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Post by indis on Jul 6, 2018 17:38:47 GMT
ah got another email, think its all alright so how does that work ? i got one of those tower trays and tea and the waiter brings more when asking? They keep feeding you and filling your tea pot until you can no longer walk. They then do a box of more food for you to take away and leave on the seat of someone who’s bad behaviour has annoyed you and is not looking where they sit down. perfect, need to work on my winter body anyway 🤣 |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2018 10:23:34 GMT
If you wanted it you should have put a raisin on it. Yeah, that’s raisinable, I suppose... |
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Post by indis on Jul 17, 2018 17:43:29 GMT
just had Afternoon Tea at Fortnum & Mason, very good, maybe a bit too sweet. Now i am stuffed and unable to move 🤣
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Post by hulmeman on Jul 17, 2018 17:53:06 GMT
just had Afternoon Tea at Fortnum & Mason, very good, maybe a bit too sweet. Now i am stuffed and unable to move 🤣 Welcome to the UK!!! Have fun and be safe! |
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Post by tmesis on Jan 20, 2019 17:57:40 GMT
I've just finished re-reading 'Less than Angels' by Barbara Pym. This novel was first published in 1955 and is set at that time. In it comes the following intriguing sentence about what one of the characters enjoys doing:
'Sometimes it was a morning in the West End followed by lunch and a matinee, with the comfortable rattle of the tea tray being passed over the knees in the dark as the third act began.'
Did they really serve tea in the theatre in the 50s? It must have been really annoying and all that kerfuffle of the tray! And there would be cups, saucers and spoons (at least it would have been environmentally friendly, with no disposable beakers!)
I can't quite go that far back but I reckon that my first theatre trip would have been in 1960 to see a pantomime at the Lyceum Sheffield or the Theatre Royal Nottingham. I also went to many variety shows when on holiday in Scarborough, Great Yarmouth, Skegness, Llandudno, Blackpool etc. You'd think a cuppa would appeal to the average family on holiday there but I can never remember it happening. Maybe it was just a West End thing, but in those days a trip to London just didn't happen for the average working class kid like me, growing up in The Beast of Bolsover's constituency.
Can anyone with more theatre history knowledge than me please enlighten?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2019 18:22:12 GMT
I recall something about it being a perk of attending a matinee, thus referred to as “matinee tea’. A quick google turns up this. “Can you still get afternoon tea brought to your seat?" asks my elegant Park Avenue friend. She wants to know whether a seasonal visit to London's Theatreland will be worth her while, and she is right to be wary. However good the show, a visit to one of London's crumbling, dank and leaky West End theatres is an expensive and often downright shabby experience. Matinee tea is a distant memory from an era when the comfort of bums on seats was as important as the revenue they brought in.” www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/nice-show-shabby-theatre-7293964.htmland “Another mid-20th-century pleasure was the matinée tea-tray, passed along the aisle by usherettes: neatly laid trays of hot tea and biscuits, the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon's entertainment.” www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9737133/Why-the-drama-about-munching-through-a-play.html |
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 20, 2019 18:26:24 GMT
I think we had a previous thread on this very topic last year (or maybe it was just a few posts). If anyone knows more, it will be our good friend tonyloco. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2019 18:37:52 GMT
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 20, 2019 18:55:07 GMT
Merged.
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Post by tmesis on Jan 20, 2019 19:15:02 GMT
Thanks tonyloco all is now clear after reading your post. But was it just a West End thing or did it extend to the provinces? |
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 20, 2019 22:04:31 GMT
I like an afternoon tea, I've had some good ones, but while I have a very sweet tooth the teas I've had have all leaned too heavily to the cakes and scones. As I say, I enjoy them, but always go away feeling there should've been more sandwiches and other savoury stuff. I do love me some little triangle sandwiches.
For a sweet-only tea, a really good cream tea can be the business. The best I ever had was at Burncoose Farm on the Lizard Peninsula.
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Post by eatbigsea on Jan 21, 2019 9:21:45 GMT
Fortnum and Mason offer a savoury tea where the scones are savoury and the fancies (patisserie equivalent) are savoury as well. You still get cake at the end. It’s my favourite afternoon tea anywhere.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 13:01:42 GMT
My favourite afternoon tea is at The Fourteas in Stratford. I love that place!
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 13:52:31 GMT
Fortnum and Mason offer a savoury tea where the scones are savoury and the fancies (patisserie equivalent) are savoury as well. You still get cake at the end. It’s my favourite afternoon tea anywhere. Thanks for the tip, that sounds more my thing, as long as there's still sweet stuff. I'll have to look into it. Then, possibly, bite into it. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:09:14 GMT
Savoury afternoon tea? That's so wrong. Like Keanu Reeves in 'Dracula' or Prince Philip in 'Driving School' or Alexandra Burke in . . well anything.
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Post by emsworthian on Jan 21, 2019 14:20:27 GMT
Savoury afternoon tea? That's so wrong. Like Keanu Reeves in 'Dracula' or Prince Philip in 'Driving School' or Alexandra Burke in . . well anything.
Have you not heard of a "cricket tea"? (I'll admit I hadn't until last year). It involves sarnies and cakes plus savouries such as sausage rolls, pork pie, scotch eggs, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2019 14:24:52 GMT
Savoury afternoon tea? That's so wrong. Like Keanu Reeves in 'Dracula' or Prince Philip in 'Driving School' or Alexandra Burke in . . well anything.
Have you not heard of a "cricket tea"? (I'll admit I hadn't until last year). It involves sarnies and cakes plus savouries such as sausage rolls, pork pie, scotch eggs, etc.
I have not and to be perfectly frank, if anyone served me an afternoon tea that scrimped on cake in favour of savouries, I'd have them pistol whipped and forced to sit through 'Stephen Ward'. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 21, 2019 20:16:18 GMT
I had been trying to work out how on earth people managed to have tea in the dark - pouring out hot liquid when unable to see what you are doing seems most unsafe! However I am relieved to find, looking back to @tonoloco's post on the first page, that matinee teas were served in the interval rather than during the performance.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 21, 2019 23:18:50 GMT
I am relieved to find that matinee teas were served in the interval rather than during the performance. Can you imagine, during the performance?! A tense, quiet, moodily lit scene accompanied by the gurgling, clinking and clanking of teapots, cutlery and crockery, mutterings about milk, sugar, sandwich fillings, butter and jam, the screams and stumbling footsteps of patrons splashed with hot tea running for the exits... Then again it could liven up a dull production. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 21, 2019 23:20:32 GMT
I'd love a cuppa during an interval, brought to my seat. Does any theatre offer this?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 22, 2019 8:30:48 GMT
Have you not heard of a "cricket tea"? (I'll admit I hadn't until last year). It involves sarnies and cakes plus savouries such as sausage rolls, pork pie, scotch eggs, etc.
I have not and to be perfectly frank, if anyone served me an afternoon tea that scrimped on cake in favour of savouries, I'd have them pistol whipped and forced to sit through 'Stephen Ward'. Poor thing, you’ve obviously never been Oop North at teatime ”mam can we ‘ave chips for us tea?” ”no we bloody can’t, it’s nuggets and beans” |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2019 9:03:44 GMT
I have not and to be perfectly frank, if anyone served me an afternoon tea that scrimped on cake in favour of savouries, I'd have them pistol whipped and forced to sit through 'Stephen Ward'. Poor thing, you’ve obviously never been Oop North at teatime ”mam can we ‘ave chips for us tea?” ”no we bloody can’t, it’s nuggets and beans” Oh I never go to The North. Malaria jabs always make me feel really unwell. |
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Post by showgirl on Jan 22, 2019 9:15:01 GMT
So is that just malaria jabs, @ryan, or jabs in general? A rather unfortunate limitation if the latter. Still, a good excuse to go and lie down, I suppose.
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Post by lynette on Jan 22, 2019 15:15:25 GMT
Yes, dinner midday and tea, a meal, at six. Proper. Had to change when I came down south didn’t I?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 22, 2019 15:29:26 GMT
Yes, dinner midday and tea, a meal, at six. Proper. Had to change when I came down south didn’t I? Did you manage to wean yourself off the chicken nuggets aswell? I bet it’s filet mignon every night round at chez lynette these days? |
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