THE COOKBOOK TEST #0082: THE VINTAGE TEA PARTY YEAR

INSTALLMENT #0082 (PAID) WELL, THAT’S WEIRD / THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER, THE OYSTER IS ALSO YOUR OYSTER / RASPBERRY PUREE / A CATHEDRAL OF FLAVOR

Dear Readers,

THE VINTAGE TEA PARTY YEAR is a legitimately weird book. And let me be clear about what I mean by that: it’s a good thing. Even if it were a bad book, “weird” is a quality that’s always going to draw me in for a closer look. [1] Weird, in this context, means that voice is singular, surprising, blithely out of step with the normal, and effectively fearless. 

Now that I’ve lightly tarred The Vintage Tea Party Year with strange praise, it’s worth backing it up to justify the label. The author and her cultural references are quite British, so there’s a certain amount of stuff that reads as weird simply when seen through American eyes. 

But that’s not really it - I’ve read a fair bit of UK cookery stuff (including, quite recently, the authoritative and excruciatingly British Afternoon Tea Book) [2], and it’s fair to say that author Angel Adoree lurches off in some unexpected directions while assembling a cookbook.

For example: while this is most certainly a cookbook, it also includes:

Detailed guides to creating vintage hairstyles
Edible Scrabble
How to make specific kinds of lampshades
How to make decorative jar toppers and then what to put in those jars
A dish called Lacy Faggots made with pigs’ liver (as per Wikipedia: “The word faggot in the UK refers to a kind of meatball.” I still woulda come up with a new name!)
How to throw a vintage British street party

The book’s author used to run a vintage goods fair. And like any good vintage shop, The Vintage Tea Party is a charming and eclectic mix of bric-a-brac and curios and various odds and sods. It’s loosely organized into various themed tea parties (Childrens’, Bachelors, Street Party, etc.) but the unhinged nature of the content means that you’re generally surprised by whatever you stumble across next. It’s pretty weird. And that’s pretty great.

at your service,

James

THE VINTAGE TEA PARTY YEAR
BY ANGEL ADOREE
MITCHELL BEAZLEY | 2012 | $30

Before we launch into recipe number one, a quick note about oysters: I absolutely freaking love them. Once while eating at the Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, D.C., a friend and I managed to quite happily take down 8 dozen. (She also picked up the check, which made the experience that much sweeter.) 

I’ve found that pretty much the only oyster I don’t really enjoy is the nearly ubiquitous Blue Point - it’s not bad, per se, but it tends to run toward being large, neutral in flavor, and a little more mucus-like than just about anything else. If you’re going to use it, put it in a stew or pan roast like they do at the Grand Central Oyster Bar. Beyond the Blue Point, however, I like almost everything else under the sun, with a personal preference for West Coast oysters like the Kumamoto. 

If you haven’t really gotten into raw oysters in the past, my first recommendation is to find a place that sells A LOT of oysters, and only try them there. Oysters depend on freshness and culinary competence, and if you’ve had oysters under dodgy circumstances, it can put you off for life.