Sunday is Mother’s Day, the busiest day of the year for brunch. No matter what you do, be glad you do not work in a restaurant on Mother’s Day, and if you do, my condolences! Many brunch establishments throughout town are taking reservations, and just as many are not. If you are willing to take the risk of not enquiring about whether or not your favourite restaurant will be able to seat you at your preferred time, you and Mom may find yourself in for a fair bit of a line up. For those of you that are up for it, here is a list of some hot spots that are still taking reservations.
Another way of showing Mom some love is by avoiding the madding crowd altogether, as many of us have reservations about making reservations, preferring to spend a couple of hours together in the sanity of one’s own home, a nice, familiar alternative especially if Mom is not the gadabout type. Maybe you could make brunch yourself, trying your hand at an old faithful like eggs benedict, or Crêpes Suzette, Dutch pancakes, or one of Mom’s traditional favourites.
Another great alternative is an afternoon tea, complete with an assortment of dainty sandwiches, (on white bread with the crust removed, of course!): salmon salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, an assortment of biscuits, either homemade or procured from your favourite bakery and served with a pot of piping hot tea are a wonderful way to have a meaningful and sane visit with mom.
Just in time for Mother’s Day this year, Tetley Tea has come out with a new signature tea collection. With four distinct premium blend teas offered, the signature collection most likely has a tea right up mom’s alley; High Tea, a blend of black tea hand picked from Kenya with vanilla, Citrus Kiss-green tea with lemon and grapefruit, and for a more mellow, caffeine free experience they offer Mint To Be, a blend of spearmint, peppermint and apple mint, and finally Keep Calm and Sip On, a soothing mix of chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass and orange. And if you are brunching or sandwiching on a patio on a warm afternoon, any of these teas can be brewed up into a crisp and refreshing iced tea.
There is a school of thought amongst tea aficionados that the tea bag should not be squeezed after brewing, as this tends to impart a bitter flavour. But the tea sommeliers at Tetley aver the opposite-that a good tea should be gently squeezed to maximize flavour. And they feel so strongly about this that they have even built better tea bag, one that facilitates the squeezing of the bag employing “built in” drawstrings. No more squeezing of the tea against the side of the spoon, this ingenious little trick is no gimmick, take a look!
You mom doesn’t want you to spend a lot of dough on her on this day; and she doesn’t want 75% of your visit with her spent negotiating Toronto traffic. At noon. On Mothers Day. Or shifting from foot to foot for 45 minutes while a frazzled hostess gives you all the ol’ stink eye. What she wants is a little alone time with her baby, all grown up, a lovely afternoon visit and a pot of tea; it may be the best Mother’s Day present out there.