Ceylon avec miel s'il vous plait (BIG I'm trying to pass as French smile...)
"Non!" Avec lait"
Eyes nervously darting from the waiter to the menu to Amy to the waiter to Babe then back to the waiter followed by a weak...miiieeelll?
"Non miel! gibbergabberish, flourish with the hands, gibbergabberish...avec lait!"
(in my best ventriloquist voice) What's he saying Amy???
"He says that Ceylon tea is too acidic with honey. He's bringing you milk"
Ohhhh kaaaay...avec lait (commence pouting...)
Well, Monsieur waiter didn't bring any ole milk. He served a petit pitcher of warm, frothy whole milk and 'twas indeed one of theee best cups of tea ever. My feet were barely back on American soil before I had William-Sonoma's Aerolatte Handheld Milk Frother en route...
Sooo, out with the Green tea with honey annnd in with the Ceylon and frothy goodness..
Not quite Paris but, close enough...
And, about to get closer...
With the Breville Electric Milk Frother I can play Parisienne Café serving up tea avec lait AND chocolat chauds while snobbishly schooling my guests on the sins of avec miel...Kindness of the random French waiter in a café outside the Musée du Louvre. Little does he know those 30 seconds he spent correcting my bad order were digested, repacked and loaded into my snob arsenal and just biding time til it's nose in the air public debut...XXOO
Oh honey -my Mother-in-law loves to tell me the story of the time she entertained several American visitors in the South of France and they ordered "Bloody Mary's" and my Mother-in-law instructed the waiter that they wanted them "tres chaud" translating to extra hot as in spice, they were served extra hot in temperature. Mind you my Mother in law's french is impeccable.. often the French just love to play avec les Americans.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you did not ask for a "to go" cup!
pve
I love my Aerolatte. I have a dedicated Bodum french press that I use only to make chai (pressing all the spices in with the tea), and then use the Aerolatte to make the most delicious chai latte ever!
ReplyDeleteThe honey, of course, is a must.
Interesting...I wand froth my chai milk every day, but have eyed that WS frother - wondering how it works and if I should add yet another small appliance to the arsenal. Curiously awaiting your assessment.
ReplyDeleteLove tea with milk and that this snobby waiter gave you a gift. My family makes fun of my father to this day and if anyone says anything silly or stupid really we say Je m'appelle Fromage. My dad wanted to know the name of the cheese in the fridge case and pointed saying, "Je m'applee Fromage." My name is CHEESE. We crack up and have told the story six million times. xoxo
ReplyDeleteLOVE my tea with milk. Also, you will appreciate this doozy, which obvs comes in many different forms... the Bialetti hot chocolate maker:
ReplyDeletehttp://worthingtonstyle.blogspot.com/2010/12/bialetti-hot-chocolate-maker.html
Frothiest chocolate ever. I never have to use the milk frother attachment.
Loved this post...could almost convince this cafe au lait Mdmslle to give it whirl! (quite literally)
ReplyDeleteThe frothy milk in tea fiasco almost pushed me over the edge in Paris. Everytime I said not the flipping frothy milk, it would still arrive, I ended up complaining in writing abd then in person. The Meurice sent me a lovely gesture when I returned home but I'm sure there was a lot of muttering going on!
ReplyDeletehow lovely - i definitely will be buying a frother soon!
ReplyDelete