Afternoon tea at Hotel Vancouver

Occasion: My Christmas present to my mother - a girls' catch-up over tea (my sister was an extra beneficiary)
Location: Hotel Vancouver on West Georgia St in Vancouver
Edibles: chicken salad on toast; smoked salmon and caviar on toast; a ham, blue cheese and pear croissant; cucumber sandwiches; cinnamon scones; mincemeat pies; gingerbread stars with M&Ms; strawberries and clotted cream; Yule log chocolate cake

(pictured borrowed from Jess Q until I can upload my own)

Musings: It's been more than 10 years since we've had tea together, just the girls. The last time was at the Savoy in London; it was my mom's first time in Europe. Fond memories - we munched on sandwiches and sipped tea for almost four hours, chatting and soaking up the wonderful Englishness of it all.

The Hotel Vancouver's no Savoy, but they put on a nice tea. The room was very festively decorated, and they hired a live harpist to play Christmas carols.

The food was pretty good. I liked most of the savory choices, particularly the ham. The least successful was the cucumber - the bread was pretty dessicated, like they'd made them the day before and failed to keep them properly covered. My sister, a more forgiving soul, suggested they might have done it on purpose to better accompany the tea. My mom's favorite was the salmon. (Incidentally, I discovered that Allie has an absolutely dreadful palate, after she mistook the chicken salad for tuna, and the pear in the ham sandwich for a pickle.)

They provide one extra plate free of charge, so we got an extra of each of those four to share. I think that's a bit stingy as refills go, considering the tea costs some $50 per person. (At the Savoy, you can ask for as many extras as you like. It's not very classy but you can - as we did - skip breakfast and lunch and really tuck in.)

They gave a generous two scones per person, but I could only choke down half of one as they were cinnamon scones and that spice makes me gag. I liked the gingerbread cookie, but found the cake was cloyingly sweet. I was, in general, less enchanted by the sweets than the savories. But then again, I don't have much of a sweet tooth; you might feel differently.

As for the tea, we got two pots of a strawberry tea and it turned out to be a good primary choice - it was very delicate and did not interfere with the flavors of the food. Towards the end, we got a third pot of maple black. The maple was very interesting - it was smelled syrupy, but had no sweetness at all when tasted. Instead, it was dark and smoky.

Merry Christmas, and I hope you're all getting to spend some quality time with your family in the holiday rush!