Layout 1

at a good breakfast - there's no better meal to help

fuel a great day,” is the advice from Matt Bean, a

senior editor with a leading health publication and

no one appreciates this more than planters whose day begins

at the crack of dawn. While this first meal of the day is often

consumed ‘on the go’ in most parts of our country where

people commute to work, on the tea plantations it continues

to remain a sit-down meal in keeping with the traditions

established by British expatriates.

Breakfast on a tea estate is a refined and elegant experience

that epitomises the Planter’s tradition of hospitality, so

here are a few tips to enhance your guests’ enjoyment –

one of our best loved customs.

The table setting helps to show off a meal and makes the

food taste better, so it is important to get this right.

Conventionally, a checked tablecloth is used to cover the

breakfast table and it is appropriate to have a small

fresh flower or fruit arrangement as a centrepiece.

Accompaniments like jam and marmalade should be

placed on the table in small pots

or bowls and not in their bottles.

Butter is served in a butter dish

and cheese should be removed

from its tin onto a plate.

For individual place settings, a matching checked napkin

is placed on a side plate on the left. It can be neatly

folded, shaped creatively or placed in a

napkin ring. Confusion regarding the

placement of cutlery is easily dispelled

if one keeps two simple rules in mind.

It is important to remember that the

large fork is the only dining implement

placed on the left hand side of the large

plate and the cutlery on the right is

always placed in the order in which the

food is to be served.Therefore, the fruit

knife goes on the extreme right,

followed by the cereal spoon and two

dinner knives on the inside. The fruit

fork and spoon go above the large

plate. The water glass goes above the

cutlery on the right and the juice glass

is normally placed on its outside.

Placing individual salt and pepper cellars for each place

setting eliminates the need to constantly pass these back

and forth across the table.

A traditional breakfast menu consists of freshly squeezed

fruit juice, two types of fruit, cereal in the form of oats,

cornflakes or muesli, a choice of eggs, a couple of

side dishes and toast with accompaniments like butter,

jam, cheese and marmalade. It is customary to ask guests

how they would like their eggs cooked. A boiled egg,

even one that is hard-boiled, is traditionally served in an

egg cup. If someone requests eggs ‘sunny side up’ they are

simply asking for the egg to be fried only on one side with

an unbroken yolk. A poached egg, on the other hand, is

gently slid into a pan of simmering water and cooked

until the egg white has just solidified, but the yolk

remains soft. For ‘oefs en cocotte’ or baked eggs, carefully

break a couple of eggs, keeping the yolk intact, into a

buttered ramekin or small baking dish, season with salt

and pepper, spoon a tablespoon of milk or cream over

them, sprinkle with either chopped chives, shredded

cheese or chopped cooked chicken, ham or bacon bits and

bake at 160

for approximately 12-14 minutes until the

whites are completely set and the yolks just beginning to

thicken.

Eggs are usually accompanied by side dishes and a

selection of two from traditional breakfast favourites like

sausages, bacon, grilled tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms,

potato chips, vegetable cutlets and chops with a savoury

vegetable, meat or chicken filling adds a nice balance to

the meal. A pot of freshly brewed tea from your estate

factory, or coffee if your guests prefer, is the perfect way to

top off a meal served with the Tea Memsahab’s unique flair

for hospitality in ‘pucca’ tea garden style.

– Namita Ahmed

Dirok T.E.

Having grown up in Tea , Namita (Mimi)

Ahmed is very well acquainted with its

‘dastoors’. Here, she guides us in laying out

a perfect breakfast table and serving a

standard Tea breakfast.

A ‘Tea’ Breakfast

A Setting for Two

Individual Place Setting

July 2014 17

16 July 2014

Butter Dish

L-R: Jam Spoon, Cheese Knife & Butter Knife

‘Sunny Side Up’

‘Oefs en Cocotte’

Boiled Egg

“