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Food porn: Afternoon tea.
Thank heavens for governmental clinics following government holidays, because after my non-restful weekend I was so ready for a day off today.
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helygen's in town, and we had decided that we wanted to spend a little time together one-on-one. We went to Finnerteas, a tea shop in Hampden I'd been wanting to try ever since kazoogrrl (I think) posted about going there. It's a comfortable little shop, done in a sort of celery green color, with outrageous old hats hanging on the walls. The teacups and saucers are mismatched antiques, and very pretty.
They have four levels of tea service - we decided to go for the full afternoon tea with all the bells and whistles. We each chose a pot of tea from their 22 varieties - I chose a Ceylon Black tea, andhelygen chose a South African Red Bush tea. (Oh! Googling for it, I see that it's the same thing as Rooibos, which I know that therealjae's mentioned before.) My tea was a very good example of a simple black tea, but I liked helygen's better. It had a lovely malt-y scent, and reminded me of touring whisky distilleries in Scotland. The tea was served in coffee presses, which I'd never seen done before. They worked so well for tea that now I'm considering buying one.
They brought the food out in three stages. First we were each served two tiny scones, full of plump raisins and, according to the hostess, fresh from the oven. With them came little glass dishes of jam and clotted cream. Then we got a plate of the most adorable tea sandwiches ever: tiny little things, again, with crustless bread cut into interesting shapes. Shrimp salad, and chicken salad, and bits of turkey with cranberry sauce, and cream cheese topped with a few bitsy slices of grape tomato and a dusting of bacon shavings, and cream cheese topped with a cucumber slice cut into the shape of a flower, and a little bit of watercress rolled up in a rolled-flat bit of bread, and a truly amazing thing that was cream cheese topped with slightly bitter marmalade topped with two tiny mandarin orange sections. And a hot puff pastry filled with sausage. I know this sounds like an amazing number of sandwiches, but they were tiny, honest. One or two bites each.
Finally, a plate of desserts, all, again, tiny. A little tartlet filled with cherries in syrup (I lethelygen have mine), a bit of sponge cake covered in chocolate which was way better than it looked as if it was going to be, a shortbread cookie ditto, a lace cookie, and three more mandarin orange segments. Mmmmm.
Everything was delicious, but I confess that I'm also a huge fan of anything miniature. The littleness brought our meal that last step towards perfection.helygen and I realized with pleasure that we'll have to go back at least ten more times so we can sample all of their teas. Yay.
helygen's in town, and we had decided that we wanted to spend a little time together one-on-one. We went to Finnerteas, a tea shop in Hampden I'd been wanting to try ever since kazoogrrl (I think) posted about going there. It's a comfortable little shop, done in a sort of celery green color, with outrageous old hats hanging on the walls. The teacups and saucers are mismatched antiques, and very pretty.They have four levels of tea service - we decided to go for the full afternoon tea with all the bells and whistles. We each chose a pot of tea from their 22 varieties - I chose a Ceylon Black tea, and
helygen chose a South African Red Bush tea. (Oh! Googling for it, I see that it's the same thing as Rooibos, which I know that therealjae's mentioned before.) My tea was a very good example of a simple black tea, but I liked helygen's better. It had a lovely malt-y scent, and reminded me of touring whisky distilleries in Scotland. The tea was served in coffee presses, which I'd never seen done before. They worked so well for tea that now I'm considering buying one.They brought the food out in three stages. First we were each served two tiny scones, full of plump raisins and, according to the hostess, fresh from the oven. With them came little glass dishes of jam and clotted cream. Then we got a plate of the most adorable tea sandwiches ever: tiny little things, again, with crustless bread cut into interesting shapes. Shrimp salad, and chicken salad, and bits of turkey with cranberry sauce, and cream cheese topped with a few bitsy slices of grape tomato and a dusting of bacon shavings, and cream cheese topped with a cucumber slice cut into the shape of a flower, and a little bit of watercress rolled up in a rolled-flat bit of bread, and a truly amazing thing that was cream cheese topped with slightly bitter marmalade topped with two tiny mandarin orange sections. And a hot puff pastry filled with sausage. I know this sounds like an amazing number of sandwiches, but they were tiny, honest. One or two bites each.
Finally, a plate of desserts, all, again, tiny. A little tartlet filled with cherries in syrup (I let
helygen have mine), a bit of sponge cake covered in chocolate which was way better than it looked as if it was going to be, a shortbread cookie ditto, a lace cookie, and three more mandarin orange segments. Mmmmm.Everything was delicious, but I confess that I'm also a huge fan of anything miniature. The littleness brought our meal that last step towards perfection.
helygen and I realized with pleasure that we'll have to go back at least ten more times so we can sample all of their teas. Yay.