More tea?

My landlady is a top cook, she thinks nothing of whipping up four dishes for dinner in half an hour, all with ingredients I haven’t even seen before, let alone tasted… so you can imagine the fear when she asked me to teach her ‘British cooking’. Now, us Brits now that while we can all whip up an Uncle Ben’s sweet and sour or a thai curry with ready made paste, it’s another thing to be Delia Smith with the old beef and Yorkshires… Rather than starting with something complicated I suggested scones, even though they’re really a bit boring and don’t take much effort to do. She absolutely loved it! We made about 80 on the table in the garden, no joke, flour everywhere and the smell of baking competing with next door’s fried bee hoon. Hilariously we then sat down to a cream tea with Earl Grey and jam and cream… it was ace. I thought the English cream tea was all over until I found that while I was out the following day, her and her husband set up a table in front of a row of sunflowers in the garden. They brought out the best china and set up the scones on a cake stand, donned their best clothes and took photos of themselves eating the scones!! Don’t you just love it! I was glad to be of service to the Chinese community. In return I learnt how to make wantons, be warned, they look easy but mine tasted of glue.