Mind your Ps and your Qs and your Teas!(2)

I defer to their precision and punctiliousness. After all, Hilton Colombo has a team of thinking chefs. Food for thought indeed! Intricately presented savoury dishes pair with subtle teas like Prince of Kandy served in dainty custom-made cups. Chocolate cake marries Moroccan mint tea and Italian almond tea courts crème brûlé. We’ve all had Hilton’s fabled ribbon cake but do experience it metamorphosed splendidly with a swig of vanilla tea. Of course, this will cost you Rs 600.

Because the menu’s food pairings are not duplicated during high tea. The London Ritz reveals people save all year for their legendary (and highly over-rated) afternoon tea. Hilton Colombo’s high tea isn’t quite so exorbitant. But splurge on this exclusive gourmet affair of à la minute sandwiches, troublingly textured delicate canapés, finger pastries of such frivolity (justifying Hilton’s Culinary Art Gold for Best Petits Fours) and crisp crêpes (sweet and savoury). An intimate selection perfected to a T is surely preferable to those straggling tea buffets with 500 items, mostly inedible?

When I recommend the exquisite Hilton offering to an F&B director at another 5-star he exclaims, “What, the Hilton has started high tea now?!” The gentleman clearly hasn’t done his homework for the Hilton introduced high tea to Colombo and their extensively-travelled chefs (Chef Rohan is currently in Russia at the Club des Chefs…) have now moved onto innovations to rival London’s latest. Chef Karu is already conceiving chic canapés of curried exotica. But that’s another story.

Meanwhile, the menu vacillates in vastitude from indigenous fresh ginger or lemongrass “Yara” tea (watch Janaka tumble tea Lankan-style in theatrical gold medal-winning performances) to sophisticated international t-Cocktails and t-Shooters including T-56 (Galle District OP1 tea, Irish cream, Grand Marnier). A killer shot that hits its mark. Cheers! Or should we say chai-ers?...

[1] [2]