High tea

This week, the awesome people at the newly opened Raffles Hotel in Manila invited a few members of the book club for an afternoon of high tea. My goodness, they were very gracious hosts indeed!

The original Raffles Hotel in Singapore had a reputation for having been a favorite of such writers such as Ernest Hemingway, W. Somerset Maugham, and Rudyard Kipling. Raffles Manila would like to continue this long history of supporting writers and readers, so they're exploring the possibility of touching base with a book club.

Being a tea drinker myself, I've had high tea a couple of times, but I never knew that this afternoon tradition involves 3 courses! Oy, I die!

The first course: savory sandwiches
Cucumber, ham and cream cheese, pastrami, egg salad, and smoked salmon

The second course: scones
My favorite scone was the chocolate chip variety
Clotted cream so thick you can eat it like ice cream
and strawberry jam

The third course: sweets
Macarons, dark chocolate cake, eclairs, fruit tarts
The mini key lime pie was divine.

I would just have to say that Monique, the marketing communications manager, is a true bibliophile. She talked about Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, and David Mitchell. Of course, we just have to introduce her to Jose Saramago. Bianca, one of the marketing staff, is a Harry Potter and Chuck Palahniuk fan. It's so wonderful to meet fellow bibliophiles, yes?

The Writers' Bar at Raffles is an ideal place for reading, I think. They have high bookshelves filled with books. Too bad I wasn't able to take pictures.

I do hope that we can hold one of the book club's discussions over at the Writers' Bar at Raffles, or at least their long bar, where they encourage customers to throw their peanut shells on the floor. I'm thinking period dramas! Or elaborate costumes! Or ladies in flouncy dresses! Or rugged gentlemen like Papa Hemingway! Oh, the possibilities!