Tea and cakes and things I like

This is the breakfast of a girl who has just got herself a new job.
A nice big cup of hot tea, a very chocolaty chocolate croissant, and an innocent smoothie (strawberry and banana) because I ate very, very badly yesterday, and feel I should have some fruit.
Mmmmmm.

Oh my, what a day Saturday was. Somehow the Dublin Riots passed me by, despite being in the city centre relaxing over lunch with a friend while cars were being torched 5 minutes walk away on Nassau Street.

We had tickets for the cinema that night, and the plan was to stay in town until then, but there was a bit of an edge to the place, and a banger being set off just in front of us on Grafton Street put the wind up me a bit (yes, I am a coward). So, we headed to a local safe house for tea and knitting and a bit of rugby before heading back into the city centre to the cinema.

Anyway, we went to see The Proposition as part of the Jameson International Film Festival, and it was excellent. I highly, highly recommend the film. It’s sort of an australian revenge western. The director, John Hillcote, and John Hurt were there for questions afterwards, which was pretty fucking cool, I have to say.

Anyway, I’d been too full at lunch to have any cake, so I decided to make up for it with an ice cream at the cinema (Cineworld, up on Parnell St). This was an interesting ice cream. The Caramel Crisp is caramel ice cream wrapped in a caramel coating (sort of hard, like choc-ice coating texture, but caramel). So far, so good. Deliciously cool, creamy and sweet.

Unfortunately, in their wisdom, the good people at Haagen-Dazs decided to add wafer to the top and bottom of the caramel coating.
Now, this may sound ok, but the wafer breaks differently to the caramel coating. This means that sometimes you get some wafter in your mouth, sometimes it just falls off and lands in your lap. That’s just the way it goes, I guess.

I was treating myself to a bagel from Itsa Bagel for lunch (The Gormet Veggie, will review this next time), and decided to double the treat and have some carrot cake for dessert.

This cake was so close to being good. To describe it properly I will need to break it down into two parts: The Cake and The Icing

The Cake
The cake part was tasty. I like to taste the cinnamon, and there was plenty of it there. The cake was sweet and spongy, rather that carroty and wholesome, but I can live with that. There’s space for both types of carrot cake in my life. Unfortunately the cake part was too crumbly - breaking off bits with my fingers proved unsuccessful - it just caused the sponge to disintegrate and crumbs to explode all over the floor. Once I’d cleaned up the worst of the crumbs I tried again - the only way to eat it was to pick it up in the cling film and cram it in my mouth. No, really, it was the only way to eat it.

The Icing
I love the cream cheese icing that comes with carrot cake. I was really impressed by the cake:icing ratio here. However. This was not cream cheese icing. This was cream cheese with a hint of lemon. Somebody forgot the icing sugar. Icing on carrot cake should be really, really sweet, to complement the carroty wholesomeness of the cake. This was not the case. I left most of the icing. Scraped it off the top. This is unheard of and something I was not happy about doing. In fact, I think I’m still recovering from having to do it.

Overall this was a let down. The addition of bags of icing sugar would have made it delicious, but it was not to be. I will not be buying it again.

A little while ago some friends and I had a rather long (looking back on it now) conversation about how things might be in a biscuit based society. You can find a summary of the conversation here and I recommend having a read. Any comments on which of the views you feel most likely appreciated (especially if you agree with mine)

(For general buiscuit related news I of course suggest you visit a nice cup of tea and a sit down.)

Only in Japan of course, but a company has been selling cakes that look like burgers so that people who are embarrassed to be seen eating a cake in the street can do so, and fool everyone into thinking that they are eating fast food instead.
This is all wrong. It is not shameful to eat cake. In public, in private, with your friends, alone: there is no time when it is not acceptable to eat cake. (actually, I can probably think of a few, but you get my point).
I’d be more embarrassed to be seen eating a burger in public than a cake.
They do look quite clever though.

Yummy. I prefer regular kitkats, but the chunky ones are good too - more of a chocolaty hit than a gradual meltyness.

Horrid, nasty, burnt coffee. That is all I could drink of it, and all I have to say on the matter.
I don’t even care that the picture is facing the wrong way. It doesn’t deserve to be corrected.

Is there any finer snack? Really? They just go so well: the crispness of the wafers, the sweet meltyness of the chocolate, the solid, comforting, safe warmth of the tea.

This actually happened by accident - I didn’t have change for the bus, so went to buy a ticket from a newsagent - I didn’t think that the one I went to sold bus tickets, so bought a kitkat to get change. Then I saw that they did sell bus tickets, but I was already holding the kitkat, so it would have been rude not to buy it, no? Later on, I was settling down to a nice cup of tea while watching CSI on dvd, and decided to have my kitkat. Well, I’d forgotten how great a combination this was. I shall be returning to it again sometime. Possibly very soon, as I only ate 3/4 of the pieces, and the other one is right here with me as I type. Mmmmm.

This is my tea and panini at IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It was disappointing, and my expectations were low to begin with.

Tea
The teapot held barely 1 cup. The mug didn’t belong on a saucer. If you’re going to give me a saucer, I want a cup. The milk was in a tiny little plastic glass. Why? Why not a little jug?

The Panini
Wow, this was a let down. I wanted soup, but they’d run out, so I settled for the mozzarella, tomato and basil panini, except they’d evidently run out of basil too. I declined the salads as they all looked tired and nasty.
A trend has developed in Dublin for microwaving tomato mozzarella paninis before toasting them. This is not a good trend. The bread goes doughy, the mozzarella goes stringy, and the tomatoes go mushy. A panini should be crispy. I’ve ordered toasted, flattened bread, and what I get is a microwaved roll that’s been squished by a ridged iron for a second.
IMMA would appear to be following this trend, and it’s nasty.

I find IMMA a shame. It’s a beautiful building in lovely grounds, and it should be busier. Part of this I put down to their choice of exhibitions, and general lack of things to look at. (I can appreciate space, but sometimes there can be too much space, and I’m not a fan of dvd installations and modern art that sets out to be shocking with no artisitic merit). They do seem to have a good educational programme, so that’s a start.

I do think the café needs to bear the brunt of the shame though. It’s kinda grubby, for a start. Someone also decided to put it in the basement, which is simply criminal when there’s a large, under-used courtyard just crying out for some tables and chairs. Most of the people there on Sunday were middle class parents with young children. These are people with money to spend on posh tea and cakes. There’s just no excuse.

Every time I go I think that I should really go back in the summer, with a picnic. Then I forget.

This is what I thought was green tea, in the Library Bar at the central hotel. When I drank it, it turned out to be peppermint tea. It was nice though, and I was feeling a touch queasy, so it was quite a fortuntate error (peppermint tea helps with nausea).

I was there meeting other people who knit, which was really lovely, and not nearly as scary as I was expecting. I’ll be going again. It’s a shame they only meet monthly, and on a weekend. There are two other groups in Dublin, but I can’t make it to either of them unfortunately, which is a little frustrating.

Christmas and New Year were great, which for me means quiet and relaxing.

I worked on Christmas eve and day, which meant I just got to do the fun things like open presents, eat delicious food and listen to carols being sung while missing the clearing up parts, which seemed like pretty clever planning to me.

Then we went back to that England to the civilised Sussex village my parents call home, where I mainly spent time sitting by the open fire, knitting or reading, slowly getting covered in dog hair. I also visited my grandma, who’s a pretty opinionated 89 year old, who spent the time giving out about her cleaning lady who does too much chatting and not enough cleaning. “She keeps telling me about her mother in law and I couldn’t give a toss.”

For new year we went to Bournemouth, which was terribly exciting. I was witness to the ‘binge drinking’, and saw lots of people wearing not enough clothes for the freezing weather. They’ll all have nasty colds now, I’ll bet. Warm coats, hats, scarves and gloves, that’s what they should have been wearing.

Anyway, my new year’s eve went as follows. Didn’t fancy eating anything served in our hotel, so went to “Coffee and more” for yummy beans on toast and tea.

The tea was good, I like having my own pot, and it was a generous portion - I got a good 2 mugs worth out of it. No picture of the beans on toast, but they were great. 2 slices of toast, with real butter on them, and exactly the right amount of beans. It was so good I had exactly the same thing again as my first breakfast of 2006.

~~~

After breakfast we headed to Studland Beach for a nice healthy bracing walk. By healthy and bracing, I mean, freezing and very, very wet. It wasn’t at first, but the weather hit quickly and we were drenched. It was great though, can’t beat a walk on the beach in the rain. My only complaint was that I had been promised the sight of some nudists, and I was let down.

They must have all been hiding in the dunes.

Anyway, there’s nothing better after a brisk walk in the rain than visiting a warm country pub (or in this case, The Manor House Hotel) for a cup of tea and some cheese and pickle sandwiches.

The tea was Twinings Assam, and it came with an extra pot of hot water, which I approve of wholeheartedly. The whole experience could only have been improved by a milk jug, instead of those horrid little cartons. Anyway, the company was great and I warmed up considerably, so I was very happy.

Served with warm apple juice. Delicious, spicy and very tasty. Warming and festive, a great alternative to hot port for the winter months. Plus the alcohol makes being home that little bit easier.

Mmmm, spicy tomato wheat crunchies

Tea, from Harrods. Because I’m posh really.

Good point made in comment in post below.

Chocolate chip cookie recipe. Adapted slightly from one I was given by a friend who makes very delicious things. Recipe given is my slight adaptation (for squidgyness), I will provide ref for original if anyone would like it.

Ingredients
2 eggs
225g / 8oz soft brown sugar
100g / 4oz granulated sugar
225g / 8oz softened butter.
500g / 1¼ lb self raising flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp cocoa powder (optional)
250-450g /8oz-1lb solid chocolate, roughly chopped

Oven
Preheat oven to 190C/375F/GM5.

Instructions
Beat together eggs, sugar, and butter.
Fold in the flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla and cocoa (if using).
Add chocolate chips.
Make into walnut sized balls and flatten slightly
Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

I like tea.

(and other hot beverages)

Feijoa Vodka and cranberry juice in my favourite martini glass.

Tangy, slightly sweet but not too much – slightly sharp too. You can taste the booze: a good quality in any drink, I always feel.

Drunk while slouched in front of the tv, knitting, while wearing my comfy, in the house only clothes. I know the drink deserves better, but this is what makes me feel good.

Today I have relaxed. I’ve done lots of washing. I’ve watched telly. I’ve knitted. I’ve drunk tea. I haven’t left the house. I haven’t done any work. I haven’t been stressed. It’s been fab. (I haven’t started drinking during the day either, delicious though this would have been for breakfast. It’s an evening thing)

When I was living in New Zealand I drank quite a lot of a yummy local vodka called 42 Below. (delicious with a dash of lime and some soda water).
I also developed a taste for a yummy fruit called a Feijoa, a South American native that’s pretty hard to describe I’m afraid - I’ve tried before, and failed. Suffice to say that it’s delicious and I’ve found them in this hemisphere once (at a farmers market).
Imagine my joy today when I found that The Celtic Whiskey Shop stocks 42 Below vodka, and they’ve brought out a feijoa flavour. It’s very feijoa-ey. The glass you see above has a mixture of vodka and fizzy water. It’s delicious. Nice and strong.
Mmmmm. Booooze.

So I finally got my hot port. (at 9.30pm rather than 10.30am, a much more respectable time of day to be drinking).
It was warming and spicy (thanks to the cloves) and not too sweet (no sugar added). It’s the perfect drink for a winter’s evening and I expect to be drinking it a lot more.

Shot of port
Slice of lemon with 4-6 cloves stuck into it
Hot water
Brown sugar / honey to taste

Mmmmmm.
I’ve been craving one since 10.30am. Is that wrong?

Delicious apple spice tea. Not too sweet, was a tea, not a “fruit infusion”. Nice glass too, although the saucer was unneccessary.
Theatre was excellent.
Bewleys is a great location for that sort of thing too - intimate, with a sort of french cafe type feel to it (that might just be the type of chair), and any theatre that serves me tea I can drink during the performance is fine by me.

Recovering bulimic?
Miss the bittersweet taste of stomach acid?

When I was at primary school we were taken on many school trips to Amberley Chalk Pits, now called Amberley Working Museum. I only vaguely remember it, so decided it would be a great place to go and visit on the last trip home.

It was great. In an eccentric English way. Completely nuts in other words.

The printing room had loads of old (and working) printing machines and typesetting stuff.
There was a telephone exchange where you could ring a phone the other side of the room and watch the machinery connect you.
There was a wood turner.
The radio and communications display had a guy sat in a booth with a ham radio, listening to another guy talking in Conneticut. He was very pleased about this. Amazed in fact. I feigned interest (hi Lucy) but I think he saw through me, and if I could have heard his inner thoughts I’m sure he would have been muttering something to himslf about young people and the internet and no respect.
There’s a big collection of old buses at Amberley, and a working train line.
The walking stick maker was off that day, but the clay pipe maker was in, making his clay pipes and telling us all about them.
The elecricity display was cool - they had a medical section with home ECT machines.

The kinda sad thing about it was that it’s staffed by volunteers, who are all about 80 now and, well, a little bit odd. I’m not sure what will happen when they start dropping off.

The main draw for me is that part of A View To A Kill was filmed there. It plays the Zorin Enterprises mine. I remember being very impressed by that as a child, although it did make the suspention of disbelief a bit tricky when I watched the film. The thing is, in any other struggling museum that had been used as a film set, you’d see the whole area dedicated to it, with a life sized Roger Moore manequinn and all. At Amberley, they put the railway tracks back to where they should be, let everything grow over so it looks nothing like it any more, and try to forget about the whole thing. Well, that’s not strictly true: There was a poster display about it. Literally. A poster made up of a couple of press cuttings glued on to a large piece of cardboard. It was quite sweet really.

Anyway, all in all it was a lovely place to spend an afternoon. The only thing that let it down was the cafe. I had high hopes for a good pot of tea and some homemade cake. The photo of the best they could do is below. It speaks for itself. I’ll bring a real picnic next time.

I baked cookies last night, obviously essential pre-holiday preparation. A big pile of them. I took a photo but that’ll have to be posted later. They’re chocolate chip, with dark, milk and white chocolate chips. Crunchy on the outside but gooey in the middle. Warm, out of the oven, they were delicious, all hot and crumbly and melted chocolatey. Mmmmmmmm……..

Now, this is how a pot of tea for one should look.

This was a couple of weeks ago on my trip to Galway, I’ve got a bit behind on the tea reviews.

Setting: Cafe du Journal, Quay St, Galway. Lovely little cafe, a bit dark but ok, I wasn’t the only person alone and they didn’t seem to find it strange that I was. My panini was delicious - full of fresh roasted veggies and dripping with homemade rocket pesto.

Cup: My only complaint would have to be the cup here - it was a bit too thick for my tastes, and I don’t like the colour yellow. Not sure why, just don’t.

Pot: Now, the pot was excellent, just the right size for one person, it had a good couple of cups of tea in it, and poured without spilling.

Beverage: The tea was nice, could have had a touch more flavour to it, but was smooth and not bitter.

Overall a good experience. I did feel a bit strange taking the photo this time - I’m happy being alone in cafes, but alone and photographing your pot of tea does make you look, well, a little eccentric shall we say.

I didn’t have any cake, my panini was enough and I had to get back to work, but a few people around me were tucking in and it looked good - generous portion sizes, good amounts of cream, and cake and desserts that looked home made and messy.

I would have liked to have been able to sit around for an hour or so, reading my book and savouring the tea with something nice and sweet. One time I’ll go to Galway again for fun instead of work and get to do just that.

This was a birthday present from a friend and it was delicious. I’d been craving a good coffee and walnut cake and this was it. The cake was walnut cake, and the icing added the coffee flavouring. Not the traditional method but it worked. The walnut cake was light and fluffy and lovely.
It went especially well with tea after a walk and elephant watching.

Ahh, the crisp sandwich. Next to cake and cucumber sandwiches there is no finer snack.
This one is on wholegrain vienna loaf, with soya cream cheese, and cheese and onion hunky dorys (crinkle cut crisps for anyone not familiar with them).
Soft bread here, making for an interesting contrast in textures as you bite into it. Soft, so it’s gentle on your tongue and the roof of your mouth, then crispy in the middle for some bite.
The cream cheese helps keep the crisps in place where they belong.
Sometimes I add solid cheese, usually cheddar, but this time the crisps were the main event. Very satisfying it was too.

I’m fond of chocolate.
Minstrels are a good choice (see post below), as are maltesers. Right now I’m in a revels mood.

I go through phases with my chocolate eating. Not in whether I eat it or not, it’s a proven fact that I can’t go without chocolate for longer than a couple of days. When I was younger my brother bet me a fiver that I couldn’t last a week. And bribed the person who owned the shop down the road to tell on me. I tried.

When I’m in a phase of liking, no, craving is perhaps more appropriate, a specific sort of chocolate, I just have to eat that chocolate. So, I’ve been eating a lot of revels lately. Polished off one of the new resealable big bags by myself at the cinema the other night. Felt slightly ill after it. However, it didn’t cure me of my craving. This usually works with maltesers - I eat a few bags in a row until I don’t fancy them any more.

I think the thing about revels is that there are so many different types in the bag. It’s great! One mouthful is coffee cream, the next a malteser, then orange cream. I love them all. Even the coffee ones. When I was a kid we had a rule that if you offered someone a revel and they got a coffee one they could take another to make up for it. I liked that rule, I did well out of it.

I’m not particularly fond of the toffee ones, they’re too hard. Toffee should be softer, like in rolos.

This was from the other night. The mug is one of my favourites - it’s fine bone china, so it’s lovely to drink out of, nice and light and delicate, but it has funky blue spots, so it’s not dull and fusty.
I like spots.
The tea was indian chai from Whittards. Loose tea, which is best, but a pain to clean out of the pot afterwards. Sometimes I like chai tea with milk (sweetened soya) and honey (bunalun organic honey), but other times I like it black and unsweetened. This was one of those times.
Behind the mug is my bag of minstrels. Technically it’s a shared bag, but all chocolate in the house really belongs to me. It’s just better that way. I like minstrels. They’re like the spots on the mug, but made of chocolate.

This was my afternoon tea at the Japanese Gardens at the Irish National Stud.
Setting
The setting was most pleasant. We found a table on the balcony looking out past a large bamboo plant on to a small lake. Lots of small birds were flittering around picking up crumbs.
Teapot
The teapot was what I expected, that is, unsatisfactory. Although it poured well, it only gave enough tea for one and a half cups, which is not enough. Hot water is free people, why should I be expected to pay an extra euro for a two person pot just to have a decent cuppa?
In summary: Good pourer, let down by size.
The Mug
Ahh, catering cups. Plain white, which is good, but too thick, an unattractive shape, and didn’t fit properly on the saucer. A good match for the teapot. Not worth wasting any more words on.
The Beverage
Cheap black tea which stewed quickly thanks to the previously mentioned stingy pot size. Euch.
The Cake
Now, this is where the experience was redeemed. I didn’t have high hopes for the cake, it looked a bit dry. It was the second last piece of cake on offer, and the only option, my companion having taken the final piece of cheesecake. I haveto admit, I was suprised. Dense and cocoaey, this was chocolate cake made by someone who appreciated chocolate. The portion was just about right, and, while I am partial to gooey butter icing on chocolate cakes, on this occasion the more traditional type worked very nicely indeed.