people will just never get it. But for the people who love Podunk, they love it with all their heart. You can spot them if you look closely. It's the people with a blissed out look on their face, who instantly look younger and calmer as they walk in the door. You realize in that moment, that they have successfully shed the chaotic world outside, dropped their stressors and are ready for tea. You look at the person, nod and smile. They nod and smile back. It's like a club with a secret handshake, because you are both people who understand and appreciate the true value of having a warm, safe haven. The world may be chaos outside the front door, but inside it's tea, treats, positive energy and zen. Choose bliss, not stress.
For this Valentine's Day and my 100th blog post for LilyOnTheLam.com, I am happy to share with you information on a place I truly love and enjoy. Life moves very quickly. You have to savor the moments before it all disappears. Love may let you down from time to time, but a good tea at Podunk never will! Happy Valentine's Day to you and a Happy 100th Blog Post to me!
If you are in New York City, please do check out Podunk - an American Tea Room. Your stomach and your stress level will thank you. And tell Elspeth the crazy gal from Tampa sent you. ;-)
For this Valentine's Day, I give you my heart and my 100th blog post.
OK maybe not my heart, but certainly this is my 100th blog post for LilyOnTheLam.Com.
Don't cry - you wouldn't want my heart anyway. It's a festering ball of scar tissue, regret and fury. Ha ha- why don't I write for Hallmark again???
Since I cannot afford roses and chocolates for you all, I had to think about what I could give you that was worthy of both Valentine's Day and my 100th Blog Post. Neon green socks? Hmmm, no.
After much musing (OK 5 minutes worth), I decided to write about a place I truly love. A long time favorite that never lets me down. It is in New York City. I have visited this place each and every time I have been in NYC for the past seven years. It is my oasis in the big city. If you live in New York or are visiting, you absolutely must check this place out.
What place could possibly inspire so much love and loyalty from Lily? Is it foxy Chef Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin? No. (Although I did see him walking on the street in the Fashion District by himself once. It took every bit of my strength to restrain myself from jumping on his back screaming "Je t'aime! Je t'aime!")
Is it Chef David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar? No. (But I do love the Momofuku Ssam Bar, Noodle Bar, Milk Bar, Ma Peche ... sigh... David Chang, you rock.)
Is it Hooters? Um... NO.
The place in NYC that has my love, my heart, my admiration, my loyalty and my money every time I am in town is ... Podunk- An American Tea Room in the East Village. Podunk does not have a website, but the great folks at TheCoffeeBeaners.com have put out a YouTube video that shows you Podunk in all its homey glory. Check out their video! Or better yet, check out Podunk for yourself at 231 East 5th Street near 2nd Avenue, NY, NY 10003. They are open daily from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
When I was a kid, I fancied myself a tortured artist. Not really sure how tortured I was in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota; but I still wore all black and wrote poems about my desolate being. I'd listen to The Replacements' song "Achin' To Be" and know they were singing about me. (Thank you MTV for having the video on your website.)
Side note: don't get me started on how lead singer Paul Westerberg is the most underrated and under appreciated singer-songwriter of the 1980's and 1990's. He's a genius - I wish the size of his success was proportionate to the size of his talent. Grrrr. Like I said, don't get me started!
I was blessed to have an amazing Honors English program in my suburban Minnesota public school. (Thank you Minnesota tax payers!) But our poetry curriculum was more T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," when I was more Rilke, Rimbaud, William Carlos Williams, Kerouac and Baudelaire. I would try to write songs, but as the world's worst songwriter; I found poetry to be easier. I don't know if I was writing good poetry, but it flowed out of me in gushing, adolescent waves.
And after all, everyone needs a passion.
Our state had a literary newspaper with submissions by high schoolers. I had submitted some poems. Some had been accepted, some had been rejected. One day, while day-dreaming in French class; I wrote this poem about a squirrel hopping around a tree. A "What's It All About, Alfie?" type poem about the squirrel. By the time French class was over, I had finished the poem.
It was probably the most commercial, most "Hallmark Greeting Cards" thing I had ever written. I might as well have titled it "Sell Out - a Happy Squirrel Production." It was saccharine, nauseating and trite. I knew it was just the poem that could get published. So off I sent it to the literary newspaper and voila, it was published.
After the initial excitement of being published wore off, I realized I had just aligned my name - my soul, my being, my essence - with a cutesy, trite poem about a squirrel in a tree. A sudden wave of "Sweet Jesus, what have I done?" hit me hard in the face. As an overdramatic, "tortured" artist - had I just sold my soul to the commercial devil? What if I was hit by a bus? Would the Happy Squirrel be my legacy for the ages? The end all, be all of who I was on this Earth? Did I want my entire life history to be synonymous with a HAPPY SQUIRREL?
Ugh! The horror was almost too much to bear.
I should have thrown myself into some gigantic dark undertaking of poetry writing and found my artistic masterpiece! But if memory serves, I never submitted any other poems to this particular literary newspaper after they published the squirrel poem. I think I lost respect for their publishing my trivial poem. Obviously they could not judge proper "art" if they published the squirrel poem! Or maybe I was just lazy. Not really sure there. My revisionist history memory fails me at times.
I never did grow up to be the tortured artist I imagined myself to be. Which is probably for the best, because I like having money to travel all around the world. I also have a hoarders-type obsession with my foofy material possessions, including my beautiful convertible.
I still like to wear a lot of black clothing, but there are more colors in my closet than when I was a kid. And while I haven't written a poem since college, I still love to write. For me, it is my pressure release valve in an uncertain and often times unfair world.
When I first moved to Tampa, Florida, I didn't know anyone. In an effort to make myself get out of the house and see Tampa Bay, I started going to various tea rooms both in Tampa and Sarasota. While I often times forget that Tampa is "the South," the plethora of tea rooms definitely reminds me of where I am. I would take my journal, sip tea and write for hours, undisturbed. It was heaven. Plus I love a good scone!
On a trip to New York City to see as many Broadway shows as I could in a long weekend, I decided to apply my Tampa tea room strategy upon The Big Apple. New York may not be the South, but the city does have a wide array of tea rooms for all tastes. It was in my research of NYC tea rooms that I found a small blurb on Podunk - An American Tea Room in the East Village. Since one of my habitual NYC stops is St. Marks Place in the East Village to shop for cheap costume jewelry and peruse the clothing at Trash and Vaudeville (loves me some Tripp NYC clothing!), I was happy to have another place to check out in the East Village.
So around seven years ago, journal in my bag and a song in my heart (OK maybe no song); I headed to East 5th Street and 2nd Avenue to check out a tea room called "Podunk." And I fell in love with it.
By the way, I bet you were wondering how I would get back to the topic of tea rooms after my detour into Happy Squirrel Land. Trust me, my dear readers, I can go off on mile long tangents and then find my way back home. It's all part of the collective, big story. Now stop doubting me and keep reading! Muchos gracias.
Podunk - An American Tea Room is my definition of achieving zen. When I enter, I feel like I am sloughing off all the crude insanity of New York City and I am in a safe, quiet haven. There is no rushing at Podunk. There are no students/frustrated writers/porn internet viewers clacking away on laptops. There is no free WiFi. In fact, there isn't even a bathroom. (Yes, it is small enough that by NY law, it does not have to have a public bathroom. So pee before you go, people!)
The decor is Midwestern Americana. There are no servers. You peruse the incredibly diverse menu of teas and the accompanying treasure trove of tea treats. You check out the cupcakes and cookies in the case on the counter and you silently whisper under your breath "Cupcake, I am coming for you!" You then place your tea and treats order with the ever kind, ever sweet, ever wonderful, ever sassy Owner Elspeth. Then you sit down and relax. Good food takes time. Don't expect your tea and treats to come flying out of the kitchen.
There is a different time zone at Podunk. No rush rush. I feel like I reset my internal work/life balance clock when I am at Podunk. 80% of the time, I lead my life in a frenzy working for a gigantic international company. So time at Podunk is absolutely like a meditation for me. My frenzied, chaotic clock stops and I get to just relax. No cell phones, no TVs, no laptops. When I enter Podunk, I feel like I am scoffing in the face of all the stressors of life.
I am going to sit here.
I am going to drink some tea.
I am going to eat some of the best tea treats ever.
I am going to write.
I am going to relax.
I am going to just be.
I usually spend several hours lost in the delicious aromas emanating from Podunk's oven, sipping my tea and writing. I remember once I was in New York for work, but I managed to squeeze in a trip to Podunk before I had to head off and catch a train upstate. Unfortunately, I could only stay at Podunk for 45 minutes. Elspeth asked why I was leaving in such a hurry. I love that at Podunk, 45 minutes is "a hurry." I promised to be back the next time I was in town and I have been, each and every time.
When I was last in NYC in January 2012, I braved hail and snow to get to the East Village. Nothing was going to stand in my way of a relaxing tea at Podunk. I unwrapped myself from layers and layers of sweaters, scarves and a thick parka. Going to Podunk is like going home. It is warm, inviting and always makes me happy.
After catching up with Elspeth - I believe she must think of me as that crazy Broadway show-loving gal from Tampa, I decided to go with the coconut and vanilla chai tea. There are so many choices of tea at Podunk. I also love going to Podunk in the summer, because Elspeth serves these magnificently garnished iced teas in giant mason jars. I think for the sake of my blog readers, I will have to go to NYC this summer just to get a picture of the iced tea. (Yeah yeah, if you look at TheCoffeeBeaners.com You Tube video on Podunk, you can see the iced tea also - shhhhhh, you're ruining my rationalization to go to New York this summer!)
It had been a long time since I had last been to Podunk, so I ordered the big mother of all tea treat food at Podunk-- "The Bonne Femme." Podunk's menu has it all - items for people who love savory tea treats, those who love sweet tea treats and for gluttons like me who love it all! "The Bonne Femme" has a little bit of everything. All is made fresh at Podunk and everything tastes incredible. There are some items that are on consistent rotation and other items that just pop up. I have had the Bonne Femme before, but there were some nice new surprises waiting for me this time.
After you order, you sit down, relax and wait. Eventually all of the components of your tea are put together on a tray. Elspeth will call you up to the front counter and you pick up your tray. There is no table service here. At the end of your tea, you return contentedly to the front counter with your tray and pay your bill. Oh and believe it or not, no tipping. Elspeth believes that since there is no table service, there is no reason to tip. I hope in this economy she has reversed her stance on tipping!
After you have paid your bill, I challenge you to try to avoid buying a chocolate chip cookie to go. It's almost impossible to say no to buying several!
The Bonne Femme is so packed with lovely, tasty treats that I photographed it from every angle imaginable.
Sigh - isn't it beautiful? You cannot even imagine the aroma wafting from Podunk's oven and filling the tea room. I imagine it's what heaven smells like - cinnamon, chocolate and doughy goodness.
The Bonne Femme combines both savory and sweet tea treats. The following two pictures show a chai chicken tartlet, a French Onion tartlet and a Spinach Cheddar tartlet. Chai and chicken? Yes and it's incredible. I love the French Onion tartlet because it has all the warm, sweet, richness of a bowl of French Onion soup without the annoying long strings of cheese tugging at your every spoonful. For the Spinach Cheddar Tart, the spinach was fresh and ultra concentrated in flavor. Even in the middle of winter, I felt like I was eating fresh Farmers' Market spinach. All three tarts have a thick crust that I can only poorly describe as a cross between a pie crust and a biscuit. Descriptive words are failing me now!
In the following three pictures, you will see a stack of tea sandwiches, a cheese savory biscuit and a celery seed biscuit. The cheese savory biscuit was like two tons of cheese flavor in a small shortbread-like savory cookie.
To my taste buds' best guess, the tea sandwiches included: a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich, another tasted like butter and either watercress or cucumber, a butter and ham tea sandwich with this incredible tarty mustard and a turkey and cream cheese tea sandwich. The sandwiches had white bread on one side and wheat bread on the other side.
The first time I went to Podunk, I had a scone served with this gobsmackingly fresh strawberry preserves with mint. I have been an intense mint with my strawberries fan ever since.
But wait, there's still more treats on "The Bonne Femme" that we haven't covered! What is tea without a stack of assorted housemade cookies? The bottom one is the chocolate chip - it is insanely good.
If all that wasn't enough, there's also cake! In one corner, a thick wedge of apple spice cake studded with warm chunks of apple. Balancing out the platter on the opposite corner was a slice of orange chocolate cake with the most decadent orange chocolate ganache topping. To keep with the tea theme, there was a mini scone with strawberry preserves and orange marmalade served in tiny tea cups. There was also a dish of cream for the scone as well.
What was new to me on The Bonne Femme was a small bowl of melted chocolate. There was a bowl of mixed berries and I had my own little mini fondue experience.
 |
| ahhh yes, that strawberry is COATED in chocolate! |
I didn't finish everything that was on my tray, but I did eat enough of everything that I started a diet once I came back from New York to shed off a weekend's worth of eating!
There are usually some colorful characters that stop in at Podunk from time to time that make for good people watching and overheard conversations. I have so many stories of all the characters I have come across while sipping my tea.
On this particular day in January, an older man named Joe walked into Podunk for the first time. He was maybe 5 foot 8 inches tall, maybe a little less. He came in and ordered bacon and eggs. Um what? Does this look like a diner? Elspeth, who has heard every wild request in the book, diplomatically steered the gentleman to consider a bacon tart instead. He was quite happy with his tea and tart. He sat at Podunk for maybe an hour, enjoying the warmth on a snowy/slushy/hailing day. Finally, he got up. He had been waiting on a date and she had never arrived. Joe told Elspeth that if she saw a 6 foot 4 inch woman looking for a man named Joe, to let her know he waited an hour for her and then left. He then bought some cookies to go and with a twinkle in his eye said "Cookies are part of a balanced lifestyle."
I stayed a little longer than I had originally planned that day, waiting to see if a 6'4" woman would walk in looking for Joe. She never showed up. On this Valentine's Day, I'd like to think that Joe is somewhere out there embracing his uber-tall lady, enjoying one of Elspeth's chocolate chip cookies. Everyone deserves love and happiness, not just on Valentine's Day but all year round. Remember that.
In addition to stories of colorful patrons, I unfortunately, also have stories of the annoying people who run in thinking Podunk is like a Starbucks. How rude! Some people will just never get it. But for the people who love Podunk, they love it with all their heart. You can spot them if you look closely. It's the people with a blissed out look on their face, who instantly look younger and calmer as they walk in the door. You realize in that moment, that they have successfully shed the chaotic world outside, dropped their stressors and are ready for tea. You look at the person, nod and smile. They nod and smile back. It's like a club with a secret handshake, because you are both people who understand and appreciate the true value of having a warm, safe haven. The world may be chaos outside the front door, but inside it's tea, treats, positive energy and zen. Choose bliss, not stress.
For this Valentine's Day and my 100th blog post for LilyOnTheLam.com, I am happy to share with you information on a place I truly love and enjoy. Life moves very quickly. You have to savor the moments before it all disappears. Love may let you down from time to time, but a good tea at Podunk never will! Happy Valentine's Day to you and a Happy 100th Blog Post to me!
If you are in New York City, please do check out Podunk - an American Tea Room. Your stomach and your stress level will thank you. And tell Elspeth the crazy gal from Tampa sent you. ;-)
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