Afternoon tea

I jumped at the chance to buy a deal I saw online for Afternoon Tea at the Hilton Park Lane, London. Fancy tea, pretty cakes and posh finger sandwiches! I purchased the deal and invited my friend. We have a lot in common - she has the same name as me (natasha) and is vegetarian too.

Upon arriving we were welcomed into the Podium restaurant where we were to have our Afternoon Tea. But this was no ordinary tea party, this was the 'confessions of a chocoholic' afternoon tea. Equation = a lot of chocolate, sweet treats and delicious cakes.

We began our tea party by selecting some tea from their diverse menu. Natasha went for the 'jasmine flower maidens' tea (top left) - a sculptured hand rolled jasmine tea that blossoms over hot water. I went for the 'silver needles' tea (bottom right) - the rarest of the rare teas. Both much needed after braving the winter cold walking from the station to the restaurant.

Shortly after, our finger sandwiches came. Now these tasted as good as they looked. We had (from left to right) asparagus and lettuce with balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of cheese. New to asparagus this was actually really nice. Next was tomato and mozzarella with a pesto drizzle. As a rule of thumb, anything that has mozzarella or pesto is a winner for me. After that, traditional cucumber and cream cheese topped with chives - this is always a favourite. Next was good old cheddar cheese with a hint of grape. These went really well together and are worth trying. Finally we had egg and cress. I didn't like that one - there was too much of it on one little finger sandwich.

Next arrived the chocoholic cakes and treats. I won't go into detail about these but by the end of our afternoon tea session I was in a sugar coma, and not looking forward to the sugar crash - but it was definitely worth it. The picture above shows three levels of sugar overdose, and the tray on the top level was edible chocolate!

I paid £29.50 for two people (after the 50% deal discount). If you want to treat a friend or taste a bit of the posh London scene (or just have a big sweet tooth) then this is definitely something I would recommend.

I am now inspired to host my very own afternoon tea with home made finger sandwiches and cakes. Watch this space!

Introduction to the vegetable patch diaries

My story starts with 'a guy', Freddo. He’s a vegetarian. After spending a lot of time with him in 2012, I found myself eating only vegetarian food around him (I don’t really know why or how that came about – but it did). A year later, and still spending a lot of time with him, I found myself making a 2013 commitment – to try vegetarianism.

I had given this a lot of consideration for several months beforehand, and like anyone I had concerns; “can I do it?” and “how will I manage without nandos and burger king?!”. I wondered if I would cope, and today, still wonder (i’m only 19 days into my new food lifestyle!). To go from eating meat every day to suddenly go cold turkey – pun intended. And i’m not sure if you’ve ever picked up a menu but most restaurants I went to in 2012 with Freddo didn’t have a generous or great selection of vegetarian food.

Now I’ve obviously gone to the wrong places to find good vegetarian food. There are approx 3.6m vegetarians in the UK (google was my “source”) so where do they eat? I’m on the search for delicious food – that’s vegetarian. I’ll blog about places that serve exciting vegetarian food, and along the way also attempt to cook some tasty meals. I know there is interesting vegetarian food out there and I am determined to find it (and eat it). I also invite you to tell me about your experiences and recommend some great vegetarian places to eat at, and recipes to try.