After a very long time , me and my good friend Lesley from work were going out and decided to have afternoon tea.Since she'd never tried it and neither did I , we were excited and looked forward to going to the gourmet 'Fiffy and Ally' at Princes Square on my favourite Buchanan street (I fondly call it Bachchan street after my favourite Bollywood indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan ). Its the main pedestrian shopping street in the town centre and Glasgow being the second best shopping capital of the UK after London, shops on this street are charged the second highest rent after London's Oxford Street,no wonder many shops there had to close down during recession times .
Luckily another friend at work remarked that afternoon tea would not be served past 5pm so I panicked and called the cafe to enquire who confirmed that 4.30pm was the last order - so you see, this treat is not really meant for the working class to enjoy once they finish their job -its for the ladies who lunch !Anyhow,Lesley and me were so disappointed as she was finishing work at 5pm and I finished at 4pm as we'd both been looking forward to this for weeks,it was a case of now or never.I decided to be cheeky and show up earlier,order in advance,and wait for her to join me before the cafe closed at 6pm ,which I did (after buying icecream bowls at Poundland) .
You can imagine what level of resistance and self-discipline I had to show cos I had strict orders from Lesley not to touch anything on the cake stand till she arrived .And I had this delectable three tier cake stand in front of me full of sandwiches in the bottom tier,scones on the second , and cakes on the top tier . For half an hour before she showed up , all I could have was my cup of tea while convincing the waiter that I was'nt being stood up or that I was'nt going to finish it all alone .And once she joined me,we totally indulged,though we could not even finish half of the goodies on offer . And we chatted on even after the cafe had shut and they had cleared our table.It was an evening to remember .
I did'nt realise one can hire vintage tea cups,ceramic cake stands,delicate cake plates and unique teapots for hosting your own 'tea party' in your home until my friend did that for her birthday party . There are so many 'tea party ' companies that supply merchandise specific to serving tea and its not really expensive if you compare it to the prospect of buying cake stands,vintage cake plates etc. Not only is it a break from doing the same celebration of restaurant/ cinema/pub/museum/spa but its also better value for money and a ' healthy party ' where you can hope not to be hungover the next day (unless the hostess has been too generous with the champagne and the guests have been too greedy with the cakes ) .
I don't know what it is but I think for us women , having your girlfriends around for tea is like a grown up version of the game of 'Kitchen Kitchen' that we used to play in our childhood. I remember my mom would buy me and my sister small,brown , toy ceramic teapot and two miniature teacups to play with our neighbour's daughters and after a while, it would break but not crush into sharp pieces ,just large chunks that were not so dangerous for children at play . After a while,we'd get another toy and once that broke, another tiny tea-set. We used to be so happy and proud to play with those wee tea sets because we never had a Barbie nor fancied one (till date I cannot related to the Barbie /computer games phenomenon as play for children ).
During our summer vacations in our family farmhouse in Manglore,with my cousin sisters, we used to make a muddy mess with red soil,pretending to be skilled potters .We used to craft small imperfect tea cups and utensils and leave them to dry in the sun on the roof and get scolded by mom for soiling all our clothes all over again with wet earth .It used to be a pleasure to play 'Kitchen Kitchen ' with our dried mini vessels that we little girls had crafted with our own hands though they were brittle and never lasted long .
Perhaps we are reliving our childhood , or maybe its a way to keep warm in the cold rainy climate and to catch up with each other in a sober , fresh state of mind with a little treat of a home baked cake on the side . In India , tea - time is fun because there is always a hot ,filling snack often made at home or bought fresh - like a 'Samosa' (potato pyramid encased in pastry), ' Vada-pav' ,(mini potato burger) 'Veg cutlet'( a veggie version of fish-cakes) .We eat a mini starter in the evening with our aromatic 'chai' when we return home from school or work and have a late dinner after 9pm unlike here in the UK where tea time is often direct dinner eaten when one returns home after work .
My mum-in-law told me that at her wedding,it was her sister who gifted her a whole tea set which is the tradition here and its still in good condition even after 44 years of marriage . Now I am definitely convinced its big girls reliving their childhood memories by gifting each other a reminder of their fun times together as kids even after doing the grown up thing of marriage .
