User Rating:
Category:
Not right?
by captain oddsocks
Echuca, Australia
August 26, 2005
The newest of the city’s three teahouses is on the ground floor of one of the row of houses on Havelkova Ul. and has three rooms.
The front room is filled with comfortable upholstered furniture and has a large raised platform with cushions. Anybody who wishes to smoke flavoured tobacco through a shisha pipe is directed towards this small front room. The shisha pipe will cost you 85Kc and the 21 flavours on offer include coconut, apple, cinnamon, strawberry and cherry. You must be 18 years of age to partake and you will not find it possible to smoke anything other than the tobaccos offered on the menu. The sales counter and it’s seemingly endless varieties of tea for sale by the gram are in the middle room. There are also two low tables by the counter and a large Buddha watching over the library and chess nook. The library includes books about such things as tea (of course), Japanese gardens, Buddhism and Feng Shui. The back room holds two more round tables and another large raised platform with cushions. The shelves beside the steps up to the platform are for your shoes.
The entire teahouse exhibits an oriental influence. The carpets are all in the Turkish or Persian style, the furniture is of wicker, bamboo or solid unvarnished wood and the lighting is dimmed by the Moroccan shades. The music is kept in the background, and most of it is also from countries to the east.
My favourite tea is the "Tea, Tea, Teas", which is apparently an approximation of the everyday tea served from on the streets of Indian cities. It’s a strong black tea, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and sweetened with honey and condensed milk. Depending on the mood of the teaman, he might serve it with an enthusiastic cry of "chai! chai! chai!" for the full streets-of-Calcutta treatment. The menu suggests that it’s an appropriate tea for reminiscing about past journeys, so IgoUgo journal-writers might like to keep it in mind.
Tea-drinkers with more refined palates might prefer one of the green teas such as Dragons’ Eyes or Tiger Spring (each 85Kc), or The Eyebrows of Wisdom (40Kc). If you’d like a dark tea to aid your digestion after a meal, you might try the earthy Pu Erh Cha (55Kc). If you like the sound of chai, chai chai, but would like a green tea version, Kyoto Kimen is the one for you. Also on the menu are several vegetarian snacks; the baba ganouche and hommous are 68Kc each and the pita breads range from 30Kc for the cinnamon to 48Kc for the Arabian pita with white cheese and olives.
The Dobra Èajovna is open from 1pm-10pm Monday through Thursday, 1pm-11pm on Friday, 2pm-11pm on Saturday and 2pm-10pm on Sunday.
From journal Nightlife in Olomouc, A-K