Taking Tea

While visiting, and now living most of the year in, Italy I have learned to appreciate good coffee – a foamy morning cappuccino, a fragrant afternoon macchiato.  I have even learned to drink a straight espresso on occasion, providing it is laced with plenty of sugar.  

A breakfast tea in Florence at the hotel Morandi alla Crocetta

But, thanks to an Irish mother and grandmother, I was raised on tea. They firmly believed that there was no problem in life that was too big to be solved over a cup of tea, especially when served with sugar, milk, and a side of something sweet.

 They left a lasting legacy - I still love a good cup of hot tea.  It is the way I begin every morning.  When I travel I love to find a hotel with a good morning breakfast tea service. It starts the day off right. 

But “taking tea” is so much more than just a way to start the day.  Tea is an event! One thing to remember - it is nearly criminal to order tea without something sweet to go along with it because, as a British transplant to Lucca once told me, “without some cake your tea is just too wet”.   Words of wisdom!

While Italy does not have as much of a tea tradition as some places, there are several spots where, in addition to great coffee, pots of tea are served along with a pastry or a slice of cake. One such spot is Cafe Manon Lescaut in Piazza Cittadella. When my British friend Judy came to visit she was delighted with the afternoon tea there (pictured below).

These days one of my favorite places to take tea in Lucca is the H&G Coffee Lounge.  Don’t let the name fool you, it isn’t all about the coffee.  At H&G they also brew lovely pots of tea and describe tea as a “perfectly codified ritual”.  The loose leaf tea comes in a stoneware vessel alongside a little timer so that the brewing time is just right.  And they have a selection of tasty cakes to go with.  Best of all tea is served in a pretty room with comfy chairs and quiet music.  Unlike the Italian habit of quickly downing a coffee, here you can linger with your pot of tea. Sitting at H&G on a rainy afternoon, with a good book to read and a hot cup of tea, is a joy.

 One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to find a place, simple or elegant, to have tea.  I’ve taken tea in various US, Canadian, and European cities. Below are photos of some of my favorites. Top row: Lauduree in Paris (left and middle), Cassandras Cup Tea Room, near Jane Austen’s cottage in Chawton, England (right). Bottom row: Gilli Cafe in Florence, souvenirs from The Empress in Victoria, Canada, and (bottom right) the very elegant tea room at the Four Seasons Gresham Palace in Budapest. Each place had its own character and charm.

One of my all-time favorite teas was on board a Viking Ocean Cruise.  The ship had a bright and welcoming tea room that served a daily high tea.  Taking tea in their beautiful tea salon definitely made me feel spoiled! I could have gone every afternoon on the cruise, but oh the calories!

  When I return to Albuquerque to visit my family you can bet I will spend one afternoon at the Saint James Tea Room. They serve a high tea complete with savories, scones, lemon curd, and sweets.  The Saint James ranks right up there with the best tea rooms in Europe. The setting, with cozy alcoves, beautiful china, and a sweet gift shop, is part of the fun.

I am trying to introduce my granddaughters to the concept of tea.  I started with a simple home tea party a few years ago - complete with hats and Oreos. Tea manners were definitely in the infancy stage.

They’ve now graduated to the Saint James.  Let’s just say that dressing up for tea, using soft voices, and appropriate tea conversation is still a work in progress.  This was tea with giggles.

Do you have as favorite tea spot?  I’d love to see photos on the Two Parts Italy facebook page!

Tea and a Marionberry scone on the coast of Oregon

Cook Once and Entertain Twice: An Afternoon Tea and Evening Aperitivo

I’ve always adhered to the “cook once, eat twice” school of meal prep. This was especially true in the days when I was working full time and doing most of the cooking for my family. Even now, when I am usually cooking for just one in my tiny Italian kitchen, I love making extra and having leftovers. Soups, stews, extra salad ingredients all prepped - these things make life much easier.

One lump or two ? The quintessential tea question.

But I’ve never really applied that approach to entertaining. It was just a bit of serendipity that recently saw me doing some culinary recycling, stretching the preparations over two separate events.
I had carefully planned the first event - an afternoon tea for a a group of friends, one of whom is soon to depart Lucca for her home across the sea.

The tea was a fairly formal affair with dainty tea sandwiches, scones with lemon curd, and the Queen’s own shortbread (or so the recipe claimed) along with chocolate cookies rolled in pistachio bits.

It was served in proper courses - first savories, then scones, and finally sweets. Very ladylike!

With plenty of leftovers, I turned around the next day and hosted an impromptu rainy evening aperitivo. One key - there was no overlap in the two groups that I hosted, so that no one was seeing the same dishes twice. I did fess up to the aperitivo group that I had served some of the same things, though in slightly different form, the day before. They did not seem to mind at all! Of course a formal tea with scones and the like is not appropriate fare for an evening aperitivo, so I had to change things up a bit.

A buffet rather than a formal table setting worked best for the aperitivo. But the fall centerpiece and even the tablecloth worked for both.

For the aperitivo I did make one platter of small sandwich rounds filled with a gorgonzola pecan spread and some cherry jam (exactly the same as I’d served for tea the day prior). But I changed the other sandwich offering - the one with a salmon cream cheese filling. For the aperitivo, I served the salmon filling as a spread for crackers rather than in the little triangular sandwiches I had made for the tea.

What was a salmon sandwich filling for tea became this spread with crackers for the aperitivo

I added a bowl of potato chips and a couple of bottles of wine and - voila! - an Italian aperitivo. We ended up talking for hours, solving many of the world’s problems, which gave me a perfect excuse to set out the leftover cookies.

Doing the two events back to back was fun and used my leftover ingredients to great advantage. And it really cut prep time! With slight modification, the table setting morphed from formal tea to informal aperitivo. Even the fall centerpiece of leaves (collected on Lucca’s walls) and local gourds and pumpkins made the transition nicely. Plus, I was able to see two different sets of friends and enjoy two very different events. That was the best part.
Cook once and entertain twice or, in Italian, cucina una volta e intrattieni due volte, just may be my new motto.

Fall days in Lucca are perfect for entertaining.