Afternoon tea, an enduring English institution, is not a place where one often thinks of food as fashion design. Started in the mid-19th century as a tide-me-over meal to satisfy the hunger pangs of famished ladies between the lunch and dinner hours, afternoon tea evolved into established ceremony well into the 20th century. Now it is more novelty for the tourist classes rather than ritual for social-set habitues.
For a typical afternoon tea look for finger [...]
Featuring well among the West End theatres are few culinary stars. Nearly all of the food houses are flops – marquee billings for homogenized offerings catering to tourists easily satisfied with the chain or ethnic themed dining experience. Me, I’m looking for the meal showstopper. Long runs of good eats are hard to find. Not so with J. Sheekey – it’s a cause celebre that good taste and things that taste good can, hand [...]
Hummingbirds, native only to the Americas and so named for the noise ensuing from their rapid wing motion, is the misplaced nom de guerre for a nostalgia bakes business here in the U.K. Sure the cupcakes look pretty in their colorful sprinkled kindergarten art class style but, HUMMING BIRD BAKERY takes you for a birdbath in the worst possible way. Each time we went back we got chalk dry flavorless mounds with greasy icing. Decoration [...]
