Mucky

your right waring, the best tea I have had has been from elderly relatives that use tea leaves, a strainer, a china teapot and bone china cups n saucers, you know the ones that the handles are so articulate and small that you cant get the finger through the hole.

Muck

MP07950

Another vote for the Georgian Room at Harrods. I can't bring myself to go to London now because of the exchange rate, but in every past trip, we've always had tea here at some point during the trip. It's just part of the travel experience! And, it really did replace a full dinner for that evening. If you're taking day trips outside of London, you also might be able to have the "tea experience" at a lower rate. Go for it!

waring

Do they do treacle tart with condensed milk?

audere_est_facere

It's no wonder that we have such bad teeth if we eat treacle tart and condensed milk.

(I like Camp coffee with evaporated milk - I wonder if they'd knock me some of that up?)

mahlquist

Harrod's is a great place to take kids for tea or lunch, and my recollection is that it cost about as much as a nice dinner out. Therefore, you don't spring for a big dinner that evening (although you won't need one--the portions are very satisfying).

EnglishOne

Isnt it funny that the Americans are ignoring our 'aufentik' tea drinking anecdotes.

Best cuppa you can have is sitting with your family and friends chatting over a steaming mug o Tetley's, with a plateful of chocolate digestives. Now thats the REAL british experience, not the poncy hyped up fantasy they are serving you up in the posh London hotels - do the waiters wear a Highwaymans costumes? ;-)

nanabee

That's because non of you have invited cindysphinx over for a cuppa tea. And
Flanner won't even tell me where his restaurant is!

audere_est_facere

Nanabee: Given that the following is Flanneur's idea of food heaven, are you sure you want to go to his restaurant?

>>>>>Mashed-up tinned salmon (bones, skin and all), on the other hand, with a few dashes of brown malt vinegar, made into Hovis sandwiches, then left a couple of hours till ths bread's just beginning to get a bit curly and crispy. Now that's real food.

EnglishOne

Sounds more like a greasy spoon caff LOL

nanabee

hi audere est facere
believe me i'll try anything once!
and if i can eat my husband's cooking, i can survive anything.

audere_est_facere

It pretty much describes what we get for tea at my cricket club - but he missed out the cress.

fnarf999

Ah, this is my kind of discussion. Those pichard recipes look like the equivalent of American canned tuna recipes. Mayonnaise and frozen peas, anyone? Anyone?

Another favorite English tea tradition is the cup filled from a gigantic aluminum urn by a sexy -- and unbelievably hostile, and all the sexier for it -- 16-year-old girl from Poland or Estonia, in an ill-fitting grey uniform, exactly matching the color of the tea, in a provincial museum cafeteria with no one else in it.

So, is there a Fodorite consensus on milk first or after? After if you're using bags, of course, but with poured tea?

Any old-school caff recommendations for the north of England? Liverpool, Manchester, Wigan?

jewela

CindySphinx:

I think, since this is your first trip, you and your children should definately have tea. It may be expensive, but it may be the only chance to do this with all of your children.
The Orangery would be my recommendation. It is much less expensive that the Ritz or the Dorchester, but it is such a pretty place to enjoy tea, and then wander through the park. If you go late in the afternoon, it is very possible that you'll only want something light for dinner. It can be very filling.
It is 11.95 GBP for the set tea, but you can also order ala carte if you wish.

LJ

I am just lovin' this nostalgia...my parents spent years trying to quash the yearning for food stuffs/eating habits that marked them as working class Brits when they arrived in Canada. But when me and mine (Canadians and proud of it) return to the UK we are not interested in tea at F&M or its dinner/breakfast equivalent.

We want to find the hotel (and shared bath is just fine, thanks very much) that serves the full English breakfast, the "caff" that still knows how to put beans on toast without the use of olive oil and a pub that understands Scotch eggs.

My Mum would roll over in her grave if she knew I admit my favourite dessert is mashed banana with evaporated milk AND I put my milk in tea first.

So, my question is: have the tables turned to the extent that such a restaurant (consciously not-POSH) would work in contemporary London? Last time I was there we paid $150 for fish and chips at some wannabe place called North Sea (?). Bring on the Hovis sarnie for 10 pound a piece...

nanabee

The Brits and the Yanks are on the same thread but you'd never know it.

waring

" It may be expensive, but it may be the only chance to do this with all of your children."

You really are completely missing the point, tea is served at home, and can be cobbled together in no time for next to nothing. Do it yourself!!

Alternatively I am sure Disney puts up an equivalent farce with fake fog, cap doffing lackeys with Dick Van Dyke accents and toffs in dearstalkers.

fnarf999

Waring, are you trying to suggest that "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is not a documentary? I'm shocked. I'm appalled. I'm shock-alled.

flanneruk

LJ:

I'm confused.

I've been grabbing a handful of fish and chips from the North Sea in Leigh St for decades (one fitness regime had me walking home from the office, so I naturally had to recover half way). It might have changed its name sice the 70s, but there's always been a decent chippy halfway between Berkeley Sq and Islington. Whatever that chippy's weaknesses, pretension's never been one of them. Last time - about two months ago - haddock and chips was about £7.

Has the funny money they use over there realy devalued that much?

audere_est_facere

LJ - probably not the North sea - which is a fish and chip place and charges reasonable prices (and is for locals not tourists).

There are a small chain of pseudo caffs called S&M (it stands for Sausage and mash - not the other kind) which are exactly that.

No one has mentioned our puds yet - drowned babies and cat's bum custard (which isn't strictly a tea thing).

EnglishOne

Right here goes for an authentic, no nonsense great cuppa:

1. Buy a box of Tetleys/PG Tips or Typhoo teabags from your local Spar or Tescos (costing a quid or two depending on the size of box)

2. Put kettle on.

3. Line up your favourite mugs, ones that say 'Worlds Favourite Dad; or 'Sex Kitten' etc etc....

4. Put the teabag in the mug. If you put the milk in first, the teabag gets clogged and the tea can't diffuse.

5. Pour boiling water onto teabag in the mug.

6. Let infuse for a minute or so whilst chatting about the football scores, weather, the cow of a boss at work, etc etc.

7. Mash the teabag against the side of the mug with the back of a teaspoon, to get the full flavour.

8. Dispose of the teabag in the bin.

9. Now put a splash of milk in the top, not too much or it will taste of hot milky muck. YUK

10. Stir and enjoy hot, hot hot!!

NOW, if you are making tea in a teapot, then you put in one bag per person (or one teaspoon of loose tea) plus traditionally 'one for the pot'. Although the strength of tea will dictate whether the pot needs one.

Let infuse and mash the bags or give the tea a stir in the pot.

With tea poured from the teapot, the milk should go in the mug FIRST this time!!! Just a splash, mind ;-)

Pour from the pot.

Stir, and enjoy!