Crown & Crumpet Tea Room, San Francisco, Part II (Picture heavy!)

It's rare that I do a complete 180 degrees turnaround on anything, but in the case of Crown & Crumpet Tea Room I feel I owe it to myself to reflect honestly. Now, I've always had a thing for afternoon tea, but this place officially turned me into an addict, because to get my fix, I come here once a week. Yes, you read that right. Once a week.

My first experience here with hubby wasn't anything special, and I even said so! Their savories were meh, but scones and sweets were excellent. So a couple of weeks later when I was stressed out from work and craved some tea and sweets, I loaded my iPhone Instapaper with a lengthy reading list and came crawling back one afternoon. This time, I substituted the mini sandwiches on the savories plate with an order of the Chicken, Mozzarella, Tomato, and Pesto pressed sandwich from the lunch menu. I also added an order of soup. I was told they serve a different soup every day, and that day's soup du jour was Cream of Chicken and Rice. Fine, I thought I'd try it.

Crown & Crumpet Tea Room, San Francisco

This Crown & Crumpet Tea Room is pretty much right across the street from Japantown's Peace Plaza, on Post Street. I had no idea it was there because its window blinds are always drawn and closed. If it weren't for a cloudy afternoon, I would have never noticed the 3-tiered trays and teapots! I guess a south-facing store front has its drawbacks too... 

Anyway, doesn't this place look like Cath Kidston fantasy land? Hubby argued it was more the Japantown-effect, little does he know they luuurv Cath Kidston over there, so I still blame her ^.^

Nagoya, Aichi

Two weekends ago hubby went on a short weekend trip to Nagoya with 2 of his colleagues to visit a well known professor in their field. Being so spoiled I got to tag along again since I don't mind wandering around by myself while they go do their thing ^.^  

The best part about traveling on the Japanese shinkansen? The specialty bentos, duh! And of course the ride on the Nozomi (the fastest shinkansen service between Tokyo and Osaka) was super duper smooth. The trip from Tokyo to Nagoya took about 1.5 hours, with just one more hour to arrive in Osaka. Awesome, huh?

Hubby's specialty seafood bento from Sendai and my sukiyaki bento.