The Story of Sally Lunn's Buns

My friend Jenny was intrigued by the tea post that she wondered whether I had been to Bath - an ancient town of England ( now aren't most cities and towns of England in that category?) I was exploring Cardiff when a dear friend, S suggested we make a trip to BathSpa. An aborted attempt in winter later, I was determined to make the most out of a bright autumny day and in an hour we were at BathSpa. I always recommend a visit to BathSpa ( yes, that's the name of the railway station you need to alight at to head to the Roman Baths - a massive complex that gave the area its name. University of Bath too has quite a reputation of being a good institution to head to, so if you do get through for courses there, grab it. It is a heavenly city to spend your study years there)

The Roman baths, I shall write about it on another day. I'm still in the tea hangover and like many of my dear friends mentioned, I missed so many Indian brews - the Kahwa and the Arabic Suleimani and the pudina chai...And so I shall tell you about Sally Lunn's Buns. I was perversely pleased by the name and as we crossed Sally Lunn's house, that is said to be the oldest house in Bath, dating back to the fifteenth century.

The cosy tea rooms - now tea is serious business in Britain. The china, the lace doilies, the tea pot and the creamer jug and of course the kitschy rooms with starched table clothes and assorted knick knacks dotting any surface. Sally Lunn's place tries hard to maintain its age-old look. Sally Lunn herself lived there in the seventeenth century after she landed in Bath from France, or so the story goes. And in the bakery she set up, she baked her famous buns... I have always groused the fact that local supermarkets in big cities like Mumbai in India don't stock great quality bread. Now what you get in a tea-room is a rung higher on the quality scale, provided you have chosen a good and busy one.

The recipe followed in baking these buns have not been changed since Sally Lunn's day, which meant you were eating bread the way they tasted it over four hundred years ago! The parlour where we sat for our afternoon tea had hosted guests and later patrons. The rooms upstairs, which has been converted into a museum can be accessed via a narrow staircase ( Always makes me wonder, did the fat ladies in their girdles and multiple layered petticoats get stuck on their way up or down?)

Now, I had ordered a ratatouille served on a Sally Lun bun ( the savoury one) while my friend had the sweet one that goes well with tea - half a bun smothered with cinnamon butter. Ever heard of the latter? It is as gorgeous as it sounds..Heavenly smelling butter infused with cinnamon and sugar and a little slice of divinity in the mouth. I was intrigued to know that we were to be served half a bun ( now who eats that?) It takes you to see the size of the bun to realise that a half is about as filling as a decent sized doughnut. Also you need to remember, you nibble on a slice of history served in the same traditional manner.

After a trip to the Roman Baths, heading to Sally Lunn's house for a spot to tea is a good idea to ensure another little trip into history...:) Highly recommended..and if you do end up going there, do remember to ask how Sally Lunn made that divine cinnamon butter..:) Perhaps the only competition to good English scones in my book of tea treats!