So tea at the Ritz seems like ages ago and now the weather has dropped by a good 15 degrees the time for eating petit fours is definitely over. Its time for real food and by real food I mean meat. preferably red meat too, anything that you can cook for a long time on a low heat.

As heavy and heartwarming as German food can be, I tend to draw back to the English classics when the temperature drops. Funnily enough these weren't recipes that were made at home when I was young, but somehow I have developed a nostalgia for the England that I never had. The Spanish have a word for this longing for a time that never existed in our past ... but it escapes me at the moment.

On a mild october day I spent the afternoon in a hotel which is mentioned in such phrases as " putting on the ..." and "tea at the...". I was involved in the later activity, finally getting round to using a birthday voucher I got in May, which I promised I would save until I had something to celebrate - aside from just my birthday. Well that something had finally happened.

So tea for two in the tea lounge at the Ritz in Berlin. I went with English rather than German as my language of choice, it just felt right when dealing with such a typically English custom. And it was the right choice, it made the whole experience much more pleasurable. Anyway, what is the German for scone?

After sniffing out the tea of our respective choices, followed by an onslaught of petit fours I was settling nicely into the role. However as the the piano player began tinkling out covers such as "send in the clowns" and the Forrest Gump theme tune, I had the feeling i was being slightly mocked.