Toast & Tea at Tea Station
Here’s one last post about Taiwanese cuisine that I wanted to briefly spout about. Its not necessarily a meal, but more of a late night snack or dessert. Though this place also has entrees, is the desserts, snacks, and drinks that people come for.
Tea Station on Valley was one of the first Taiwanese snack places in the Los Angeles area. They offer all sorts of teas, snacks, and meals. They cater to a younger crowd, since they don’t have alcohol. You could say this place is the Taiwanese Starbucks.
One night, a group of us were here after dinner just to get some snacks and dessert. We ordered the peanut butter toast, mango ice dessert, and few flavored teas.
The peanut butter toast is large thick slice of white bread that is buttered and peanut buttered and then toasted. Though it looks like an oversized breakfast toast with peanut butter, it is one of the neatest things to eat. Its a dessert. The peanut butter is sweet. The toast is dense and crunchy. It is actually quite a treat and fun to eat. You can also order this with jelly, butter, or whatever they have.
The mango ice dessert that we had also was really good. Imagine all the goodness of mangos in all different manners, and that’s what you get with the Mango Ice dessert. This large bowl has shaved ice with mango pieces and scoops of mango ice cream. You won’t find this combination at an American restaurant. Heck, I bet you could build a dessert shop with just this dessert or just Asian desserts. I’ve only had it better in Shanghai, at a Taiwanese restaurant called Bellagio, which had everything I mentioned, plus mango pudding. Mango Pudding is for another epic food adventure episode.
Lastly, we had some teas. Since this place is called Tea Station, part of the Ten Ren chain, we had to have some teas. I don’t remember what my friends had, but I know I always go for my favorite – the Apple Green Tea. Apples and tea somehow go together nicely. Though it can be a little sweet. And I am pretty sure they use an artificial apple flavored sweeter, I really don’t care. It’s pretty good and I like it, and that’s all that matter. Other teas that I suggest are the hot fruit tea and regular unsweetened green tea.
And if you have time, just wander around the traditional tea shop, next to the sit down area.
