Every year when Mother’s Day comes around, I start thinking of places to take my mother to. The first idea always starts with afternoon tea (hmmm I must admit that many food ideas start with afternoon tea) and starting a day’s eating with an afternoon tea is really the best sort of start you can have. One our recent trip to the Yarra Valley, Mr NQN and I decided to go back to place of one of our favourite stays a couple of years ago. Chateau Yering was where we participated in our first truffle hunt, had a delicious dinner by candlelight after a blackout and vowed that we would definitely come back.

Afternoon tea needs to be booked ahead of time and it is a $55 a head including sparkling wine. We take our tea in the Drawing Room, a blue hued room filled with restored antique furniture and we sit on the lounge opposite the fireplace. The menu for the high tea changes regularly according to the pastry chef Simon Docherty’s ideas and it starts with a glass of Yering Station’s Yarra Bank Late Disgorged sparkling wine. The 2004 drop is delicious with delicate bubbles and a true honeyed sweetness to it.

The sandwiches and savouries come out first-on three plates no less (and yes, this is the typical serving size for two!). The first plate contains three items:  a divine prosciutto wrapped duck roulade with beetroot gel, a creamy rich feta mousse tart and a petite squirt of duck liver parfait on crouton-delicious but I would have loved a bit more on the bread.

There are two types of triple decker sandwiches on the plate: a Mediterranean char grilled vegetable and cheese sandwich and a Virginia ham, Yarra Valley Cheddar and tomato sandwich. Each sandwich type comes in a white and wholemeal bread. The bread is super fresh, there are no crusted over portions here and the fillings for both are generous. The char grilled vegetables are moist and full of flavour but I think the wholemeal ham and cheddar sandwiches spread with mayo just pipped them at the post for me. What can I say? I’m a ham for ham! And Mr NQN notes that while afternoon tea often leaves him hungry, having one and a half triple decker sandwiches per person left him patting his stomach happily.

The third plate features two individual portions of the chicken, tarragon and mayonnaise rolls. The chicken is finely shredded and blended with the mayonnaise and it’s served on a freshly baked rectangular roll. The only thing would be just a bit more chicken in the sandwich to make the ratio fit.

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Dear Reader, do you ever wonder about people listening to your conversation when you get together with friends? The thought occurred to me as I was having afternoon tea at The Westin one afternoon. I was catching up for a pre Christmas get together with Miryana and Belle and there were two men sitting by themselves at separate tables less than a metre away.

In the space of 1.5 hours we managed to traverse a varied range of topics from travelling, prostitutes, how to tell a prostitute, Alice in Wonderland, Christmas, New York and the sad demise of the nurse in London, only pausing to take breaths and eat our little morsels. I remember thinking that it appeared to others that we might have attention deficit disorder of the conversation.

A reader of mine Wendy had recently told me about the Mad Hatter afternoon tea at The Westin and because I can’t resist anything Alice in Wonderland themed, a booking was made for a pre Christmas catch up. It’s held at the ground floor lounge which is all gold and neutral colours and very much like a hotel lounge.

There are three choices for the Alice in Wonderland menu: The Mad Tea Party $45, Down the Rabbit Hole ($55 with a “drink me” cocktail) and Ruinart’s Queen of Hearts ($65 with a flute of R de Ruinart) afternoon tea. The afternoon tea comes with unlimited tea and coffee for two hours and the teas are all loose leaf varieties by Jing. All of the food is the same with all three afternoon teas with the drinks being the only difference. The Mad Hatter’s afternoon tea was originally available for the month of October during the Crave food festival but proved such a hit that they’ve extended the offering.

Our teas come in cute teapots with the leaves and flowers open. Mine is a Westin blend with white peony and rose which is fragrant but quite mild as white teas can be. Miryana remarks that her tea is quite weak whereas I prefer my tea quite weak. The milk provided has been heated which is a nice touch though.

Our two tiered stand arrives a few minutes later and it elicits much admiration. The bottom layer has roast beef and asparagus spears on a slice of mini laugen bread (pretzel bread) which is soft and fresh and portioned as two per person. It’s good and nice that there are two but the other morsel with Alaskan crab meat sandwich on a doubled up round of white bread wrapped in cucumber is the favourite and we wish we had two of these.

On the savoury stand there’s also a small boat of salad with a little container of Asian style dressing with halved cherry and pear tomatoes, bocconcini, green leaves and deep fried wonton shards. It was a little tricky to eat in the small bowl and the Asian and Italian components didn’t seem quite in sync and these were mostly unfinished.

We had better luck on the top tier. And by better luck, we mean that the waiter realised when he put the stands down that the hats were missing their brims. He went to the kitchen and ascertained that there were indeed no brims on the hats and came back out and offered us a glass of R de Ruinart in place of that. To be honest, I don’t think any of us noticed or would have complained but that was a nice touch and three flutes of bubbly were furnished.

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Sydney seems to be in the midst of an afternoon tea epidemic I’m not complaining at all, to me having a range of choices for afternoon tea can only be a wonderful thing. And during the month of October during the Crave Sydney Food Festival, there is a range of no less than twenty three to choose from – that’s not including places that aren’t part of the festival.

This year, feeling slightly overwhelmed, I escaped to the Northern Territory for the first week and when I came back, I settled down to the task of looking at the festival programme. There were a few events that caught my eye. Like a cookbook, I flick first to the desserts section and here, I went straight for the sweets via afternoon teas.

The Twisted High Tea had me intrigued-after all where was the twist? Mysteriously, there wasn’t much information on it and then an invitation landed in my inbox to try it that very afternoon. It turns out the pastry gods move in mysterious ways and so a booking was made for a sunny Sunday afternoon yesterday. Mr NQN and I got a bit lost as this was our first time back to the MCA since its redevelopment and there is quite a startling difference. We accidentally go to the MCA restaurant on the ground floor only to be directed upstairs to the 4th floor of the new building. Here, the 6 month old MCA cafe is holding the Twisted High Tea.

The MCA cafe is not quite completed and there are impending plans to put pink astroturf on the ground as well as more greenery to give it some depth, texture and warmth. At the moment, there is a cafeteria feel to it. Award winning Fresh catering take care of the food here and patrons take a look at the menu and order and pay at the counter and take a number with them to a table. Alas, one of those gigantic ships had just sailed in obscuring the view of the Opera House but no matter, the Harbour Bridge is good.

The Twisted High Tea is served on a two tiered stand with a glass of Brown Brothers sparkling wine and is $45 per person. Whilst most other diners are having sandwiches, the tiers come out and there’s a flurry of excitement. People coo things like “ooh look it’s so pretty!” and the colourful stand attracts much attention. We’re given colourful designer melamine and cutlery and napkins come in a little basket.

So where’s the twisted part? Well if you want a surprise, then it’s time to look away We were tipped off as we asked but basically some items appear as savouries but they’re actually sweet, other items have surprises in them while others appear as one thing but are another. It’s a fun idea and one I can imagine doing at home for a surprise afternoon tea.

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