High tea hits the high C

Eilish Kidd , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 05/11/2008 12:37 PM | On the Town

(JP/Eilish Kidd)

Loaded up with bags of Dries van Noten tees and a shimmery heather-gray top by Commes de Garcons from the boutique Club 21 (just kidding, this is pure fantasy), I took the kids out for High Tea at Huize van Wely.

The establishment, which is described as a patissier, chocolatier, glacier and tearoom, is located on the first floor of the Papilion, an unmissable building with its huge glass fa*ade suggestive of shards of ice.

For the other patrons' sake -- what, with a 1-year-old, a 5-year-old in tow, and my being laden down with imaginary shopping bags -- I made a bee-line for an outside table at the back.

A waiter with carefully combed hair and a smart navy blazer, who was every bit as pleasant and proper as the English, came out to convince us we were very welcome inside and need not sit out in the midday sun.

"Yes, but the baby," I reminded. And so, the kindly chap shuffled off to fetch the menu and also some candles to ward off the flies.

We were there for the High Tea and ordered just that: High Tea for Two, which I imagined would stretch to three, as indeed it did. It comes with a choice of tea and coffee for two, of which we ordered one of each.

Actually it's not a bad thing at all to be at Huize van Wely with children because they provide an excuse for coming right up close to the counters, breaths misting the glass. It's a sight every bit as scrumptious as the goodies that reside within.

There are bouchees (chocolate bites) and truffles and chocolate buttons (similar to freckles) that are studded with sugar beads in bright blue and green and red. There is a row of preserves, including pear, blueberry, peach, mandarin and ginger. There are dear little tartlets, their glistening fruit concealing vanilla custard, and there are wondrous cakes: meringue covered, decorated in the old-fashioned way with stiff-icing roses, dusted and glazed and embellished with chocolate frills and swirls. Ingredients include those that are little used in Jakarta such as aniseed, green apple, honey, marzipan and apricot, and have been imported from the Netherlands.

(JP/Eilish Kidd)

But, my thoughts wander. We are waiting for High Tea. The 5-year-old has retrieved a red marker from the depths of her little knapsack and is furiously coloring in a paper napkin. The color leaks right through on to the table top, which thankfully is laminex, not crisp Irish linen.

The more English-than-the-English waiter was returning to us even as I dipped a second paper napkin into my Equil, using it to scrub away at the vermilion smears.

But he took it all in his stride. "It's no problem at all, Madam," he said as he proceeded to position trays of tea and coffee on the table, "I shall see to it later".

The tea came in a cast-iron teapot and the coffee with two petite jugs of steamed milk, a mini glass of water and a coconut cookie. I say, it was an extremely decent cup of coffee, jolly nutty and rich, not at all bitter, and just the right strength.

Then came the High Tea: a two-tiered silver tray, with sandwiches, scones, sweets and pastries all served simultaneously. We were also served two bowls of angel-hair pasta tossed with garlic and parsley and some bits of sun-dried tomato. While the pasta came in handy for the kids and was tasty enough, for me, this was an unusual side to the main event. Maybe it's a Dutch thing?

The white-bread smoked-beef sandwiches had been cut into triangles, the crusts removed. Though they were not as dainty as the cucumber sandwiches of old (vicariously, I speak from reading Oscar Wilde) I do say the butter tasted like butter and the bread had certainly not come sliced from the supermarket, although it was just a trifle dry.

The pastries consisted of pastry shells filled with a creamy, rather pungent mushroom filling, that were essentially vol-au-vents; "sausage broods" were basically slices of sausage roll; as well there were mini broccoli and carrot quiches. All were flaky and buttery.

The scones, rather than being light and biscuit-like, were yellowish in color, from the addition of eggs and butter, shiny topped and shaped like little brioche, more like American scones than English ones. They were served with fig and apricot jam, which quickly created sticky smiles on the faces of both children. Also there was a dish containing a swirl of sweetened whipped cream.

It would be worth taking home a jar of that jam and trying it with homemade English scones, if you are a High Tea traditionalist, and possibly clotted cream, if such a thing ever makes its way back on to supermarket shelves.

On the top tier of the silver tray were two chocolate concoctions -- what're called a chocolate cherry and a chocolate cassata. Both tasted of rum and the cassata contained plump raisins. I would have preferred an alternative flavor.

The waiter revisited our table just as we were down to the last scone. Surveying the sodden napkins and the crumbs, he cleared the table with a smile and a flourish, making way for the ice-cream, which rounds off the Huize van Wely High Tea experience.

An old-fashioned ice-cream cart is positioned just outside the front door of the tearoom, containing drums of ice-creams and sorbets in flavors such as cinnamon, mango, strawberry cream, pistachio and caramel.

We paired a scoop of caramel ice-cream with a scoop of raspberry sorbet. The sorbet, I tell you, was full-bodied, summery, bringing out the very essence of the fruit. I asked the waiter and he said many of the ingredients were imported from the Netherlands and the recipes were also those used by Huize van Wely in the Netherlands.

Now that was, without reservation, a blissful end to high tea for us.

Huize van Wely
The Papilion
First floor
Jl. Kemang Raya No. 45 AA
Phone: (021) 7191975, 7195737
www.huizevanwely.com

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