Vancouver: Tea at the Fairmont Pacific Rim

Blogging sure has been inconsistent around here lately, huh? I'm so behind! I've got a ton of things to talk about (my Flickr is way more caught up) but no time lately! We were just in Chicago over last weekend and although I have exactly one food pic, a highlight of the trip was meeting fellow blogger PopArtichoke! Anyway--that post will have to wait, I am determined to go in order. So, let us hop in the time machine and head back to my Vancouver trip in September....

You probably know by now that I love me some afternoon tea and I am definitely not one to pass up an opportunity to try out a new place! (I have secret plans to work my way through all of the afternoon teas on offer in Vancouver.) This time, we decided to try out the tea at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, which is located at Canada Place. The tea is served in the Lobby Lounge, which is a nice, comfortable space although sadly doesn't have the amazing views of the mountains that you get directly outside (and presumably from the hotel rooms!) We sprung for the champagne tea (can you think of a better way to spend a Sunday? I can't!) and were promptly brought glasses of bubbly, followed by a tea service (and one comment about that to the hotel--get your poor servers some higher rolling carts for pete's sake! These poor ladies were bent double pushing tea carts around.)


So the twist here is that there is a bit of an Asian influence going on; there are "sushi style" offerings in addition to the traditional tea sandwiches. If you look at the top photo you'll see there is even some actual sushi. This prawn and avocado open-faced sandwich wasn't particularly Asian but was pretty yummy!


A play on gunkan-maki, with the sushi rice wrapped in a strip of cucumber and topped with crab and tobiko.


And one of my faves, a truffled egg salad sandwich. I'm not super wild about the flavor of truffles or truffle oil but it was nice here.


And of course, you have to have scones at afternoon tea! These were nice and light, served with cream and sour cherry compote. I really could have put away another scone or two! But I do love the plates they used. Somehow I did not manage to get another shot of the sweets, but if I remember correctly (and it has been a while, I guess!) my favorites were the financier and the lychee and green tea cake.


In closing, here's a bonus shot of some random chips I picked up at T&T. I can now report that the Roasted Chicken one was disgusting! But the spicy one was not too bad. Plus, how can you resist that evil chili pepper face?

Hopefully posting will now be less erratic! I mean, are there even any readers left? Anyone out there? Hellooooo!!