Dining

People Drink This Stuff?

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 4 Comments

The Education of a Reluctant Whisky Drinker

“The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whisky. By diligent effort, I learned to like it.” ~ Winston Churchill

 

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Tasting room at Penderyn Distillery

In Latin it is aqua vitae. In Gaelic it is uisge beatha. Both have the same meaning: the water of life. Over the centuries the mispronunciation of uisge beatha  (oosh’-ge ba’) gradually morphed into the word now known the world over as whisky, specifically, Scotch whisky. Continue reading →

The Queen of Teas

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 5 Comments

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“Afternoon tea should be provided, fresh supplies, with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc., being brought in as other guests arrive.”  ~ Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Several years ago, when I was still toiling away every working day in an office, chained to a desk and a telephone by a headset cord and staring at a computer screen with dry, unblinking eyes, I was delighted to learn that the office space next door to ours was being turned into a tea room. Continue reading →

A Tale of Two Scones

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 10 Comments

It was the best of teas; it was the creamiest of teas…

In America, when we think of tea in the sense of it being a meal rather than just a beverage, what we think of is the elegant repast known as afternoon tea. Images of the grand afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC spring to mind. We think of liveried waiters winding through a sea of chinDSC05114tz fabric and polished wood, bearing aloft silver serving trays laden with delectable pastries, exquisite miniature sandwiches and pots of steaming hot tea. That, for us, is tea. And so it is slightly baffling when we first arrive in this country to see signs hanging outside tea shops in nearly every village and town advertising something mysteriously called a cream tea.

What, exactly, is a cream tea? We know that most British people take milk in their tea, something that is still not as common in America. Is that what they mean by a cream tea? Does it just mean tea with some cream in it instead of plain milk? Is it the tea version of that naughty but delicious American invention, the Caffe Breve? No, it is not. A cream tea, sometimes also called a Devonshire cream tea, refers to a cup, or a pot of tea served with scones, cream and jam. As simple as that.

Or is it?

Continue reading →

Good on Crackers

~ Elizabeth Hurd ~ 3 Comments

The cow is of the bovine ilk;

One end is moo, the other, milk. ~ Ogden Nash

Since moving to our little village in Wiltshire my husband and I, and our little dog, have enjoyed many beautiful walks through the surrounding countryside.  Our house sits on the very last street before the village gives way to farmland, and the briefest of strolls lands us in fertile green pastures. The joys of the legally protected right to walk on footpaths and other routes, even those that cross private land, is one which I shall cover in a future blog. For now I shall just note that these footpaths give us access to land and scenery that would otherwise be merely glimpsed in a blur from our car windows as we speed past on our way to somewhere else, and they allow us to get up close and personal with the animal which has contributed greatly to my personal happiness over the years – the cow. Continue reading →