~ Curious Charlie ~

4th July High Tea @ The Providence Cafe @ Saturday, July 11, 2015

27th June

4th July High Tea. This is the day I think I'm starting to realize as you get older perhaps your dessert stomach reduces in size or if it's even possible it merges into your savory stomach to form only one stomach! Biologically I'm not that old, but in a way I have lived.

We've been to the Providence Cafe before, tram up Elizabeth street and a short walk from the old cemetery near Queen's College (a boarding house) where le beau lived at during his college years. Read all about our last visit in April here.

Not my picture.

Every 4th weekend the Providence hosts a high tea, which is why the 4th didn't happen on the 4th, but the week before. Ideally this post was to be posted on the 4th, but I was busy and that didn't happen. I'm on holidays but it sure doesn't feel like it with all the work and meetings for my committee roles.

Lets begin.

Southern Sweet Ice Tea & Boylan Bottling Co Soda (???)

We started with a sweet tea from the South, perhaps we should we gone with pre civil war dresses. The sweet tea wasn't sweet or as sweet as I like it, but there definitely was the presence of sugar as it was not like normal tea, it was also iced, the way I like my tea.

Soda options were dr pepper cherry and grape fanta. Dr pepper tastes like medication, though this one might not in the same way that grape fanta tastes nothing like fanta, it tastes like a sweet grape soda and I like it. And intend to buy one on the way home. Not sure what happened to the intended supplier here. Though as milkshakes are very 50s and American I was disappointed not to see them feature. But I'm pretty sure that Boylan doesn't own dr pepper and fanta.

Boston Bread Bowl Clam Chowder

Creative ways to serve soup include, using a bun with the inside scooped out like a bowl! I've never ate bread used as a bowl before! Boston chowder, I've never been to Boston though Emma's from there. I've also never had chowder before but I know it's a seafood soup of some sort, best served at restaurants by the sea on the coast. There was a decorative piece of baked fish skin, it was so gross! Within the chowder there was bits of fish and (mussels) or rather clams which were similar in chewy texture though not as tasty. It was quite nice.

Twice Cooked Mac & Cheese Nuggets

This was awesome! I forgot to mention I don't eat pork so there was bits of ham throughout this, though I picked them all out. Mac & Cheese I don't like, though this is great! It's mac & cheese deep fried in a bar. It was so good! Le beau would have loved it!

Waffle & Buttermilk Fried Chicken Stack

The waffle was sweet! Belle does chicken and waffles I've yet to try, so I have nothing to compare this to. The waffle was sweet and dense, but the size was perfect. Fried Chicken, fried in a golden batter, it reminded me of KFC but crispier. I loved this!

Handcut Fries & Onion Rings w Chipotle Mayo

These fries were unlike any I've ever had they had a rustic homemade feel (think texture) to them, thorough left unpeeled these were not wedges. They were perfect. Onion rings were good too, but I have no passion for them. The chipotle mayo sometimes tastes like sweet chili mayo, but not this time. It was hot!

5 & Dime - NY Bagel w Cream Cheese

I think there's something wrong with my bagel. It was so hard I was sawing through it. And it wasn't like bread in a donut shape, it was something much more dense that that. Something went wrong. It was too hard for me to saw in half and we ended up eating it in chunks.

NY Cheesecake

Strawberry Cheesecake, NY Style. Dense and rich. Yum! Not much else to say. Oh, it had strawberries, sliced, on top drizzled with dark chocolate, which I liked too.

Salted Caramel Pecan Pie

This was delicious! The nutty texture with the unsweetened cream on top. Yum! I'd buy this slice on its own.

5 & Dime - S'mores

This is not a S'more. This is a creation that resembles an Arnott's Royal, but without the jam. All you did was use the ingredients a S'more is composed of: the digestive cookie, marshmallows, and chocolate. This is not a S'more. I was disappointed. I was hoping for an experience where we had a mini fire on the table and got to toast our own S'mores. There was nothing wrong with this "S'more", other than it just wasn't a S'more.

Short Stop Doughnuts - PB

A peanut butter doughnut covered in dark chocolate, sprinkled with crushed peanuts. This is the stuff that makes it to instagram. I only had a bit of this, but I recall pb flowed from the inside with a sauce like consistency. It was dense, like a dense cake, a mud cake. I didn't like it, but Andy did. I prefer my donuts light & fluffy with the ultimate donut being the original from Krispy Kreme.

Not sure why, but this came with dessert.

In true American style all the green bits throughout the courses/bites served only a decorative purpose, and there was no salad. :P Some dishes stood out more than others, but overall another very good experience. While last time all but one dish was a hit this time we hit a couple more duds.

Will be be back? Hopefully, if they do a fairytale theme tea! *hint hint*

At $40 I'd definitely recommend this tea (or rather late lunch for us).

And the best part is that you can book for just one!