Eat like an Egyptian

Life is hectic when you work 6 days a week and then trying to fit in errands on the one day that you are free. Then on the weeknights you have to push yourself to go to the gym so you don't get fat from all the catch-ups breakfasts/lunches/brunches/high teas/dinners that occur. To top it off Perth's weather hasn't been the best with lots of lovely pitter patter of rain drops. So all I want to do is curl up in front of the telly and catch up on movies/tv shows and fall asleep listening to the sound of rain.

Lucky for me I have amazing bunches of friends that drag me out of my hermit cave. One of the things I love doing indoors away from the cold, the wet and the heat is checking out the museum exhibition at the Western Australia Museum in Northbridge at the Cultural Centre. 

At the moment, until 22nd of September Secrets of the Afterlife exhibition is on, which if a journey into ancient Egypt and the world of magic, mummies, and afterlife. It features over 100 objects from amulets and jewellery to coffins, painted texts and spells for the dead, as well as rituals for the perfect afterlife. 

It was amazing to see objects and artifacts from thousands of years ago (and how they survived!) and just reading about the believes of the ancient Egyptians. It's worth checking out! Oh and the duck may not be thousands of years old but it's still hella cute.

After we had our education session on obtaining that perfect afterlife, we made our way to the Muse Cafe situated behind the main museum entrance. Muse Cafe is offering Egyptian Style High Tea. 

They decked out the room into a very Egypt theme with posters, camels and ancient Egypt themed chess pieces. They offer 3 sessions for the high tea at 11am-12:30pm, 1:00pm-2:30pm, 3:00pm-4:00pm. The cost of the high tea is reasonable as it includes the tickets to the exhibition ($65 or $75 if you want a cocktail along with the high tea). 

The Muse Cafe also offered a variety of different high tea menus to suit people's dietary requirements, which I think is brilliant! I'm so glad they take allergies and food intolerance very seriously. They have a vegetarian, nut free, gluten free, and low risk pregnancy menus. 

We started of with a refreshing watermelon and coconut salad with honey mint syrup appetizer, which had the sweetness of the watermelon, coconut flakes provided the texture and the mint (couldn't really taste the honey syrup bit of it) left you refreshingly cool. 

Then the tea order was taken (they also do coffee), but their range of teas is pretty impressive, there is about 10-15 different types of teas and they come in proper "made-to-share" teapots which can be topped up or if you are sick of the tea you are trying they will just swap over the pot for you. We ended up trying cinnamon and orange tea, pomegranate green tea and rooibos tea. The teapots are ultra cute too, most likely sourced from many an antique shop or vintage markets. I love it. 

Then the high tea delights came out (fairly quickly too might I add). We started off with the sandwiches. They were in plain white bread but the filling was rather delicious, with hints of spices and herbs to keep to our Egyptian theme. There was the cumin sandwich, the Moroccan chicken, and cucumber and rocket with goat's cheese sandwich . They were all rather delicious, although I wish the cumin sandwich had more cumin in it, because it really lacked oomph. But the waitress did warn us that the amount of cumin may be a little as people have been finding it a bit strong. They might have overdone removing it.

Then the scones came out - yum! Mixed fruit scones with the best fig compote to go with it. So delicious. So fluffy and nicely warmed.

After scones comes the warm food, consisting of eggplant masaka tart and the bay and cardamon braised lamb pie. They smelt so delicious and the flavours in both the tart and the lamb pie transported you to the hot bazaar of Egypt. Perfect to eat on a rainy day. Warms your soul.

Then the best of the high tea - the dessert. This consisted of pomegranate chocolate cake, rose marshmallow, pistachio and apricot baklava. 

The pomegranate chocolate cake was this dense, rich, moist chocolate cake, an absolute indulgence. The rose marshmallow was the complete contrast to this its light airy texture, sweet rose smells and just melt in your mouth moment of sweetness. The pistachio and apricot baklava (if eaten last) didn't taste as sweet as baklavas tend to be, which is something that I really appreciated. The nuts and apricot added textural interest and it just seemed to round out the high tea very nicely.

The Muse cafe is a lovely place with a massive outdoor area. It's perfect for the warmer climates. But even in winter and with the rain the indoor area is so cosy and warm it's just the perfect place to hide away. I love how they do their teas in large pots and with such a variety of selection. The service is lovely and as attentive as possible, and I love how they cater for dietary requirements and allergies. More places in Perth needs to take that up. It's definitely one to go to especially if there is an exhibition on at the Museum and they have themed their high tea accordingly. Why not have a day out? Go see the Egyptian Exhibition (on until 22nd September) and have the high tea as well (as a lunch perhaps?). You can get tickets to the exhibition here and for the combined experience of high tea and exhibition click here.

Chapels on Whatley

Maylands - well to be precise a small strip that's on the corner of Eighth avenue and Whatley crescent is one of my favourite places for decent cake, pastry, coffee and teas. As well as for chance to wonder around the very few boutiques that's around there, OH and shop at its very cool butcher/specialised continental shop. After all it is home to my favourite bakery/patisserie - Sherbet.

Along that strip, there's a cafe that is decked out in a very Asian theme called Chapels on Whatley.

It's decor is something out of a Chinese movie and you be forgiven if you thought you were at some Zen or Yue garden when you step outside to their courtyard. After all there are replicas of life sized Terracotta warriors and a "lillypond" (I use that term very loosely...) with a floating Buddha head and goldfish (?replacement Koi) with lots of red Chinese umbrellas to shade you. It's a rather lovely, quaint and pleasant. Oh and how lovely that they had the water sprinklers on to cool us down from above! Just perfect on a hot day!

The ambience is chilled and relaxed although I wish they didn't use such high pitched Asian music in the background. Maybe I should introduce them to Jay Chou and the Asian pop scene (with more the love songs to play in the background - at least the love songs aren't so irritating on the ears).

Anyway, I wasn't there for very long... More an afternoon catchup with a gf I haven't seen in a couple of months due to our conflicting schedule of holiday making.

But I'll let you know that they have an extensive meal menu, catering towards breakfast/lunch/brunch (even at 3pm!). They also have a nice and sweet dessert menu and a lovely range of coffees, frappas, iced teas and of course hot teas. So really you can make it a day chilling out in their courtyard garden! or book out their private function area upstairs (I think it'd be perfect of Hen's parties/kitchen teas/baby showers/birthdays).

But for us - afternoon tea it is. Being hot (poor and I'm feeling a bit fat as I've had a bad week at the gym) we settled for one alligator strawberry frappe for MM and one Lychee iced tea for me. We also had a plate of cream, jam and scones to share - one plain and one fruit. But they do a proper two hours high tea! Just give them a call to book!

 

The frappe was beautiful with freshly blended strawberries topped with ice cream and cream (I had a sip). The lychee iced tea - was a little watered down and could've been more flavoursome, was nonetheless fruity (thanks to the additional two lychee (probably canned) fruit at the bottom and total refreshing on a hot sunny afternoon. 

The scones on the other hand were a bit of a let down. Skimping out on the cream and jam. Scones themselves were a little on the stale side (although was warm). We should've had the macaroons they looked great! Nevermind, next time.

I also recommend, if you are a tea lover just get your hot tea because at $5 it's a bottomless cup, meaning buy just one cup and you can sit there and get refills for the same tea or any of the other teas on their menu!

Overall, Chapels on Whatley is such a lovely place to catch up chill and have a nice long chat! And afterwards you can wander around the area and have a look at the boutiques and heh why not check out the things Chapels themselves sell at the back?

Afternoon High Tea

A couple of weekends ago I attended a casual afternoon high tea party at one of my work mate's place. They live close to the city, near the Mount Lawley strip, the craziness of Northbridge in an apartment/villa complex. It was absolutely gorgeous place, cosy place.

She invited a few of us from work and baked us so much goodies! There were scones, rock cakes, nougat, banoffee pies, filo pastry etc. She's absolutely talented, making majority of the dishes, except for the sandwiches, tarts, butterfly cupcake and orange cupcake.

She also bought a huge range of tea from black tea, earl gray, green tea to darjeeling and this "smoky bacon flavoured" twinings tea which I actual surprisingly enjoyed, despite my friends hating it.

It was just a delightful public holiday Monday to spend with work collegues outside of work in a relaxed environment and get to know them.

Good food, good tea, good company what more do you need in life?

High Tea at The George

I love High Teas, but the only problem with them is that I don't have such a sweet tooth. I'm not saying I don't like cake, don't get me wrong, I love cake, just as long as it doesn't taste as though it's been covered and dipped in 60% glucose syrup.

Anyway, I've been to the Pennisula (or The Tranby House) Tea House in Maylands and love that they keep the traditional side of things with the nice and lovely royal dulton china sets. However, I wanted to go to something a little more trendy, a little more daring, a little more modern. After googling, I came across The George. The new hip after-work bar, the new-ish restaurant on St. George's Tce. The George does a mean High Tea on a Sunday, a High Tea with a twist.

For those with High Tea experience, you would be aware that there is usually a choice of tea (The George has an extensive and intersting list of teas to choose from) as well as of course coffees.

The menu is then divided into three tiers. The bottom tier consists of your savoury foods, your sandwiches etc. The second should be a mixture of savoury and sweet. The third and top most tier is your sweets. You always start off with scones, have the savoury and work your way up to the sweets.

The Menu:

Menu
Finger Sandwiches:
Home smoked salmon, cucumber, caper, sour cream
Earl grey smoked chicken, pancetta, roasted garlic mayo
Rare beef, spiced tomato and roquette
Triple brie, quince with swiss chard
Pastries:
Homemade lemonade scones, with raspberry chilli balsamic jam and orange vanilla cream
Mini blue cheese, marmalade and spinach tartlets
Mini french style pasties and cakes

we had so many plates of scones but OMG it was just fabulous! the raspberry chilli balsamic jam and the vanilla cream were just to die for

Finger Sandwiches:Home smoked salmon, cucumber, caper, sour cream
Earl grey smoked chicken, pancetta, roasted garlic mayo
Rare beef, spiced tomato and roquette
Again fabulous! Although the baguettes were a little hard to bite into. But the combination for the sandwiches were exquisite and something different, simple and oh-so-grown-up!

Triple brie, quince with swiss chard 
Mini blue cheese, marmalade and spinach tartlets
 They were just perfect. Both of them. Savoury but sweet. It was unexplainable. 
Your tastebuds had an orgasm!
It just worked so well!

The selection of mini sweets. The meringue was just perfect. Not to sweet not to zesty. 
 

It was unbelievable. Everything was just so fantastic. The lemonade scones with the loveliest of vanilla cream (made from real vanilla beans!). The Mini blue cheese, marmalde spinach tartlets looked like it was savoury but when you bite into it was sweet. ARGH the tastebud and mind confusion! It was just fabulous.

The George delivers a stunning high tea, a lot of thought has been put into creating the menu. The service was pretty good, although I thought it could have been a lot better considering there wasn't that many people for the late afternoon session. It is very good value for the quality of food and tea. I will definitely be back on Sunday to have those tartlets!!

High Tea at The George
Cost:
$36 The George Package – Food and tea
$43 Prestige package: with glass of Australian sparkling wine
$49 Grand Cru package: with glass of French champagne or specialty cocktail
When: Saturdays 1-4pm, Sundays 1-5pm
Where: The George, 216 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000, Australia
Tel: 08 6161 6662
Bookings are essential for High Tea at The George.
Email: info@thegeorgeperth.com.au
www.thegeorgeperth.com.au

Two Ladies take to Tea on a Thursday mid-morning

OH how lovely are the grounds at Peninsula Tea Gardens in Maylands Pity the sun didn't come out to play all that much, which resulted in us having an indoors table.

This was taken when the rain decided to take a break and let the sun shine for a while

 

Although, we were very lucky to have the rain stop while we were having our breakfast/lunch/high tea.

It was fantastic. We used beautiful royal dalton cups and other silverwares...

All the lovely china and silverware to drink your tea

The beautiful tea cup

 

This is the cutest thing ever - the sugar holder!

Our Parisian Tea - 3 tiers of goodies for 2

had yummy smoke salmon, roast beef, cumcumber and ham sandwiches at the bottom tier 

- all with fantastic mayo/dressing/sauce?

Scones with JAM and CREAM made up the second tier

- the cream was fresh, the jam was sweet as and the scones to die for. THE best scones ever.

BUTTERY and moist.

and of course indulged ourselves in petite cakes. 

All downed with pots of tea. S opting for Kenliworth, and later a Latte, while I opted for Lovers Leap followed by the traditional English Breakfast.

It's so relaxing there, I love it. You get to escape the hussle and bussle of the city and yet be so close to it still. It's especially great on a Thursday mid-morning when it isn't so crowded, you have your own space. Allows you to chat, laugh over a nice cuppa tea. 

What more does a lady want?

 

It's absolute perfection.