What produce/ingredients did you buy or obtain today? (2018-2022)

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morning glory said:
Sorry - misunderstood. But indeed - why? Norfolk is one of my favourite counties.
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I don't know, but we also have an absolutely lovely couple from Manchester who own a proper country-style tea cafe. Proper lunches like cheese and pickle sandwiches, homemade soups, and an excellent, no-frills, no-fuss afternoon tea, seven days a week...and that's even worse, because they're in Dayton. :)

We do have a lot of UK expats who live around Dayton, partly because there's a large US Air Force base nearby (we used to have loads of Americans stationed in the UK, and many married and brought back British-born families), but also because, back in the '50's and '60's, some big American companies (the three Generals; General Motors, General Electric, and General Dynamics) recruited Brits and Germans to come over for work.
 
TastyReuben said:
I don't know, but we also have an absolutely lovely couple from Manchester who own a proper country-style tea cafe. Proper lunches like cheese and pickle sandwiches, homemade soups, and an excellent, no-frills, no-fuss afternoon tea, seven days a week...and that's even worse, because they're in Dayton. :)

We do have a lot of UK expats who live around Dayton, partly because there's a large US Air Force base nearby (we used to have loads of Americans stationed in the UK, and many married and brought back British-born families), but also because, back in the '50's and '60's, some big American companies (the three Generals; General Motors, General Electric, and General Dynamics) recruited Brits and Germans to come over for work.
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Well I never knew that tea rooms were a thing in the USA. I thought it was just you TastyReuben, who loved the afternoon tea ritual. I just googled and found all sorts of tea rooms around Dayton upholding the UK ritual. More than one would find in the UK.
 
morning glory said:
Well I never knew that tea rooms were a thing in the USA. I thought it was just you TastyReuben, who loved the afternoon tea ritual. I just googled and found all sorts of tea rooms around Dayton upholding the UK ritual. More than one would find in the UK.
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I don't know if I'd call them a thing or not - we do have them, but usually, they're more like a caricature of what an American would think a "real" English tea room would be - and that means lots of fussy plates and dainty things and people saying, "Oh how delightful!," and "Jolly Cheerio, what what!" - sort of like what it feels like if I walk into a "Real American Barbecue" restaurant overseas, and everyone's wearing cowboy hats and boots and saying, "Why hello, pard-ner!" It's gimmicky. That's how a lot of tea rooms are here. You feel like you've just stepped into a Jane Austen novel.

That's why I like the place I mentioned. It's like a cafe, nearly like a diner, really, and there's none of that fake feeling going on. It's just a cafe that happens to serve British food and tea (and other soft drinks).

The best part - we've been there probably a dozen times over the years, and every single time, someone complained to the staff that their cheese-and-pickle sandwich had no pickle. "Pickle," to most Americans, especially when used in the context of a sandwich, means a big fat Kosher dill pickle served on the side, not some black-looking stuff smeared on a a sandwich. I always get a laugh out of that. :laugh:
 
TastyReuben said:
I don't know if I'd call them a thing or not - we do have them, but usually, they're more like a caricature of what an American would think a "real" English tea room would be - and that means lots of fussy plates and dainty things and people saying, "Oh how delightful!," and "Jolly Cheerio, what what!" - sort of like what it feels like if I walk into a "Real American Barbecue" restaurant overseas, and everyone's wearing cowboy hats and boots and saying, "Why hello, pard-ner!" It's gimmicky. That's how a lot of tea rooms are here. You feel like you've just stepped into a Jane Austen novel.

That's why I like the place I mentioned. It's like a cafe, nearly like a diner, really, and there's none of that fake feeling going on. It's just a cafe that happens to serve British food and tea (and other soft drinks).

The best part - we've been there probably a dozen times over the years, and every single time, someone complained to the staff that their cheese-and-pickle sandwich had no pickle. "Pickle," to most Americans, especially when used in the context of a sandwich, means a big fat Kosher dill pickle served on the side, not some black-looking stuff smeared on a a sandwich. I always get a laugh out of that. :laugh:
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Do you have a link for the cafe?
 
MG, tea rooms got popular with young girls back in the 90s (?), at least around Dallas. Girls and their moms would book tea parties for birthdays and such, and go learn proper etiquette for afternoon tea -- in the old victorian storybook style.

I still have an old, stainless restaurant tea set I bought back in the 90s. It has developed a nice patina inside, that is supposed to make the tea taste better (?).

CD
 
We have a couple of tea rooms here. One has hundreds of tea sets that the owner and her mother have collected over the years. It was one of the restaurants featured on a local show that has 3 diners pick their favorite restaurant, then all 3 go to each other's choice, then they review on the show. I've never been to either, but both supposedly serve proper teas. I wanted to take our oldest DGD once when she was here, but she had no interest. :(
 
Afternoon tea, here anyway, is something that no "real" man would ever consider doing (like eating quiche :laugh:.

We occasionally attend classes at a cooking school nearby, and one year, they had a class on afternoon tea (it was lead by the personal chef from Norfolk who clued me in on homemade creme fraiche).

I called in, signed us up, because we used to go to afternoon tea in the UK, where men do get to have scones and keep their manhood. When I called in, I didn't get the regular admin person, but someone else.

Day of the class, we show up, and we got there first, just dressed casually, me and the wife, and the assistant instructor meets us and she's looking at us a little weirdly, pointing at us and whispering, etc. Whatever.

Other folks showed up, and the first thing that was apparent was, even though it's Winter, all the women were wearing Spring dresses, pastels and flowery prints, and big floppy flowery Easter hats. We're in jeans. More whatever.

Then the class started, and the next thing that was made obvious was in a class of about 30 people, I was the only guy. Even more whatever, because stuff like that doesn't usually register with me anyway.

All through the class, everyone kept looking at us and giggling, one woman passed by my wife and said something like, "Good job," for no reason, things like that.

Finally, we reached the end of the class, and they always do a giveaway at these things, and at this one, they gave away a tea-themed gift basket; tea, a pot, a couple of cups, etc. We didn't win.

Everyone was winding down, helping clear the dishes, chatting, and finally, the instructor clapped her hands and said, "Attention, attention! We do want to recognize someone among us with a little extra gift...MrTasty, for having the bravery to attend a tea party with MrsTasty! Not many men would do that, and good job to MrsTasty for talking him into it! A big round of applause for Mister and Missus Tasty!" Then they gave us a big box of tea.

I thought it was funny, but the wife...was not amused, as they say. She didn't like the implication that she had to force me to go, she said it made her sound like a nag. She made a point to tell several people, "It was his idea! It was his idea!" :laugh:

We did find out that when I'd made reservations, had I reached the usual person, she would have told me that we were encouraged to dress for a tea party (I would have worn the same thing anyway), but because I got a temp person, she didn't know to tell me, so we missed that.
 
TastyReuben said:
Afternoon tea, here anyway, is something that no "real" man would ever consider doing (like eating quiche :laugh:.

We occasionally attend classes at a cooking school nearby, and one year, they had a class on afternoon tea (it was lead by the personal chef from Norfolk who clued me in on homemade creme fraiche).

I called in, signed us up, because we used to go to afternoon tea in the UK, where men do get to have scones and keep their manhood. When I called in, I didn't get the regular admin person, but someone else.

Day of the class, we show up, and we got there first, just dressed casually, me and the wife, and the assistant instructor meets us and she's looking at us a little weirdly, pointing at us and whispering, etc. Whatever.

Other folks showed up, and the first thing that was apparent was, even though it's Winter, all the women were wearing Spring dresses, pastels and flowery prints, and big floppy flowery Easter hats. We're in jeans. More whatever.

Then the class started, and the next thing that was made obvious was in a class of about 30 people, I was the only guy. Even more whatever, because stuff like that doesn't usually register with me anyway.

All through the class, everyone kept looking at us and giggling, one woman passed by my wife and said something like, "Good job," for no reason, things like that.

Finally, we reached the end of the class, and they always do a giveaway at these things, and at this one, they gave away a tea-themed gift basket; tea, a pot, a couple of cups, etc. We didn't win.

Everyone was winding down, helping clear the dishes, chatting, and finally, the instructor clapped her hands and said, "Attention, attention! We do want to recognize someone among us with a little extra gift...MrTasty, for having the bravery to attend a tea party with MrsTasty! Not many men would do that, and good job to MrsTasty for talking him into it! A big round of applause for Mister and Missus Tasty!" Then they gave us a big box of tea.

I thought it was funny, but the wife...was not amused, as they say. She didn't like the implication that she had to force me to go, she said it made her sound like a nag. She made a point to tell several people, "It was his idea! It was his idea!" :laugh:

We did find out that when I'd made reservations, had I reached the usual person, she would have told me that we were encouraged to dress for a tea party (I would have worn the same thing anyway), but because I got a temp person, she didn't know to tell me, so we missed that.
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Great story!
 
morning glory said:
Great story!
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Thanks. Just to show how phobic some people here can be, when my nephew turned 15 or 16 or whatever and could drive, he was interested in being able to go out on his own on dates with young women his age, as you'd expect.

To say my nephew is unconventional is an understatement. He likes to show up at places dressed weirdly, then act as if nothing is amiss, that sort of thing. He has a flair for the unusual.

We were talking about dating, and I mentioned that tea cafe, and I said, "I don't know about you, but if I were a 16yo girl, and someone took me there for afternoon tea, I'm going to be pretty impressed," and he agreed, asked a girl out and set the date.

That whole week before going, he got so much crap from family and friends for going to afternoon tea:

"Are you bringing a girl, or a boy?"
"Pardon me, Little Lord Buttboy!"
"So is she the man, or what?"

And it just went downhill from there. Thankfully, he was stubborn enough to go anyway, but he was really embarrassed by the whole thing and he said later that it kept him from having a good time, because the whole time he was on his date, people kept texting him rude things, strongly implying that he wasn't much of a young man.

Now, one could argue that that was all a very misplaced sense of fun, but a few days later, talking to my folks, who are of a very different generation, that had turned it around in their heads to the point that they'd believed their grandson had indeed gone on a date as a young woman, and not with a young woman, and they were upset, to say the least.
 
TastyReuben said:
And it just went downhill from there. Thankfully, he was stubborn enough to go anyway, but he was really embarrassed by the whole thing and he said later that it kept him from having a good time, because the whole time he was on his date, people kept texting him rude things, strongly implying that he wasn't much of a young man.

Now, one could argue that that was all a very misplaced sense of fun, but a few days later, talking to my folks, who are of a very different generation, that had turned it around in their heads to the point that they'd believed their grandson had indeed gone on a date as a young woman, and not with a young woman, and they were upset, to say the least.
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That is really sad. I hope he recovered and it didn't dampen his unconventional spirit.
 
morning glory said:
That is really sad. I hope he recovered and it didn't dampen his unconventional spirit.
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Yeah, both my wife and I gave some of the people in the family a stern talking to, so to speak. The whole idea that certain foods (or cars, or movies, or music) are "for girls" and others are "for guys" really chaps my backside. Seriously, while he was at afternoon tea, his stepdad photoshopped a pic of my nephew's face onto the body of an Austen-style woman and posted it on FB, basically calling his stepson a lady. On FB!

But no, he's in his mid-20's now and still his wild-and-wooly self, thank god. The last time I saw him was at Oktoberfest, and he came rolling up on his motorcycle, and when he got off, I could see he was wearing a kilt, a ruffled 1970's powder blue tuxedo shirt, cowboy boots, and a little silk skullcap. He's one-of-kind, that's for sure.
 
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