Afternoon Tea - how can anyone eat it all?

[wasntlikethisinthegoodolddays]

I've been looking at things to do next weekend. Looked on Wowcher, Groupon etc. A regular offer is Afternoon Tea for two. Whilst it looks lovely, they regularly feature about 6 sandwich corners each, a few savoury items and FOUR cakes each. I love my food, and I like cake, but there's no way I could eat all of that in one sitting. Can anyone eat four cakes in a row? Are we meant to take a doggy bag?

🤣🤣🤣

I've got the Father Ted scene in my head now - "this toy cow is small....... that real cow is faaaarrr away....." 😂

Nope but I go to Fortnums and they'll offer to pack to leftovers for you. Very often they'll even ask if there's a cake I like and they'll give me new ones to bring back.

Post a pic - I love to look at cakes.

I love afternoon tea! The key is to a) pick a good one and b) don't have lunch - or possibly even breakfast beforehand.

The best afternoon tea I ever had was one of the 5* London hotel ones. It was unlimited finger sandwiches brought out on platters - you selected some and they came back with more until you told them otherwise. There was a delightful selection of scones and cakes - but if you didn't want to finish it all, they gave you what was left in a nice box to take away. So if you were wanting more of the savoury stuff you could fill up on the finger sandwiches (they were amazing btw - never knew a sarnie could taste that good!) and take the sweeter stuff home for later. Equally if you wanted to focus on the cakes etc... you could have a couple of the sarnies and ask for a few more to take away so you could crack on with the cakes etc. You got your money's worth and the tea selection was fabulous.

The cakes etc... are usually quite small, sometimes you also get a little dessert type of thing or some chocolates or what not as well. It varies from venue to venue. It's meant to be a couple of leisurely hours with some delightful bites of food and nice tea or coffee. It's not intended to be a functional snack or meal.

Ultimately - no - you don't have to eat it all in one sitting and any decent afternoon tea venue will give you anything left in a nice box to take away. Equally, I will never judge anyone who does eat it all at the time and enjoys every bite!

Oh good, another eat-shaming thread.

BINGO

Gah! You beat me to it @sprigatito😆

They are typically bite sized and usually it's scones plus 3 small cakes

I want to go book another Afternoon tea now thanks to this thread. My last was in the Lake District so I can’t return there right now. Anyone know of a good place in Glasgow?

If you go for a decent one like the Ritz then it's all you can eat. They don't call it that, but it is.

It's not hard to understand that some people might not want to eat it all. That's fine.

It's more that the OP thinks it must be completely impossible that anyone would be able to and is clearly keen to judge those of us who can.

It's fine not to have a massive appetite, lots if people don't - and like you say, some people prefer to graze rather than eat big meals in one sitting. I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

When people talk about 'competitive undereating threads' they mean the ones where people feel the need to be incredibly performative about it, express shock (as the OP did) that others can eat more than them, and use negative terms about eating like 'stuffing', 'scoffing', 'gobbling' etc.

There was a thread recently where someone said that they had some apple slices and hummus for their breakfast every day and that this was a 'nutritious, filling meal' that kept them going until the evening and that they couldn't possibly manage to eat lunch, even though they did 15,000 steps and a Pilates class every day. They were keen to suggest that this meant they had a much healthier attitude to food than people who could manage to eat more than a side salad if they went out for lunch with a friend. That is a great example of Mumsnet competitive undereating.

I have some experience of being around people with eating disorders, and honestly, a lot of the food threads on Mumsnet are full of people who are in denial about their disordered eating, and the language they use around food and the details they feel the need to include are pretty much exactly the same as the sort of language that you hear from people with anorexia and orthorexia. I'm not saying this is the case with the OP at all! But there are certainly people on Mumsnet who are using food threads, consciously or unconsciously, as an outlet for an obsessive/disordered attitude to food intake.

I'm greedy and I usually don't have anything to eat earlier in the day.

I could quite easily manage it.
I wouldn't have lunch beforehand though.
But I'm in robust health and not a frail little thing who's afraid of food.

My bingo dabber is on fire!

Can ’half’ the country being ‘obese’ due to the ‘wild overindulgence’ of doll sized sandwiches and scones be the new ‘let them eat cake’?

Never been to one that I’ve been too full to if not finish then at least try everything.
Usually they have a minimum of one gross sandwich that no one eats (coronation chicken 🤮 or anything with flappy bits of tomato 🤮) - I can certainly manage 2 slices of finger sandwich (so less than half an actual sandwich as there are no crusts), 3 mouthfuls of cake and a scone.
Sometimes there have been leftovers but not enough to bother with boxing up and bringing home.

Exactly what I think. Not enough savoury but too much sweet!

When I take my mother out for afternoon tea we order for 4 😳 this is after years of being disappointed by them. We then have to face the awkward 'no, we didn't order for 4 by mistake. We know what we are doing' conversation.
Competitive under eating is soo annoying. The amount of times I was promised 'there's so much food honestly, you'll be stuffed'. Lies. All lies.
Enjoy OP. I love a good afternoon tea.

Edited to add, I dont eat for the rest of the day. Well, occasionally will have supper. Or a light tea. Just to tide me over till morning.

I love a coronation chicken sandwich.

I could do without the scone in an afternoon tea, to be honest, it's the dullest bit and often a wee bit stodgy. The ones with mini quiche or other savoury canapés sound much nicer but it's always scones where I live.

People don’t eat afternoon tea routinely. It’s a treat as you say. So your comments make no sense.

In the last year I have had three afternoon teas: Ritz, Claridges and one in Soho. My BMI is 19. It’s such a silly and simplistic way of thinking that a special afternoon tea is the cause of obesity.

Me too. It's the best. Also an excellent jacket potato filling.

I won’t hear a word said against scones. Scones with cream and jam. Delicious.

Yes scones are great though most of the Afternoon teas that I‘ve had have offered scones and savoury items like quiche.

Absolutely! Afternoon Tea without scones is, I'm sure, against the law or something (or should be!). 😁

I've had some afternoon teas and they have been big enough to eat in one sitting without being over faced. Also they are ate over a couple of hours so I'm not troughing everything immediately. It's nicely spaced out with a g and t in between. However if I go to one that is huge proportions I have not problem asking for a box to take away. ( Although my best doggie bags are usually from the Indian!)