Saturday, September 20, 2014

Tea for Two

It's funny how you hear a song all of your life, but you don't think about the words. Tea for Two was written in 1924 for the musical No No Nanette.

The idea is a couple (presumably married, although it's not called out in the song), imagining their life together without the distraction of friends and relations.

"We won't have it known, dear
that we own a telephone, dear."

Yes, even back in the day, folks wanted to fall off the grid, at least for a little while.

Which, back to the title of this rambling piece, was what Mr. Ginley and I did this past week.

We got dressed up and went out for tea.

There's a little place called the Emerald Necklace that overlooks the MetroPark. It's decked out in Victorian style, with lots of little gewgaws. Mr. was a tad uncomfortable at first, but, as he said, "A promise is a promise." So he bravely soldiered on.

He had said many months ago that he would take me there for tea for my birthday. We've passed the place a million times, and I hadn't been to tea since my trip to London in the early 1980's.

So there we were, Thursday afternoon, and the place was empty except for us. But it wasn't weird, just cozy. We decided to go for it, and did the High Tea, which is the works.

To the strains of Nat King Cole, we were served a little glass of chilled hibiscus tea with a lemon wedge, pink sugar lining the rim.

The deal is, you get two pots of tea. We chose to split two varieties. The first was a vanilla chai, the second a caramel rooibos, which we learned is pronounced "roy bus" and is actually red bush tea, popular in South Africa. (Precious Ramotswe is fond of the brew, for all of you who are fans of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series.)

Back to our story...

The first course was a salad, presented in a tall glass, sprinkled with almonds and tossed with strawberries and other yummy extras, and ready to be topped with a fruity dressing, possibly a raspberry vinaigrette. We both enjoyed the salad.

The next to arrive was a wedge of quiche and a two-tiered plate with an assortment of breads, scones and sandwiches. Yes, there was the traditional cucumber sandwich. Plus chicken salad and egg salad. Bill wouldn't go near the cucumber sandwiches, but he gamefully finished the quiche, which is not his thing.

Last to arrive was the dessert plate. Little petit fours and macaroons and such. Bill passed on the coconut but sampled everything else, even the cheesecake.

The ceremony of the tea itself was a big part of the experience. Mostly, I played "mother" and poured the tea over the strainer. It's amazing how much better a real pot of tea tastes. And I drank it with steamed milk, which I don't normally. And with sugar cubes, although when I asked Bill if he wanted one lump or two, I couldn't get Bugs Bunny out of my head.

Altogether, we were there for nearly two hours. And we couldn't believe it was that long.

Time was suspended, as we sipped and nibbled and yacked our way through the food, which seemed like a lot at the time, but collectively wasn't really that much. The tea is what fills you up, I think. That, and the conversation.

Who knew that a couple of old married chuckleheads could share tea and talk and avoid  the distraction of phone calls and texts and other intrusions from the outside world? Just tea for two and two for tea.

Can't you see how happy we could be?

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