For the past couple of years, The Silver Fox and I have scarpered at the mere thought of January, and have been hiding out on beaches instead of putting up with the idiosyncrasies and challanges that winter weather brings. Due to crazy business at work, unfortunately it wasn’t going to be possible to travel this year, so a very pale me instead busied myself with enjoying lots of birthday food dates.
One of which was a rather spectacular weekend of five-star fun with my old school friend Emily, who has at long last turned her back on London-town and re-joined us back in the ‘burgh. She’s brought with her, her husband, her gorgeous baby and a well-honed taste for the finer things (Prêt-à–Portea for the 30th birthday and Ladurée macarons for the baby shower, thank you very much) in this sweet life. She invited me ‘to tea’ at The Balmoral as my birthday treat, and well, who was I to say no?
Pleased as punch, I arrived bang on time, and walked into one of the city’s most iconic buildings, past the doorman, the concierges, front desk, the maître d’ , and finally into The Palm Court, or The Bollinger Bar as it’s now been branded. We had a wee booth , and I quickly realised that the elegant room was pretty busy, this being a Saturday and all, and it looked like everyone there was in for a celebration of some sort. I thought that was kind of cute, as was the Bollinger-branded birthday card from the staff – nice touch!
Champagne was called for, and from the eye-wateringly expensive list, we went for 2 glasses of The Bollinger Special Cuvée Rosé (£17 per glass). Quite a lot of berry fruit to start on the palate, but goes considerably further, and was a lot toastier than I expected. In all, rather classy. We were to follow this a bit later with the Ayala Rosé (£14 per glass), which was a lot brighter and acidic, an more of a ‘refresher’ than a think piece.
We were then offered the tea menu to make our selection – this being afternoon tea and all, and I have to admit I’d gotten a bit carried away with the Champers that I’d forgotten this was quite a big part of the production. I went for the ol’ favourite of Earl Grey, and yes I do take it with a splash of milk. The giant, arm-straining tea tray was brought to stand by our table and the ceremony of pouring from pot to pot so that the leaves didn’t sit for too long unfolded in front of us. The fine china was as as crisp as the white linen which covered the tray. It was a great pot of tea for sure, clean tasting and rather lovely with the scones which were to follow a bit later.
So, on to the goodies to eat. Tucked under the whole tea stand was a plate of shortbread that by the time we worked our way up through sandwiches, scones and cakes we had almost (but not quite) forgotten about. The sandwiches to start were the only disappointing part of the whole show. I have to say that although they were very nicely presented, clean cut sarnies, there was distinct lack of seasoning and flavour in most of them. The fresh salmon with cucumber was screaming out for a dash of citrus, the roast beef and the egg ones for a touch of salt.
On to the scones level and there was a choice of cinnamon,raisin and the best of the bunch which were the honey ones. With a little ‘side orders’ tray of clotted cream, strawberry and apricot jam, this in itself could have been the highlight of the afternoon. They were perfectly baked and the honey one thickly ladden with clotted cream is a flavour still floating around in the memory bank of top tastes.
Lastly, the cakes tier, a good selection which included blueberry cheesecake, a frangipane tartlette with very nice sweet pastry, and my favourite which was a cake with sponge and almond creme pattisserie. The cakes were all of a nice standard, but perhaps a little less, I don’t know, chi-chi than I’d been expecting and not a macaron in sight!
As an experience, we had a lovely afternoon (thanks Emily!) and we were offered the chance to take home the things we’d not managed to scoff our way through. So, posh version of a doggie bag came back home with me, and I got to share some of the treats with the Silver Fox. Time to put the kettle on…
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