Afternoon Tea Diaries: Palate Through Time; Before at Oxi Tea Rooms

Welcome to another entry in my irregular event, Afternoon Tea Diaries.

Earlier this year my husband and I visited Oxi Tea Rooms and were blown away by the afternoon tea experience we had there. I do use the word experience deliberately as it wasn't just nicely presented food. The food items were mini pieces of art, and there was a fun interactive element as well. I posted about that afternoon tea here.

When I was trying to find a place to catch up with some friends pre Christmas, I thought this would be a great place. The good thing is, the Oxi Tea Rooms menu changes regularly so while it was another great experience, it was different to the first time we went.

The theme this time was Palate Through Time. The pre set afternoon tea menu was called Before and took us on a culinary journey through different times and places. If we had of wanted to also indulge in the a la carte menu, these had a theme of Beyond. These items looked spectacular but we didn't get to taste them. 

The idea was that each item on the board represented a time and place across ten different eras either through the way it was presented, or the flavours or both

Here's the list of items that were included in the Before menu

2500 BC - Ancient Egypt - flatbreads, confit mushrooms, herbed salad

100+500 BC - Ancient Rome - barley, cured king fish, pickled red ginger

800-1100 - Tang Dynasty - mixed rice, osmanthus, dried peach, goji berry

900-1100 - Islamic Golden Age - spiced lavosh, roasted beef, pepper sauce, rose

1200-1600 - Post Colombian Exchange - chocolate, cacao nib, corn, red chilli

1300-1500 - Elizabethan Era - pie tart, nutmeg, curry spiced chicken, puffed spelt

1800s - Industrial Revolution - sponge cake, mixed berry jam, vanilla custard cream

1900s - Belle Epoque France - chocolate lace, lavender, viola, honey madeleine 

2000s - Modern Nordic - foie gras, creme brulee, burnt butter bread

Now - Contemporary Fusion - mandarin foam, genmaicha, miso caramel, buckwheat

Once again this was a multi sensory experience. There were little glass jars on the table that were colour coded to match with each of the courses (except for the first one). In the jar, there was a piece of rock that had been infused with a smell that matched each of the courses. The idea was that you smell the rock and then eat the food and that you then have an enhanced flavour experience. It was going well until we realised that one set of our jars had the lids mixed up.

In the picture above, you can see the horse which was the Colombian era, the curried chicken pie tart, and the sponge cake. In the bottom picture you can see the Ancient Rome cured fish and the lavender dessert. As you can hopefully see they are all exquisitely presented, and for the most part they were all delicious. I didn't love the last one or the lavender one, and my favourites were probably the Elizabethan pie tart and the sponge cake. 

It isn't afternoon tea without tea, and this is one aspect of the experience that didn't change. There were more than 30 different types of tea which we were invited to smell to make our choice. There options vary from Taiwanese oolong tea, to Kenyan tea and South African rooibos tea. I can't remember what I chose last time, but this time my selection was a roast peach tea. I seem to be going through a bit of a peach phase at the moment. 

The tea that you selected was then brewed two ways. The first cup of tea was brewed using a traditional Chinese brewing method and then the second cup was brewed using a futuristic machine called a teapresso. 

The day we went, it was the very end of the Palate Through Time menus. It was changing a couple of days later to a menu called Victoria: The Place to Be which highlights the produce from our state. This menu is available until April. I am definitely planning to go before the menu changes again. And probably when it changes to the next menu as well. 

Weekly meals

Saturday - Away for the weekend    
Sunday - Away for the weekend
Monday - Roast beef rolls and gravy
Tuesday - Pressure cooker spaghetti bolognaise
Wednesday - Pork Stir fry
Thursday - End of year function
Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page