Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Come for Tea

Come for coffee about 7:00.  In Canada it means come for coffee and a visit.  Maybe with snacks (usually with snacks if it it married couple to married couple) which might be veggies and dip or some deadly dessert.   It does not mean come for supper (or dinner, depending on how and where you were raised).

Come for tea about 7:00 means virtually anything here in Ukraine.  When Tanya says to me do you want tea, it usually means with the appropriate meal or if not meal time, then snacks or something but always tea means food.  I often have to specify TEA...no food, please.  Sometimes she listens.

So this afternoon friends invited us to their home for tea, about 7:00.  We had no idea what to expect and it is not polite to ask, apparently.  Ryya said she had tried a new recipe.  They had been at my birthday party and loved my apple crisp so Tanya thought maybe it was a dessert recipe.  So we had supper before we left.  Chicken and potatoes.

Mistake.  Tea this time was supper.  Platter piled high with chicken, potatoes, mushrooms, carrots apples and oranges all roasted together, basted with some kind of sauce and delicious.  Would have been more delicious if we had been hungry but we managed to eat enough to be polite.  Chocolates and coffee for dessert.

We had a great visit.  Both Ryya and Vladik teach at the "Lycee" (or something like that) which is a special school for exceptionally brilliant kids.  Their one wall, from the front door to the back of the bedroom is lined 8 high with bookshelves.  They know lots of stories and there was lots of laughter.  A good way to finish a day.

5 comments:

  1. Our kind of 'tea'. Better to go hungry and risk going home hungry than waste the opportunity to savour such tasty delights.
    I was hoping this was an invite for us to join you and Tanya for tea.

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  2. Sonja, that invitation is already long standing. When can we expect you?

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  3. No definite plans yet. Just talking about wanting to go. I'd love to go next summer but I haven't got that far in the plans or money yet. But it's on the radar.

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  4. Such an extravagant "tea." Beats plain coffee at the kitchen table in the farm house.

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  5. Sonja, that would be wonderful.

    Rob, I've had lots of cups of coffee at farm kitchen tables and they are part of a past I thoroughly enjoyed.

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