Tea Afternoon at The Plaza

You might now how much I love tea. Although drinking dozens of cups of tea everyday normally satisfies my tea-appetite, I do prefer having the whole experience, drinking tea with finger sandwiches and scones.

Being in New York, the best place to go for Afternoon Tea has got to be The Plaza. Unfortunately, The Palm Court––which is where tea is normally served––was renovated recently, so it is only offering breakfast services for now, and is not yet offering the afternoon tea service. However, there is a similar service being offered right now at The Champagne Bar. Although this one is not as magical as The Palm Court, the afternoon tea is still more than amazing, and the place is more than wonderful.

Naturally, we started out with some finger sandwiches. My favourite one was the Deviled Quail Egg Salad––just because it doesn't taste like any other egg salad sandwich you'll ever have.

Then came the scones... And the apricot preserves were more than perfect! Although I guess the lemon creme doesn't fall far behind them...

And dessert. Need I say this is always my favourite part of the meal?!

Oh, and tea, of course! I must confess, though, that I was a little disappointed at the beginning by the fact that the only options of tea available were English Breakfast and Earl Grey. However, when I tasted the first tiny sip of my Earl Grey order, I realised how mistaken I had been. There is definitely nothing better than real, freshly-brewed tea!

I guess I'll have to go back soon––once The Palm Court relaunches the service––and maybe this time I'll also get some champagne.

Love,
  Photography: Laura Beltran-Rubio

Tea Tuesday

Nothing better than having tea––and over-eating––with one of your best friends! That's exactly how I spent last Tuesday evening... eating, chatting, and having fun!––Oh, and also talking about female empowerment and moving to New York!

Love,

Photography: Laura Beltran-Rubio

Travel Diaries: Bye, Bye, New York!

Sadly, every time I go to New York, I feel I haven't spent enough time there. And this time was definitely not the exception. The moment I realised I had to fly back home, I cried. Why can't I stay there for the rest of my life?

Despite my trip being too short, I had an amazing time on my last day in the City. I finally had time to sleep, so I woke up around 9am, the latest I had been able to wake up in the whole week.

I then went to brunch with my lovely friend Ramya, in Brooklyn Diner, on 57 between 7th and 8th. I went for a classical set of pancakes with some Earl Grey tea, while she had three poached eggs with crispy polenta. The most important part, however, was definitely the time we spent together, talking about life and dreaming of New York!

I then left Ramya at the hotel and went for a walk on 5th Ave., only to end up meeting handsome Jakob––who I introduced yesterday––in Macy's. We bought some dresses for my mum, and a pair of boots for myself, before walking back to Saks Fifth Avenue to have some tea. Again, I enjoyed a wonderful time talking about life and getting to know better my Swedish friend.

Before having to grab my bags and head off to the airport, I still had some time to do some shopping. So I headed to Henri Bendel––which I love, as you might have noticed by now––and got a beautiful bracelet. I also stopped by Louis Vuitton to place a special order.

Now I'm back home, writing this post and dreaming of New York. But don't you worry, because I'll be back there before you can imagine! Am I the only one who loves New York from the bottom of my heart?!

Love,

Photography: Laura Beltran-Rubio

It's Tea (Read: Chocolate) Time!

Last Friday, my mum, my sister and I decided we should have a girls' afternoon and have tea together. We wanted to indulge ourselves with a lot of sugar, so we actually changed the tea for something more powerful... hot cocoa!

My sister, who's always trying to break the Guinness record of the person who has eaten the biggest ice cream ever seen, ordered a huge ice cream. I tried it and it was really good...

...But nothing like my delicious strawberry & banana crepe. It has the perfect amount of fruit, it was sweet, but not excessively, and it came with a scoop of ice cream. What more could I ask for?

Yes, you're right. Hot cocoa. That's what topped up my crepe. It was sweet, it had a big load of marshmallows, and it warmed me up in a cold afternoon.

Nothing better than a good time with my favourite girls, overdosing with sugar, right?

Love,

Photography: Laura Beltran-Rubio

A Weekend in Terni

As part of the conferences I'm taking part of while in Italy, we spent the weekend commuting from Rome to Terni. For those of you who don't know, this is a little town, located around an hour away from Rome, heading to the northeast. It is absolutely magical, although there's not much to do.

We were busy most of the time during the conferences, but we had the chance to walk around this wonderful place. One of the most interesting things is the mix between old buildings and more modern forms of architecture. What I heard is that many old buildings were destroyed during World War II, so that's why there are also a lot of more recent buildings.

On our first day there, we went to a new restaurant called Cucinaà. We had a tagliata di chianina con ratatouille, which was by far the best meat I've had in a long while. It came with cooked vegetables, although they weren't so good.

That afternoon we had tea with tiramisù, and I absolutely loved them––mainly only because I was craving to have some tiramisù!

The next day, we had pasta for lunch at the slowest restaurant I've ever visited. I had strozzapreti alla norcina, a very mushroom-y sauce. It was really good, but I couldn't finish my dish, since my body was rejecting Italian food that day.

The next day we had to eat at the exact same place, since it was Sunday and nothing else was open. I wasn't very excited about the idea, but my choice totally made up for the bad service. I chose to have some gnocchi with beans, meat and tomato sauce. This was the best dish I'd had––until then... You'll have to come back to find my new favourite! We also had chocolate cake with cream filling, which was delicious!

By this time we were ready to grab the train and head back to one more magical night in Rome, before leaving for Naples. But I'll talk about this tomorrow!

Love,

Photography: Laura Beltran-Rubio