Time For Tea: February 2013

Afternoon tea should be provided, fresh supplies,

with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc.,

being brought in as other guests arrive.

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

Emerald Street - Saturday, 23rd February 2013

Celebration of 50 years of Sarah and Olivia

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

Jean Thacker

Margaret Griffith

Deborah Flood

Kieron Flood

Rachael Flood

Eleanor Flood

Matthew Flood

Clinton Thacker

Carole Thacker

James Thacker

Anna Thacker

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Time for a family tea to celebrate our birthdays, and time to make the most of being at home over half term.

The birthday cakes for both Olivia and I were in cupcake form, 10 for her and 40 for me, naturally.

The arrival of Anatole, my fabulous new Kitchenaid mixer, added even more joy than usual to holiday recreational baking, and as well as the cupcakes and chocolate muffins he assisted in the creation of the traditional birthday biscuits:

Anatole in all his glory....

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Upon the importance of scones

The great thing about writing this is that I don't have to have any of the usual tussles over pronunciation. (Frankly, as Paul needs to accept, if I have made them, I say how we pronounce them...).

The scone is a crucial element of a really successful afternoon tea and for my first 'home-made' event I felt it was time to ensure that I was making the best that I could. I have dabbled with numerous recipes but never really felt I had made an effective critical choice, so decided it was necessary to approach this much more scientifically. Having read about ten recipes, I narrowed my field down to three (the others being variations on a theme) and made a small batch of each, which the long suffering Mr Ryan had to blind taste.

This was Thursday's 'tasting tea' and the three scone recipes from left to right are from Nigella Lawson, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. We decided swiftly that the saintly Mary wins hands down (and this was confirmed by the Asbury family who graciously performed the same task - with day old scones (shock horror) the next day). Paul H was a creditable second, with his interesting 'strong bread flour' twist, but both he and Nigella require the addition of copious amounts of cream of tartar which adds an elasticity which doesn't truly sit comfortably with the essence of scone-ness.

So Mary came into her own as we went into industrial scale production today.

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Family Reunion

Ooooh

Cousins

The Twins

I think these three were generally happier than this photograph might suggest...

Surely that isn't Paul playing on his phone?

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Fourth Tea - Fourth Year

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Tea Art

Debbie rediscovered the joy of the Etch-a-Sketch

At first this seemed an impressive tea tribute:

But look what it became:

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Wouldn't it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn't have tea.

Noel Coward

Babington's Tea Rooms, Piazza di Spagna, Rome - Sunday 17th February, 2013

Olivia's 10th Birthday

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

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A momentous day for the Ryans, not only Olivia's 10th birthday (how did that happen?), not only on holiday in Rome, not only attending the Angelus led by the Pope, but all this less than a week after Pope Benedict XVI's extraordinary announcement of his forthcoming resignation. We joined over 50,000 other people in St Peter's Square to pray with the Holy Father, and, whilst I can't quite claim him as a guest at tea, it set a tremendous tone for the whole day. Add to that Olivia's first visits to the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps - a birthday to go down in legend and song.

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Babington's was founded in 1893 by two English women, Anna Maria Babington and Isabel Cargill. As the history leaflet that the proprietors thoughtfully provide puts it, these ladies 'arrived in Rome with their one hundred pounds and their intention of making a respectable living in the Eternal City. What better idea than to provide the flourishing English community with somewhere to take tea - only found in chemists - and read the newspapers? (Also, unmentionably, there were bathroom facilities).

Situated at the left hand side of the Spanish steps (as you look up them), the Tea Rooms are in what was originally the stables of an Eighteenth Century palazzo, designed by Francesco de Sanctis who was the architect of the Spanish Steps themselves. We were very fortunate to get the only table with a window view into the Piazza di Spagna, and enjoyed watching the dusk settle as we took our tea.

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We ordered the cream tea but with additional toast and muffins ("English", naturally) and it was particularly delightful to have tea with hot buttered toast. The Babington's special blend tea was most pleasing and more robust than the usual Italian idea of English tea - a proper cup of tea, which was incredibly welcome after hours of standing, walking and 'improving' ourselves.

Olivia was, however, very perturbed by the presentation of the scones. We enjoyed tea very much but there are a couple of small issues that we have to raise:

1. There is a difference between a warm scone and a toasted one - if you wish to enjoy Miss O. M. Ryan's custom again, you will take heed of this.

2. It would be quite unreasonable to expect clotted cream in Italy, but there is no excuse for 'squirty' aerosol cream, rather than properly whipped cream.

3. This is a more minor issue, but it is more pleasing to allow your customers to butter their own toasts/muffins/scones.

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Our waitress picked up on the nature of the day and brought what would could only be described as a 'confection' of cream, drizzled with chocolate and strawberry sauce (deep in the middle of which was hidden a cupcake) and topped with a candle. The birthday girl was embarrassedly delighted, and just about tolerated our singing to her very quietly.

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Tea with Mussolini

The continuous survival of Babington's is all the more remarkable given the upheavals and politics of the Thirties and the Second World War:

During the 1930s, with the rise of Fascism, the city's suspiciously 'un-Italian' tea-rooms began to disappear. It is inexplicable how Babington's with its name - English Tea Rooms - in bold bronze characters beside the door, should become fashionable among high-ranking members of the regime, politely served with tea and scones in the first room while around the corner the anti-fascist intellgensia met to confabulate (with their emergency exit through the kitchens).

After the Second World War, Isabel Cargill's grandson, Valerio designed the Babington's black cat logo. The cat adorns everything from the shop merchandise, to the cutlery, flatware and tea strainers. The shop sells the beautiful silver teapots but at around €250 they were not within my souvenir budget.