Monday, September 17, 2007

Mad for Tea Parties!

This last Sunday was a cool, wet day and my friends had the foresight to throw a classic "High Tea" teaparty at their cozy house! Totally worthy of honourable mention on this food blog.

All the guests were invited to bring a "tea food" and a tea they thought would nicely complement their food offering. I experimented with making sour cream-dill scones (you can google the recipe, but it wasn't outstanding--although the party host has informed me that they are excellent toasted!) and brought an earthy Pu-Ehr tea from "Steeps" on Laurel and Broadway. That place amazes me--it's like Disneyland for your nose (minus the politics).

So we started with the savoury dainties of aforementioned scones, crustless cucumber sandwiches and salmon-caper rolls. In addition to my Pu-Ehr tea, we sipped on Earl Grey. We then cleansed our palates with sparkling wine...I'd highly recommend this addition to any tea party. We finished off with sweet yummies...plum squares and selections from the Chinese Bakery. These were accompanied by the teas of Vanilla Rooibos, Tokyo Rose and we finished off with some berry blends. The whole experience was enhanced by lively conversation, a roaring fire, and the men busting out velvet dinner jackets. I look forward to more of these to warm up the upcoming winter months!

3 comments:

claire said...

Oooh, sounds lovely and very civilized, especially the velet jacket part. Gotta get me one of those.

Lunatrix said...

It was very civilized indeed!! I should also mention that between sip of tea and bite of cucumber sandwiches we treated the issue of European monarchies and how the Queen of England dealt with the death of Diana... Absolutely decadent, darlings!

Alex Aylett said...

The secret, you see, is to cut the cucumber with a potato peeler. Shocking I know, and so plebeian, but then you get this thin translucent slices... almost like glass glistening against the rays of the autumn sun. An epiphany of Cucumis sativus.