Hoity-Toity High Tea

Afternoon Tea at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore

A very generous brother decided to take us for a teatime treat on our visit to Singapore, and where else would you go for Afternoon Tea other than the famed Raffles Hotel, a colonial style establishment that's easily the most famous hotel in the country. Having spent our entire childhood in the tea gardens of Assam, being exposed to amazing cooks from the British era who would bake the most delicious cakes, scones and pies, this was something we were all looking forward to. So we dressed up, skipped lunch and saved our appetites for the big one at 3 p.m.

Tea platter

We arrived on time and had to wait in queue to enter the Tiffin Room and be shown to our tables. Reservations are mandatory. The room had large glass windows and the tables were covered with crisp white tablecloths and had silverware and white porcelain crockery. The waiter brought two three-tiered trays to our table laden with mini sandwiches and desserts. One had food for two of us sitting across from each other and the other had food for three.

Silverware

As far as the food goes, the sandwiches were good. Of the mini pies and tarts and muffins, I liked the coconut muffin with the orange icing the best. The miniature size of the items on the platter were just perfect as that allowed you to eat lots of other things without getting stuffed within the first 10 minutes of sitting down. The buffet had four types of dim sums, patties, scones and lots of fruit. There was also a variety of cold fruit and herb teas. The service was a bit slow as the waiters didn't come around often enough to clear our plates so as a result the table got a little cluttered. The tiered trays looked like they had seen better days and were bent out of shape from the top.

Darjeeling Tea

The dim sums were alright, not spectacular and I thought the spread, large as it was, could have been a bit more varied by cutting down on the number of fruit plates and adding more interesting stuff. I was not too fond of the madeleines with the pink icing either. We had a nice time as a family but as far as a high tea goes, at SGD62++ a head, I felt they could have done a bit better with the menu selection. Still, my brother and I cleaned out our tray and I was stuffed by the end of it. My mom, uncle and sister-in-law, who were sharing a platter, were a little more restrained as you can see below.

Us

Them, by the end of it

Afternoon tea is said to have started in the early nineteenth century when Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford complained of "having the sinking feeling'' in the late afternoon. At the time people used to eat two meals a day, breakfast, and dinner at 8 p.m.  so the Duchess started having a pot of tea and a light snack in the afternoon in her boudoir. She then started inviting her friends over. The practice became popular with others too and then moved into the drawing room. You can read more about it here. Of course, we have none of those issues of limited meals. Most of the time I'm eating four meals a day and then complain about having a hard time losing the flab.

The queue before the hogging

As I write this, I do realise how fortunate I am to be able to eat this way while there are so many people in the world who are struggling to even get a single meal. I don't take it for granted and abhor wastage of food. Am trying to inculcate that in my children.

My favourite. Coconut cake with Kalamansi curd

Afternoon tea is very popular in London (no surprises there). Most hotels and lots of cafes and restaurants offer this in varying ranges and prices. Its one of the touted things for tourists to do. I didn't get the chance to do it on my trip a couple of years ago but would definitely do so the next time. Then I can have something to compare this with. The tea at the Raffles, which opened its doors in 1887 and also invented the Singapore Sling cocktail, was a nice experience though.