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Friday 14 November 2014

High Tea In Auckland



`We had High Tea there,'  said the girl who worked in the rather expensive shoe shop.  She wasn't talking to me of course because I'd already told her twice that I was fine, had nothing planned for the rest of the day and was in effect just browsing.    She lowered her voice and looked about her before naming the rather expensive hotel where she had recently had the High Tea Experience.  Her companion looked suitably impressed.
Fancy Hotels in New Zealand advertising `High Tea’ as something those who are socially upwardly mobile should aim for, make me squirm.  They clearly do not realize that the early evening repast they are dallying with is, in the land where it emerged, the evening meal of the working classes.   High Tea is served between five and seven and, in order to appease the appetite of the average farm labourer, is likely to consist of  a meat pie or maybe a hot pasty served with plenty of thickly cut bread spread liberally with margarine.   This hearty fare might be followed by large slices of sultana cake or even a steamed syrup pudding.    Oh how I wish the local upmarket places currently serving High Tea had thought to do a modicum of research before they sought to make their version sound Higher than their rival’s, because what they are actually serving is simply Afternoon Tea as might be served to the Downton Abbey Dowager (who, believe me, would never had eaten High Tea in her life).   

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