When Matt and I were in Alabama earlier this year we stayed at this cute, intimate bed and breakfast. One morning during breakfast we chatted with a couple from Scotland about Trump, a recent wedding they had been too and about the Microbiome Diet I was doing. The B&B owner had been very accommodating, always making sure I had hard boiled eggs and gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free options. When the woman from Scotland heard about my diet, it reminded her that traditional afternoon tea was making a comeback in the UK.
“Oh,” she said, “if you can’t have dairy, you wouldn’t want to come to afternoon tea. It’s so dairy laden.” (Note: If you haven’t started reading this in your best Scottish brogue, start now. It makes the story better. Think Mrs. Doubtfire and you’ll pretty much have it down.) “First, they bring out these little finger sandwiches and they are all lathered in butter. And then you get scones smothered with crème fraiche. And now, after that, they offer cream cakes the size of your first. There is so much food you don’t even need an evening meal. And it’s not even really about the tea anymore. Now they bring you a cocktail.”
I salivated over my hard-boiled egg and tomatoes and imagined that if I were in Scotland the food might be so healthy that I could just stuff my face with afternoon tea delicacies without consequence. I’m still dreaming…
