Fortress Of Freedom Board

[ANANTHARAMAN PURANAM]

Tea time is a party time


By ANANTHARAMAN PURANAM, Journalist (India)


Tea time is the new time to socialise.A
high tea party is the do you must now attennd to be a
part of the in crowd.Hostesses love the fact that it's
easy to host as no elaborate menu is required.It's a
perfect way to spend the late after noons/early
evenings catching up on gossip and the fact that it
winds up so quickly that they dont have to worry about
neglecting any of their chores.

Preethi reddy,a house wife is all for
high tea as she says,"I love snacking and evenings are
perfect for this.Besides,you get to eat a nice light
fare instead of heavy fattening stuff that's served
during lunch or dinner."

Kitty launches are passe as they go
on for ever and involve a lot of work and afternoons
are meant for napping.

The lady to thank for inventing tea
time is Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford.The Duchess
dined on tea,cakes,tarts and biscuits at four o' clock
in the after noon.This was a necessity to counter the
sinking feeling between the heavy breakfast and the
late dinner of that era.Traditional tea time is
anywhere between 3 and 6 o'clock.

Madhavi reddy,a hostess known for the
delicious food she serves,says,"High tea involves
little work .Everyone is pekish at around 4 or 5pm and
since there is a large variety of vegetarian snacks
available everyone can dig into it."

A high tea menu earlier would have
included three kinds of tea sandwitches,sweet cream
scones with clotted cream and/or jam,plenty of
sweets,chocolates,fruits and cut or layered cake.

But moving with the times you can serve any
snack you wish.

If you want to have friends over and
can't deal with too much party stress banish it by
having friends over for high tea.