?? A traditional English Afternoon Tea 傳統的英式下午茶 ??

In my previous posts, I promised to take you to afternoon tea at The Manor House Hotel.
之前的帖子說過要帶大家去享受一頓傳統的英式下午茶。現在就出發到吧!

Let’s take a little walk around the grounds first. From the entrance, we walk down the driveway alongside the river. The hotel is on the other side. I think in the summer this should be a very pleasant stroll under the blue skies, over the bridge and just wandering around the massive garden, or maybe having tea outside.
進入大宅的大門後，首先要經過戶外的花園。
我們沿著河邊窄窄的車道走着。 大宅就在小河的另外一邊。 我覺得夏天在這裏散步應該很舒服，藍藍天空，小橋流水，翠綠的花園，或者在戶外享用下午茶會更寫意。

Let’s go inside the hotel now.
我們現在進入大宅內。

A real wood fire welcomes us from the cold, and we sit in the hall while we wait to be shown to our table.
大堂有一個真木火爐歡迎我們。在等待服務員帶我們到座位時，我們先在這裡坐一會。

Or you can play a game of chess while you wait.
有興趣的話甚至可以一邊等，一邊下西洋棋。

The hotel is quite old and has many small dining rooms, each with its own character.
這家大宅蠻古老，有很多間小偏廳，每一間的裝潢都很別緻，古色古香。

This is our dining room. I love the colour scheme, yellow walls with fushia curtains and cushions. It turns out I wore a matching outfit that day!!!
我們在這間偏廳享用下午茶，我很喜歡黃色的牆紙配紫紅色的窗簾及坐墊。當天很巧，原來我穿的衣服跟這裏也很合襯。

There were 7 of us, and they put 3 little tables together for us. I think this was much more cosier than sitting around one large table.
我們一行七人被安排坐到拼在一起的三張小桌。我覺得這樣較舒適又方便聊天，不會像一張大桌那麼拘謹。

Here’s the menu. Its a traditional English afternoon tea, scones, pastries and sandwiches, and a choice of tea or coffee. By the way, don’t confuse afternoon tea with high tea. In the old days, afternoon is what the aristocrats have in the afternoon, and high tea is what the labour workers have after a long day at work.
這個是今天傳統的英式下午茶的餐單。有司康餅，各式各樣的甜點及三文治，還有一系列的茶及咖啡可供選擇。 傳統的英式下午茶是afternoon tea而不是high tea ，兩者很不同。 Afternoon tea 是英國貴族午餐與晚餐之間享用的輕食，high tea 是勞工大眾辛苦工作一天後回家吃的。

Here’s our afternoon tea. Yummy!! The traditional way to enjoy afternoon tea is to start with the mild flavour food and then move to the sweets, so scones first, finger sandwich and then the sweet pastries.
我的下午茶是不是很誘人呢! ! 享用下午茶應該從口味較淡的司康餅開始，然後吃三文治，最後才吃甜點。

There are two views on how to eat scone, whether its jam first or cream first. There is no right answer to this as it depends on whether you eat it the Devon way (cream first then jam) or Cornish way (jam first then cream). Normally I eat it the Cornish way as I like to pile a lot of cream on my scone. This is the Devon way as it looks nice in a photo!
一直以來，吃司康餅正確的方法都有爭議， 究竟是先搽奶油還是果醬。 這完全視乎你是德雲派(先奶油後果醬)還是康沃爾派(先果醬後奶油)。 通常我是康沃爾派因為我喜歡搽一層厚厚的奶油在司康餅上。這次吃德雲方法純粹是因為拍照較美觀。

Another debate for afternoon tea is whether you pour the milk or the tea in the cup first. Aristocrats who drank tea using good quality bone china would pour tea first, and then add milk depending on how strong they like their tea. The manual labourers would use poorer quality cups which couldn’t withstanding hot tea very well. They would pour cold milk in their cups first, and then tea.
下午茶另外一個常常較有爭議的話題，是應該先把茶還是鮮奶放入杯中。這一個爭拗就有較明顯的答案。以前貴族用的瓷器杯品質很好，可以承受茶的熱量，所以他們是先把熱茶沖入杯子中，然後視乎個人喜愛茶的濃度再加牛奶。 但是一般平民勞動階級用的杯品質沒有那麼好，熱茶沖入杯子中杯子可能會破裂，所以勞動階級就會先把牛奶加到杯中然後才加熱茶。

Now that I’ve shared some trivia about traditional English afternoon tea, I’m going to have a cuppa and dig into this yummy looking apple tart.
講了很多傳統英式下午茶的小知識，我現在要吃我至愛的蘋果甜點喔。