HWA SUN JI, LA KTOWN
Saturday, April 23, 2016
After a I-did-not-know-my-stomach-could-stomach-that-much-food kind of meal, you wonder what the next logical thing to do is. And that is, of course, to take a walk to make enough room for part two of your late, late, lunch, in order to enjoy afternoon tea.
So we took a walk (for a good half hour maybe), where, under the hot LA sunshine, our feelings of itis was elevated even more so than before, and stopped by this tea house in hopes of resting to prepare ourselves for the 36 hour hackathon to come.
When you need something thirst quenching (and this is for the kind of thirst that resides in your throat), this Korean sauna/bathhouse staple drink is pretty damn refreshing. And because you're at a tea house and not a jimjilbang, it's served with slivers of ice in a bowl, and a wooden spoon. It's made with fermented rice, and reminds me of the barley/rice/soy sweet drinks back in Malaysia. Slightly to sweet for my liking. Good
Never understood how people could ever have shaved ice with syrup and find it so delicious now - though back as a child (who am I kidding, I'm still a child) I'd shave my own ice and drizzle of cherry red and berry blue syrups and be all happy in my own little summer bubble - because after bingsoo, you'll want to always have ten thousand toppings on your shaved ice. Including, but not limited to: condensed milk, endless fruits, red bean, kinako, ice cream, mochi, crisps, whipped cream, brown sugar syrup... Good
I thought, okay, green tea can't be that different - I know there's matcha and the leafy green tea and so all the other types of green tea that isn't powder must fall under the latter flavour profile, right? How foolish of me to think that way. This was so good I even went to David's Tea to order it when I came back to Canada. The cup houses a tea filter, and a mini kettle of hot water is kept with you so you can continuously enjoy a cup of steeped tea.
You also get a never-ending serving of seaweed crackers. And a cup of roasted rice tea to bid us farewell
So extremely relaxing, we almost ended up taking a nap here. We had the whole place to ourselves, save the ahjumma who took good care of us, and there was a mini waterfall. She told us that this place isn't as popular during afternoons as it is after dinnertime.
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| Rose tea |
So I came here again on a weekday night (after a different kbbq), and it was extremely busy, as ahjumma had said. Young and old people come here, but mainly only Koreans. I've been blessed with living with a Korean family for 4 months that I can get by as a Korean, but there is also an english menu, and when language fails, you just need to point to what you want.
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| Science Museum |
Everyone! Mucho good night
Have a mucho good dreams!
Have a mucho good sleep!
Have a mucho good sleep!
Mucho!... (and other mucho - prefixed things)
All the bus patrons were smiling and so were we.
