Thursday, October 18th - Tea/Tee Caddie/Caddy Cozie/Cozy ... Get Out Your Thesarus, Strainers and Loose Leaf, There's a Doings Transpiring at the Gardenview Lounge!
Pointless interruption: More words I really like: Dirigible; Lickspittle, Supercilious; Wonky...
thanks for reminding me, Sunny; Unctuous
thanks to those pretentious WI cheesemakers; Banality; Logy.
End pointless interruption...
Thursday could have gone down in the annals of Jay and Brenda's Gastronomic Rapacity as the worst day ever, but we decided that allowing one sub-par experience to ruin our food-fun would be silly. And mah-gawd...was it ever hot that day. I'm talking steamy, sticky, now-we-remember-why-we-never-visit-Florida-in-the-summer-anymore heat. It just sapped the food-angst right out of us.
We decided to spend the morning at MGM but were again side-smacked by the crowds - where did all of these people come from? We gave up after one attraction and decided that our time could be better spent at the pool - this was a wise decision my friends and much better than standing in line with the sweaty, crabby masses which definitely included us.
Besides, as part of our unofficial WDW vacation / marriage contract, we had a reservation for afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian. Jay is really a good guy - he knows how much I like to indulge my girlie side by doing stuff like this and he always lets me and he never complains. In return, he knows that I will order some special little something(s) from the Grand Floridian bakery to be delivered during tea and which would probably induce an immediate sugar coma in anyone suffering from diabetes.
Our ADR was for 2:20PM; I have learned that it's best to have an earlier reservation for tea - not only do you have more time to enjoy the offerings, but there are more of them to choose from and they are fresh. And by fresh I mean that they haven't been sitting out all afternoon. Jay and I are true gluttons when it comes to afternoon tea...
cue sarcastic audience response: Oh no, surely not the two of you? We always order the grand tea, which for $25.50 per person includes a selection of dainty tea sandwiches, scones and jam tarts with a
yummy, thick Devonshire cream spread, followed by a choice of freshly baked tea pastries, strawberries and cream, or English trifle. All of this bounty is accompanied by a choice of tea and a lovely glass of Domaine Ste. Michelle champagne. Does mid-afternoon life at Walt Disney World get any better than this?
I think not.
We checked in at the podium where I was sure to mention that I had pre-ordered some special items to be delivered at the end of our "official" tea. Please, everyone, never forget to bring your confirmation numbers with you for something like this. The CM at the podium didn't have any information about our special order but once I gave her the confirmation numbers she miraculously fished it out of the WDW Dining Special Order Vortex, thus saving us from a potential disaster that would have had me shedding enough tears to leave the Gardenview Lounge with a miniature saltwater pool.
We were seated at a cozy little table for two and given the menu as well as the tea chest. There were twelve different labeled glass bottles with tea leaves in them, the idea being that you can experience the aroma of the tea before making a selection.
Hootie McBewb flashes the Gardenview tea chest
Although I always choose Chamomile tea, I really enjoyed "testing" the other tea varietals before we placed our order. There were some teas that were described in such a way on the menu that I was tempted to try something new, but when I caught a whiff of their aromas I was turned off. Many of them smelled too strongly of florals or spice, and I knew that I wouldn't care for that kind of tea. I'm boring when it comes to hot tea - I either choose an English Breakfast tea or Chamomile.
Chamomile, by the way, is an herbal tea which is caffeine free and in some circles is believed to have medicinal properties. I don't know how true that is, but I can tell you that when I start to have issues with the internal plumbing a cup of Chamomile tea seems to soothe the gurgling, parasitic twin within. It is described as follows on the lounge's tea menu: A tranquil and calming herbal infusion of sweet and fragrant golden chamomile blossoms combined for a mild and sweet taste; a soft and musty aroma combined with a smooth, apple-like finish.
Brenda's Chamomile tea in a ... French Press???
Whaaaaaaaat? Where is my fat little Victorian teapot? I can't dazzle Jay with my rendition of
I'm a Little Teapot without it.
I'm a Little French Press just doesn't scan - you English majors and poetry lovers know of what I speak.
I was disappointed, I admit it. There's no romance in pouring hot tea from a French Press; aesthetically speaking it leaves me cold and detracts from the overall ambience of the tea table. And it eliminates the need for those burgundy velvet tea cozies with the gold tassels of which I am so fond. I asked our waitress about it and was told that a decision had been made to serve most teas in the French Press because it cut down on the amount of tea leaf floaties that ended up in guests tea cups. And I did find that she was correct - pouring the tea from the press through the tea strainer into my cup did result in fewer floaties than in years past, but I never really minded the floaties in the first place. I guess I'm just a traditionalist when it comes to afternoon tea, but I want a teapot. It seems more authentic and feels more romantic - what would the 7th Duchess of Bedford say if she knew that "traditional English afternoon tea" was being served without a sturdy China teapot???
Enough about that.
Jason chose Jamaican Spice for his tea selection, which is described as: A zesty herbal infusion with red liquor and a bouquet of flavors, tartness of hibiscus and sweetness of cinnamon for a sweet, tangy, and spicy finish.
Hey Mon, it's zest-tea!
Jay is much more adventurous than I am when it comes to trying new teas. I have to admit that the tea leaves for this blend smelled really good and I think the color once it's finished steeping is just lovely, but the taste was too overpowering for me - way too spicy and strong.
I like my hot tea sweet and milky, by the way. Jason sometimes will drop a sugar cube into his tea, but that's about it. This next picture sums up my tea drinking perfectly. Does anyone here remember that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Pete Puma keeps trying to corner Bugs and eat him for dinner? There's a running gag about Bugs asking Pete how many lumps of sugar he wants in his coffee or tea and Pete always says "Oh, three or four," only to get bashed over the head by Bugs with a mallet. At the end of the cartoon Pete says this:
You better give me a whole lotta lumps...
And then he proceeds to bash himself over the head with the mallet while Bugs watches him.
Have I just dated myself by bringing up a Bugs Bunny cartoon that was originally filmed in 1952? When I was a wee lass Bugs was one of the only decent cartoons on TV in the mornings before I left for school. And it wasn't until I watched those same cartoons as an "adult" that I caught a lot of the humor. So subversive ... so pun-ey ... so downright silly ...
Ahem.
Now, it's time for a poorly photographed selection of sandwich wedgies.
Bread and tasty flavored paste-fillings
We each received a plate of five sandwich wedges, a slice of cold pate', and a minature onion tart. The sandwiches from left to right were cucumber with watercress, egg salad, shrimp salad, chicken salad, and gorgonzola with grilled pear. Each one, as you can see, is served on a different type of bread with the crusts cut off. Ooooh, how grade school - perhaps my Bugs Bunny reference isn't so out of place after all!
I traded my pate' and onion tart to Jason for his egg salad wedgie. I think I also gave him my grilled pear-gorgon in exchange for some extra shrimp wedgie. We thought all the little wedges were tasty and provided a nice variety that paired well with both teas. I didn't like the pate' or the onion tart, but Jay said they tasted very good and he was happy to ingest extra servings of both.
Who doesn't like champagne at 2:30 in the afternoon?
One reason I love the Grand Tea is that it includes a glass of bubbly. I don't know about the rest of you, but my typical afternoon does not include a break for tea or anything else for that matter. It is filled with the drone of printers and the endless clicking of keyboards punctuated by the ocasional sneeze or emphatic curse. It might be much more tolerable with bubbly, but the Soulless Dominions of Finance frown upon that kind of thing. I guess what I'm trying to say is that glass of champagne with afternoon tea sums up vacation for me - it's lively and exhilarating and fun-filled and maybe even a little naughty because, to quote the Grimace, "you shouldn't drink before dinner - people will think you're a lush."
Well mommy-of-mine, I'm a lush because I ordered a second glass!
Once we finished eating all of our sand-wedgies we were each given a scone and a jam tart. The scone is a light biscuit with golden raisins baked into it - I always slice mine in half and smear it with the Devonshire cream that we forgot to photograph. And then I smear jam (see that tiny little jar on the plate?) all over the cream. And then I stuff the whole artery-clogging thing into my mouth and savor the sinful flavors. The jam tart is also quite tasty smeared with cream, but on this ocassion the crust was just a bit too dry. Thank goodness for champagne.
Tart and Scone ... sounds like a bad English romance novel, doesn't it?
Here's a picture of the Grand Floridian lobby, which was directly behind me. I actually liked having the lobby to my back - once the orchestra began playing we could hear everything perfectly and that helped improve the overall atmosphere in the lounge, which had been suffering from a noticeable lack of teapots.
Pretty...
And now, for Lori ... I do hope she's reading because I did remember her comment about taking a picture while wearing the pope-hat tea cozy. My initial problem - no teapot means no tea cozy - was soon rectified when I noticed a stash of cozies to my left, hidden behind a decorative pillar. However, since it wasn't actually
my tea cozy and I had no way of knowing when it might be called into service, I decided to practice good hygiene by not placing said cozy directly on top of my head.
The coronation is at hand ...
I look like a human version of Crown Royal.
And please, no comments about the sausage-link arms - I'm working on trimming the fat as fast as I can.
When first dessert rolled around, we had to choose between the English Trifle and the Tea Pastries...no strawberries and cream? Wah!! Knowing that our special order would be coming soon, I advised Jay that the prudent choice would be the pastries. And in truth, the trifle was pretty gross the last time we tried it. We were each allowed to choose two pastries from a big, silver, triple-tiered serving dish that must have been ridiculously heavy for our server to lift up and carry over to our table.
I'm a sucker for the cream puff swans, so I picked one of those and some other sort of cakie that I think might have been a raspberry cream-filled giant petit four. Only that thing on my plate is really more of a triangle and most petit fours are squares ...
Chocolate-filled swan and mystery cake
Jason chose the chocolate eclair and a violently purple square of something we were told was a blueberry mousse cake. The eclair was as good as anyone would expect it to be - how can you go wrong with chocolate, puff pastry, and cream filling?
**Note to self - revisit your comments about the Boardwalk Bakery and their eclairs.**
This cake tastes like purple
We both tried the blueberry thingie, but all I got out of it was intense sweetness. Hey, I can suck on a sugar cube if all I want is sweet. Where's the blueberry? Or, since we're so close to Halloween: Where's the Boo-Berry?
Jason maintains that the blueberry flavor was there all along and he thought this was the best pastry out of all four that we picked. Me ... I liked the swan the best.
And now, second dessert ... and third dessert, which together would have covered the cost of at least one more grand tea. But it was my unbirthday and I really wanted a cake and I just love ordering stuff like this from the Grand Floridian.
Miniature Cinderella's Castle Cake
Cinderella's Slipper Dessert
When I ordered the cake I was given the choice of chocolate or vanilla, and opted for vanilla all the way. So the cake itself was vanilla with a vanilla cream filling and covered with vanilla buttercream. The castle cake-topper was hollow white chocolate. It was the perfect size for two people to share and it tasted divine - a wonderful combination of light, moist cake with sweet, intense vanilla cream. If the Grand Floridian bakery staff put that much care into a miniature cake I can't wait to order a full-size one some day.
As for Cindy's slipper - that is a white chocolate slipper filled with vanilla mousse and dotted with four raspberry buttons. It also comes with a dark chocolate tear-drop filled with milk chocolate mousse. Eating this dessert can result in spontaneous toe-curling for hours afterwards.
Ordering both of these was probably a bit too much, even for Jay and me, but it's not like we get to stuff our faces with these kinds of delectables every day. And it's vacation ... all the rules get tossed out the window!
The sugary remnants of dessert
I must offer an extra "thank-you" to the staff at the Gardenview Lounge, who actually delivered the cake with a little candle in it so that I could make a birthday wish. They gave me a birthday tiara and a long-stemmed pink rose. I gave the tiara to a little girl who was waiting for the monorail while we were heading back to the Beach Club - it looked a heck of a lot better on her than it did on me! But I kept the rose because I love pink roses - they're so delicate and pretty.
Although we were replete to the point of satiety, we stopped to pose for a picture during our waddle back to the resort. Would you believe me if I told you that we still ate dinner later in the evening?
Remorseless Eating Machines
Thanks so much for reading - I hope you all enjoy this update. Our next stop will be Oodles of Spoodles!
It's not as if the money was coming out of her pocket by throwing ithem out and making you new ones
It sounds like there are enough great restaurants in Vegas to keep you both happy but I'm a little sad that you're straying from our beloved WDW
Don't like it so much that it becomes your new favorite vacation destination
