On Korean tea houses

I had a pretty heavy hankering for shaved ice during finals week.
I knew the only way to dispel it was to have shaved ice.
So, dragging Yannan and Karen in my chic self-sliding Honda Odyssey, we trekked off into the boondocks of Korea town. We stumbled upon (thanks to Yelp) this hidden Korean tea house. We knew we had ventured far from our Westwood abodes when we drove over six potholes and glanced at a cautionary poster with a surveillance screenshot of a black man with text written above reading, "Beware of this man."

We entered sheepishly, from the back entrance, and were met with the smell of Korean car freshener. A soft spoken middle-aged Korean woman wearing noticeable black eye-liner greeted us. She allowed us to choose where we wanted to sit, and gasped in pain when we did not take off our shoes before mounting the tea platform. We shamed our ancestors in that millisecond of American assimilation, but Karen and Yannan quickly recovered.

With such poise and elegance they drink their imaginary teas.


Perusing the menu, we found "Sa-Rang Tang" tea, which was recommended for couples, potential couples or those looking. . . (which pretty much covers everyone, doesn't it?) What would such a tea accomplish for couples? Herbal viagra? Truth-telling tea? Tolerance tea?
Intriguing, but we decided to pass.


Onto the real deal! Korean shaved ice.
It's not Taiwanese shaved ice, but it'll do.
There are no decent shaved ice places near Westwood, it's pretty appalling.
This itty bitty bowl was around 7.50.
That's kind of steep, but the atmosphere and company was nice :)








It probably would have been in our favor had we been Korean, alas, this was not the case, and we might as well have been Black. Three Chinese girls in a Korean establishment equals a great amount of awkwardness, but it did make a good break during finals week :)