Tea and crumpets...
So, after me last post, I thought I'd cool off with a cup of tea.
Earl Grey, naturally. With milk. And sugar. Preferably raw. (OK, Jane, I've got my order in for National now! No really, I think I can bring the tea and the raw sugar and find milk in Texas, right? For the rest of you all, Jane supplied me with real tea last year at National.)
You know, I've been in search for the perfect crumpet since coming to the States. I don't get it, you can buy them by the bucketload in Australia in the supermarkets, why not here?
The best yet that I've had here is at the Crumpet Shop in downtown Seattle, near Pike's market and all that. Delicious, but when I asked whether they did mail order, they did not because their crumpets were made to be eaten fresh and wouldn't do well in the mail.
I've found a recipe on the internet to make them, but I haven't been game to try it yet. Maybe this weekend...
I do love tea parties -- and I have a number of tea pots (including one that is in the shape of a British mailbox and bright red to boot -- a gift, I hasten to add), tea sets, cute little china stands for goodies, and a few years ago -- too many actually, I hosted a tea party for friends. Here is the menu:
Cucumber, watercress & smoked salmon sandwiches
Spanakopittes (spinach in filo)
English cream tea scones
(with jam, lemon curd, honey, golden syrup and butter or cream)
Chocolate taddies, Carrot Cake & Shortbread
Strawberries
And tea of course.
Note the complete lack of crumpets. (And I didn't make all these myself, puh-leaze. Who has the time? Maybe if Rachael Ray did a 30 Minute Tea Party, I'd take a crack at it.)
I really want to do another tea party. Currently though, my china cabinet is pulled out from the wall, and the china is piled upon the dining table silently telling me that keeping it in a cabinet does not keep it dust free. But now that the leaky window leaks no more, and the floor tiles have been sealed, it can go back.
My favorite tea of the moment though, is chai. I like the Oregon Chai mix as well (liquid as well as powdered) but my dad has made me the real thing too (as was taught him in India, or the ashram or somewhere). Yummy! Other than that, it's good old Earl Grey and that incredible whiff of bergamot.
Oh and nothing beats a Tim Tam Slam. Have you heard of these? Tim Tams are a biscuit (er, cookie) -- two rectangular chocolate cookies with chocolate cream filling sandwiched between them and coated in milk chocolate. Good milk chocolate.
So you bite off one corner and then the diagonal opposite corner, dunk it in your tea and suck. (Heh, and you thought I'd make it through a post without using a four letter word!) You suck until you taste warm chocolately goodness on your tongue and then you shove the entire biscuit (er, cookie) into your mouth, for the thing is melting.
Sheer heaven.
So what's your favorite tea and favorite tea time nibbly?
