May 15, 2013

Bursaria: A Touch Of…. High Tea

Agnes collingwood, suburb

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of Bursaria and Zilla & Brook.

I seem to be going to a few afternoon teas lately – and I am certainly not complaining! It’s such a lovely thing to do – sip tea or coffee while nibbling little morsels of food. I love it.

One of the ones I attended lately was by Bursaria at the Abbotsford Convent. Bursaria are holding a series of high teas on the third Sunday of each month (until September) in the Rosina function space for $55 per person.

Upon entering the Rosina space courtyard, we were greeted with glasses of sparkling wine or a very sweet lemonade.

It took a while before we were able to enter the main hall. Unfortunately I know many people hadn’t eaten lunch so some of the bloggers I was with were starving. Poor things.

It didn’t help that once seated we were greeted by a beautiful assortment of desserts while we waited for savouries to be brought around – it was very hard to resist chomping down on all the sweet stuff. (And I may have given into temptation while waiting…)

There was pitchers of water and lemonade on the table, and staff walked around filling up tea and coffee from large jugs. Any other drinks could be purchased at the bar.

It was a big hall so it did take a while for the savoury food to come out, but they were good ones. Some of them were warm, so that may have been why there was a wait.

We had:

Honey-cured salmon with remoulade on dill blinis

Poached chicken, almonds, celery teenie tiny sandwiches

Skewers of herb and citrus prawns wrapped in noodles, with lemon aioli

Cream of mushroom soup with truffle oil and red pepper tapenade

Chorizo, spinach and ricotta pastry roll, with tomato relish

King Island blue cheese and pear chutney served on fig and walnut bread

All the savouries were really good. I particularly loved the mushroom soup with the hint of truffle oil, as well as the prawn skewers, and the little chorizo sausage roll.

And then… the sweet stuff.

Crème brulee, lightly scented with lavender

Mini lemon meringue pies

Scones with raspberry jam and double cream

Organic chocolate pots, salted caramel toffee, clotted cream

Rosewater meringue, seasonal berries, marscarpone cream

Vanilla, rose and pistachio panna cotta, pomegranate syrup

The only not so successful sweet item was the mini lemon meringue tart, because it had a hard meringue top that made it a bit difficult to eat.

The mini scone was teeny, but great. And while the panna cotta and the creme brulee were both very nice, they were quite similar to one another.

All in all though, it was a really nice high tea. The Abbotsford Convent is a lovely location, and I was so happy that the savouries weren’t an afterthought like many afternoon teas I’ve been to. The food could’ve been served a bit faster, but that was just a minor thing.

Oh, and staff walked around offering more of the sweets in case anyone wanted more sugar. I had definitely had my fill of sugar, but I did notice other people going back for seconds. Respect.

For more on the high tea, check out:

Melbourne Hot or Not
I’m So Hungree
Food Rehab

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Bursaria
The Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers St
Abbotsford 3067
Phone: 03 9417 7771
Web: bursaria.com.au