The Duck Has a Real Afternoon Tea

I have become a bit of a tea-drinker over the last few months.  It’s silly, really, but it’s become a little bit of an obsession, especially lately.  Why it suddenly occurred to me that I was in dire need of some fine china, I have no idea, but I did.  I ended up scouring my local stores-that-sell-stuff-like-that, and I managed to find one that sold several designs of bone china (it sounds creepy, but they are quite nice) teacups and saucers.  I feel rather silly about the whole thing, as I am not normally the type for frilly things.  I play Halo, darn it.  And own a Keyblade.  But, those teacups were too great to pass up and now occupy a special shelf in the kitchen, after I cleared away the ugly cups.  I have yet to locate any fancy plates, however, or those three-tiered thingies, but I suppose I have a head start in my bizarre road to poshness.

Furthering the posh, I went to my very first (and probably last) real afternoon tea.  I was looking into tea rooms in my area, and the best one I found was over an hour away.  An hour.  And yet, it would seem I was desperate, as I actually drove all that way to try a real tea, that doesn’t include my completely un-posh chicken sandwiches with, cough, taco cheese.  (They’re really good, though.)

I tried very hard to be posh, which isn’t easy, as I’m really not, as I tried the goodies on my three-tiered tray (that I can’t seem to find anywhere to procure for my own place!).  First off were the tiny sandwiches, a staple of such an event.  Salmon and cream cheese, chicken with nutmeg, and cucumber.  The salmon rather…um, creeped me out.  The cucumber was better than I expected.  And the chicken was good.  Because chicken is always yummy.  The next tier had scones with clotted cream (it sounds gross, but it really is just like light butter) and some really good strawberry jam.  (The best jam since the jams they have at Denny’s.  Seriously, I love Denny’s grape and strawberry jam.)  The last tier had the best things, the little pastries, such as a tiny chocolate cupcake, a chocolate-covered strawberry (I never had one before, but it was tasty), tiny carrot cake, purple meringue (also good, but I wasn’t a fan of the lemon filling), and some other lemon thing that looked good, but was too lemon-y.

So, that was basically my first afternoon tea, and it will likely be my last, as I don’t plan on driving that far again.  It was a lot of fun, though, and now my kitchen is equipped with my new teacups, so I can now have an afternoon tea at home.  I really should try some new recipes, though.  Taco cheese and canned chicken is really not posh at all….

Ducks Were Never Destined for Poshness