Dinner Etiquette Mysteries Solved - A Summary Of My First Workshop On Dinner Etiquette

Where
When
Why

1 Introduction to Angela Lansbury


2 Cutlery Mysteries - soup spoons

3 Water and water glass
Flat bottom glass (Stable water glass)
Champagne glass - tall.
Red wine glass rounded
White wine glass - long stem

4 The Host Chooses Drink: Sparkling White or Rose, Aperitif, White or Red Wine

Wine Bottles Labels
Why you check the label (Good and bad years, expensive wine replaced by wine from a poor or cheaper year)
Tasting and poison (Old days)
Tasting and bad wine (Host checking not for preference but quality)
What could be wrong with the wine (Colour brown, smell bad, bits)
Order of serving wine (Guest to right of host, host last)

Questions From Workshop Leader, Angela Lansbury
Looking at the table - What kind of spoon is this?
What shape is a soup spoon?
What is this large fork for? (With a Spoon. For Serving Salad - or vegetables)


Cutlery
Knives (Fish knives first, meat knives)

Tea Time And After Dinner Coffee
What is this small spoon? (Tea spoon)
I have two small spoons. What is the smaller one for? (Not a tea spoon, a Coffee spoon, matching the size of the tiny saucer of an espresso cup)

Story
Queen Victoria, drinking from the saucer

Questions From Audience
How much wine is in a glass? (Legal requirement UK, drinking)
What do you call the device for holding the corn? (Corn pick)
Do you break bread with your hands? (French fresh bread crumbles, unsuitable for slicing)
Do you break bread and get crumbs on the table (Not in my house, but like peanut shells on the floor in Raffles Hotel, copy the local diners)
How do you spread the butter? (Butter knife, not all at once)
Why does the waiter give you the cork and what do you do with it?
Can I ask for the leftover food at a UK restaurant? (Yes. If they have a deli, they must have take away containers and wrappers or bags If not, produce your own container.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Fruit Juice With Chia Seeds In Singapore

The chia seeds are a novelty. For months I read about them and their supposedly wonderful health giving properties and wondered where to find them.

The aloe vera, which we grow on a balcony in Singapore, has a thick slimy texture and no taste at all. It adds the bulk, the thickness, feeling full in the mouth and stomach.

The lime adds the flavour which was lacking in the aloe vera. And the aloe vera counteracts the sharpness of the lime.

The apple and pear add the sweetness in the fructose.

I wonder whether they spent days, weeks, months, trying various combinations.

You can buy it at Fairprice Finest supermarket in Bukit Panjang, or Cold Storage at Rail Mall and many other places.

Singapore is a good stopover. The hospitals are excellent.

Travel Tips

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

australia.com

visitbritain.com

visitbritain.shop.com

visitbritain.org

visittheusa.co.uk

visitsingapore.com

Singapore Airlines: 

singaporeair.com

Author

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, ACG, ALB. Travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, trainer specialising in the English language, etiquette and communication.

Taste - great name. Diary Date - London in June, Taste in Regents Park

The saying goes, "All good things come to those who wait," and note

it in your diary, there's a food festival in London in Regents Park in June.
June 15-19 2016.

Weather wise and Weather Proof If you want to check the weather, like most countries, England is wettest in Spring, driest in summer and winter. That said, an umbrella can act as both rain protection and sun protection.Take a sunhat and sunglasses.

Food and Drink Containers
When I go to any food event I pack in a large tote bag a sealable plastic bag, a close-sealing small plastic box, a bottle of my own water. 

I also take an empty sealing bottle for storing leftover juices - or alcohol I don't want to gulp down in one go nor carry around and spill. And a large straw.

My other must is a small cool bag. Ice cream tends to turn to mush and spill as it melts. Try to carry food in a second container. Never pumice cream or yogurt in a valuable bag or a bag containing lots of papers or bits and pieces. 


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Source: http://www.buro247.sg/fashion/news/palazzo-fendi-rome-italy-reopens.html

Pinner Fair Pictures

As promised, here are more pictures of Pinner Fair. I wasn't at the fair but I've been sent these pictures. I've blown up the photos and added my captions in case the photos are small on your screen.

I thought there was an attraction called hotel of horrors, which is alliterative, but looking at the picture it seems to be Hotel Terror.

Pinner Fair Chips photo courtesy of Trevor Sharot. 2015.

Pinner Fair Hotel Terror photo courtesy of Trevor Sharot. 2015.

Pinner Fair Taste (left) and Toys (right) photo courtesy of Trevor Sharot. 2015.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author, Speaker.

More about and by Angela Lansbury Author, on Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Youtube.

Note: there are at least four people with the name Angela Lansbury on the web. To clear, or create confusion: The first Angela Lansbury to come up in your searches is the actress famous for appearing in the film Gypsy, the TV series Murder She Wrote, her famous father came from the East End of London; two more of us are writers - I am the author of practical books and comic poetry which teaches about animals and life - and like my namesake actress I also had a father from the East End of London and like her I have a son called Anthony; the other writer writes novels (five I believe) and I am writing my first, second and third novels (a trilogy); a fourth sharing our name is on Facebook. 

Wine Society Xmas Gifts

The Wine Society in Stevenage sells wines you can try for free in its Enomatic machine. Leading up to Christmas there's a large range of foods to buy for parties or Xmas stocking gifts, such as cheese, chocolates, cheese flavour crackers, stollen, Italian bread, pheasant pate and pork scratchings.

Using a wooden wine case cover as a cheese board is an amusing idea. I liked the stilton. I heard others praising the cheddar. 

I was disappointed in the smoked salmon. Also in the stollen. I thought the small stollen in a tin was dry and lacked the moist marzipan centre you get in the bigger stollen on offer some years from supermarkets. 

However, I thought the Pannetone with moist fruit scattered through it was excellent. 

Enomatic machine. Pop in your card and pick a drink to taste. The wines offered are changed at regular intervals so there's always something new to try, and, if you like it, buy a bottle. 

To the right of the free Enomatic machine is another Enomatic serving a small shot of premium wines at assorted prices.

Have a taste from this magnum! One of the Xmas Xtra staff. What a great Xmas job to have. 

Not everybody gets out in front helping the customers face to face. In addition more staff are needed operating the phones taking the Xmas orders.

Service and advice from the regular staff at the Xmas wine tasting event in Stevenage. They also have events all over the UK. Here's their events page:

https://www.thewinesociety.com/shop/TastingCategory.aspx

https://www.thewinesociety.com/