Tea at the Heathman

I'm going to tell you something you must try. And that is afternoon tea at the Heathman Hotel in Downtown Portland.

(Preferably with girlfriends, celebrating a birthday being optimal.)

I went last week to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday with a group of her girlfriends and it was possibly the loveliest afternoon I've ever had. (And definitely the yummiest.)

The tearoom is just beautiful. Giant old restored paintings, a grand piano and fireplace, and a chandelier recovered from an Austrian mansion after the Nazi invasion that is now valued at about a million dollars.

The afternoon tea is a set menu and you get everything included... your own pot of tea and 12 different food items to try!

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the English would not necessarily consider it a traditional menu, seeing as that when I started to tell my Mum about my outing she rattled off a whole list of foods she thought would be included and not a single one of them were part of the menu. She looked quite disapproving.

But if you aren't English then you will be delighted by the fanciness!

And if you are like me then you will eat every single thing and declare each one better than the last, with the possible exception of the goat cheese crostini. That was some STRONG cheese.

This is my friend Cheri. And this is my fancy curled hair thanks to my circa 1999 hot rollers. (I say fancy because it's the first time I've ever used them semi-successfully. I was shocked.)

And this is my most favorite mother-in-law in the world (on the right), with her best friend, Sharon, who planned the whole afternoon. Nicely done, Sharon.