Happy Sunday to everyone. Hope you are having a great weekend. It is a long weekend for Labour Day in Melbourne, so from my end, it is an especially good one.
Exactly one week ago, I attended Jazz High Tea at The Famous Spiegeltent. The Spiegeltent is the curious looking structure at the top of this post. Spiegeltents were created at the start of last century as travelling entertainment venues, and the name literally means "tent of mirrors". Indeed, the inside of the tent, which is not quite in the round, features many mirrors held up by ornate posts. Apparently, Marlene Dietrich once sang "Falling in Love Again" in a spiegeltent.
The Famous Spiegeltent travels around Australia, and arrives in Melbourne every March to host a whole array of different entertainment. As well as the Jazz High Tea in this post, I am later attending a concert by fellow Queenslander, Kate Miller-Heidke, later in the month in the Spiegeltent. As a tip to the diversity of the entertainment in The Famous Spiegeltent, I earlier this week was mistakenly sent someone else's tickets to Dixie's Tupperware Party - which I was quite happy to return to sender.
Here is a peek inside the Spiegeltent:
The Jazz High Tea started with a glass of bubbly at the door:
followed, naturally, by High Tea:
The top tier featured a passionfruit cupcake, a raspberry cheesecake, a lemon curd tart and a chocolate crackle. Next tier down was scones with jam and cream (of course). And the bottom tier featured two each of salmon, vege mezze and ham sandwiches. There are no surprises in telling you that my favourite tier was the top tier. And my favourite of the favourite was the cheesecake, followed closely by the chocolate crackle. It will comfort you to know that I was sharing this spread with a friend - I didn't eat it all myself.
The tea followed very lately only after we gave a waiter a tap on the shoulder - but it is of little consequence, as it was an anti-climax to the bubbly and food.
We were entertained by The Syncopaters:
who kept us amused with jazz standards, heavily weighted with Louis Armstrong numbers.
It was a fun way to pass a couple of hours, and I enjoyed my first glimpse inside the Spiegeltent.
Have a good one!
