A few months had passed since we'd gone out for afternoon tea, so M suggested I make a reservation early in the week before places filled up. Of course, I didn't listen and waited until the day before I wanted to have tea to try to find a place that would take us. And, of course, everyone was fully booked. So I made reservations for upcoming weekends and am back on the tea time track!
I've also had some new subscribers lately, so I just wanted to do a quick re-intro to my blog. Seemed appropriate since it's also the beginning of the year. So, without further adieu...
Welcome to my blog! I post about all things tea time, which should include vintage tea cups, but that's rarely been the case. I collect vintage tea cups, but mostly for visual pleasure. Writing about them hasn't been too interesting for me - at least not yet. We'll see if that changes in the future. The focus of my blog has surprisingly turned into a bunch of tea time reviews.
I don't get too many comments and/or questions on my blog, so here are some non-FAQs:
Am I a tea connoisseur?
Nope.
Do I have a refined, sophisticated palate?
I'd like to think so, but in all honesty, let's just say that if you sat me in front of Gordon Ramsay and had me do a blindfolded taste test, I'd probably guess incorrectly more often than not.
Here's the breakdown: I hope that my reviews are fun to read and inspire you to eat super cute tiny afternoon tea food and drink lots of delicious tea. Then go out and buy some beautiful vintage teacups. But at the end of the day, I like what I like - which may not be what you like. Taste (in food, beverage, and eacups) is subjective. And so are my reviews.
Longwinded story short - I'm glad you're here.
| Afternoon Tea At: | | Malaya Tea Room |
| Location: | | Alameda, CA |
| Date Visited: | | January 2020 |
| Tea Selection & Cost (in USD): | | British-Malaya Tea: $57.00 (tea service for 2) |
| The Atmosphere: | | Clean, cozy, and relaxing. About 7 tables total inside. According to their website, the concept is a tribute to the British Malaya era. |
| The Service: | | No one asked if we wanted a refill on either of our teas, but the service was good nonetheless. Everyone was very friendly. |
The Tea:
| | Includes: 2 pots of tea |
:-:
:-: | Malaya's signature Golden Monkey: We wanted to stick to a simple black tea that hopefully had a lot of flavor and depth. It tasted like any other black tea I buy at the grocery store.
Flowering tea (bundle of jasmine wrapped with dried flowers): We couldn't decide on a green tea, so we asked our waitress and she recommended this. It was nice, but I could have just bought numi tea at the store and would have been just as happy. |
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| How cute is this spoon?? |
The Bottom Tier:
| | Includes: 3 finger sandwiches; seasonal salad/crudite |
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:-: | Cute triangle-shaped sandwiches with no crusts. Both of the traditional sandwich options we ordered were good: (1) smoked salmon & chive cream cheese; and (2) ham & brie.
We wanted to try something new, so we also ordered one of the Malaysian sandwich options: (1) bak kwa (pork jerky). I'm not sure what I was expecting when we ordered this, but it's definitely not what we received. The bread had a teeny tiny smidge of mayo on it and a very thin piece of jerky inside - and nothing else - which made it very dry. Granted, the description only said "pork jerky," but it just looked so sad. It was on the sweet side, which I typically don't mind, but this just ended up being a wasted selection. I'd definitely consider coming here again, but will try a different Malaysian sandwich and just eat a pack of beef jerky when I get home if I'm still hungry.
The two little caprese salad skewers were delcious. I have no idea if they did something special to the ingredients, or if it was just super fresh, but I actually liked these better than the sandwiches. |
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| Y said this was yummy, but only ended up taking one bite. |
The Middle Tier:
| | Includes: scones served with clotted cream and lemon curd; savory canapes |
:-:
:-: | Our canapes were a piece of cucumber with some type of salad on top (never figured out what it was) and some fish roe. Something different, and delicious.
The scones were very buttery and a bit on the denser side. They were good with the lemon curd. I wasn't a fan of the clotted cream because it was too heavy for my liking. |
The Top Tier:
| | Includes: an assortment of sweets |
:-:
:-: | The traditional sweets were just okay. I took a bite of each to taste and that was it.
The Malaysian sweets were all pandan flavored. I love all things pandan flavored, so these made up for the other desserts. The gelatin was a good texture and the macaron made me wish I could buy them buy a box full of them. Maybe you can - next time I'll ask. |
| The Parking Situation: | :-: | Street parking. Get ready to parallel park and feed that meter! |
| The Baby Friendly Factor: | :-:
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:-: | High chair? Yes
Special place setting? No
Space for a stroller? No
Changing table? No |
:-: Teatime Tidbit :-:
In 1948, Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya, which included what had previously been British Malaya (9 Malay states and 2 of the British Straits settlements). On August 31, 1957, the Federation became independent. In 1963, the Federation united with Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak Crown Colonies to form what we now know today as Malaysia (except Singapore was later expelled from the Federation in 1965).
Thanks for stopping by.
See you next teatime,
C
