Hong Kong Phooey

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I have been craving Yum Cha today. Hopefully I will find a Chinese place around here that serves dim sum.

The best Yum Cha I have ever had was in Hong Kong where I visited my dear friend Michelle and her rambunctious cat, the delightful Mr. Pickles.

View from Victoria Peak at night.

The Chinese go to such lengths to present their epicurean delights in beautiful ways. My favourite was the custard filled pastry mice. How clever and unique.

Mice pastries at a Hong Kong Yum Cha.

We also indulged in High Tea at the luxurious Peninsula Hotel, now that was a lush experience. It was the only High Tea I have ever enjoyed to the accompaniment of a live string quartet. British elegance in the middle of a thriving Chinese city, it’s pretty magical to me.

High Tea with Michelle at the Penisula Hotel

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Hong Kong is so bright and colourful. Sampan rides and dinner at the Jumbo floating restaurant are things I hope to do again someday.

Sampan

Jumbo floating restaurant

Hong Kong is famous for the shopping and I was not disappointed. At the Jade market I haggled me some bargains! A lovely onyx and cinabar necklace and a palm sized piece of carved jade.

At the Peninsula Hotel I did a bit of shopping at the Tiffany store and even found a very unique and large piece of carved Turquoise, my birthstone, in one of the jewelery stores on site. Beautiful bargains make Hong Kong one of the best places for shopping.

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High Tea Hijinks.

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

Henry James

My lovely neighbour came over to visit me today and to enjoy High Tea. She is such a delightful lady and is amazingly spritely for someone 88 years old. Not able to get out and about as much as she would like, I decided to create a high tea for her at my home.

The Colonel was off to a gun show, (wonder if he will come home with a Micro Uzi for me), so it was up to us fancy ladies to have a fancy afternoon tea.

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I generally prefer to take my tea in sumptuous surrounds and with someone else doing all the hard work, but I did my best to create my own, and might I say, none to shabby high tea.



There were cucumber sandwiches cut into the shape of a map of Australia which I thought were particularly delicious, what a lot of whimsy! I did cheat and buy the petits fours though. I simply am not able to make such delicious little fancy cakes. Way too fiddly for someone so ADHD like me.

Hello Aussie! Cucumber sandwich shaped like Australia. Crikey.

"Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone."

Hilaire Belloc

Tea for two

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I finally found somewhere in Tampa to have High Tea. It seems there are a few tea houses around town. Nothing as grand as the Windsor, but there is a very cute place called Tea Rose Cottage.

Situatied in the old historic part of town, it's a shabby chic oasis. All white and pink, chandeliers and floral porcelain.

I dragged the Colonel along to share in the dainty delights, but he was a bit taken aback when he saw the pink confection setting he had been placed into. He looked like a nervous pig on the way to the slaughter house when he sat down surrounded by all those chintzy patterns. The other patrons were all ladies, and unfortunately we could hear them blathering on about all kinds of tedious stuff, so incredibly banal, it did nothing to make him feel less out of place.

Fortunately the tea arrived and our attentions were diverted. I had a pot of Tea Rose tea which reminded me of Turkish Delight, something I can't get here. The three tiered stand soon arrived full of delectable goodies.

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The scones however were an utter disappointment. I found that they were not in fact scones, but some heavy, very sweet kind of cake instead. I told the waitress how much nicer it would be with proper scones to which she replied that Americans don't like plain scones, they want sweet ones. Well, that is not too surprising. As one can see from an earlier post on fashion, the portly are truly at home here, and it would figure that sweet scones are prized over plain ones. There is just no accounting for some taste's.



Fortunately I have an excellent scone recipe, thanks to my sister Carla. For anyone who is not a fan of the sickly concotion some here unfathomably call scones, I have included the recipe.





In the USA it is pronounced S-cone, as in stone. For goodness sake people, It's a scone, as in gone. Fact.

Scones

Sift 2 cups of SELF RAISING flour into a bowl

Pour in small container of cream, (remove half for whipping)

Top up container with milk, shake and add to flour

Mix with a knife, butter knife is perfect.

Turn out onto floured surface, roll out and cut into circles.

Place on lightly floured tray.

Bake 15 mins in 180 C oven.

Brush tops with milk.

Sometimes I use all cream but a variation is to use 150 ml of cream and 150 ml of milk.

Dates or sultanas can also be added.