Orange County’s Largest Multicultural Festival

Coming next Saturday, October 2!
" The Irvine Global Village Festival welcomes more than 13,000 guests to celebrate Irvine’s cultural diversity and experience sights, sounds, and tastes of the world representing upwards of 50 cultures. Guests enjoy the mosaic of music and dance on five stages; immerse themselves in cultural and religious displays; indulge in international cuisine; and shop in the world marketplace. This family focused event tantalizes tots with hands-on art projects, games, puppet shows, and activities in a giant, interactive Kids Village. The event was promoted as the #1 activity to attend in OC by OC Register and was highlighted at the Best Festival for 2009 by OC Weekly."

French Inspired Afternoon Tea

@ The French Bakery: Lafayette, CA. This place is très adorable! It's almost impossible not to feel like a lady when you walk in. Imagine seated in a cozy room right next to the fireplace, with a large velvet chair on the side (see photostream). The walls are painted pink, with vintage frames and pictures. Throughout the bakery, small trinkets are displayed for sale.

This day, I sampled four teas:

• Darjeeling Rose Camellia*: hints of soft rose petals mixed with spice and black tea

• Peach: tasted just like a fresh, ripe peach

• French Breakfast*: hint of chocolate malt and black tea (tasted like hot cocoa when I added milk & sugar)

• Mango: much like the peach, tasted like a fresh, ripe mango!

*teas are imported from France




Their tea set comes with 2 petit fours, a scone, finger sandwiches, and your own pot of tea. The tea stays hot with a small candle underneath the pot. It might not look like a lot of food, but I could barely finish everything. But then again, the whole point of afternoon tea is just to have a few nibbles and chat with friends! 

Dessert...with a view!

Took a trip to downtown Tiburon and came across Bistro 35 Patisserie. You are immediately drawn in by the pastries displayed in the window. As you walk closer towards the back, there is a small seating area that faces the ocean, with the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. The first pastry was a large strawberry tart. The custard inside the tart was very rich and creamy and complemented the strawberries very well. The chocolate almond croissant was light, fluffy, and amazing! The chocolate was not too sweet, which added the perfect balance of flavor in the croissant.

Imported: Burma Superstar

Burma Superstar in San Francisco, is one of three locations in the Bay Area. It was lunchtime and the dishes above are on their 'lunch special' menu. The tea was surprisingly fragrant and soothing, a blend of Jasmine and Green tea.  The Tea Leaf salad (also featured on the Food Network) was a great appetizer. The salad mixes unique ingredients such as sunflower seeds and tea leaves imported from Burma. It's hard to describe the taste, so you have to try it yourself! The Chicken Dahl's curry sauce, made with yellow beans, was rich and flavorful. The chicken was still on the bone, but was very tender and the meat came right off with my fork. The last dish was the Superstar Vegetarian Noodles, which had a hint of tomato and lemon in the sauce. It tasted like a Burmese version of pasta. Try going during lunch to reduce your wait time for a table. The wait during dinnertime can be up to 2 hours, but I guess they make up for it by providing free hot tea while you wait in the cold outside! 

8/30/10 Recently returned to Burma Superstar and tried the Garlic Noodles with Duck: it was too good for my tastebuds. The garlic wasn't too overpowering, and made it oh so flavorful!