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She can also make small caprese sandwiches
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Thanks reha! Would a pasta salad go with a tea menu? or would that turn into a light lunch?
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desi establishments and their total and utter misunderstanding of “high tea”
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It turns out that high tea does indeed include heavier dishes involving meat or that are usually part of lunch or dinner and on one website high tea is defined as dinner basically. Low tea is a much lighter spread and then there’s a cream tea which is even smaller.
So, Afayiz, you win…you can refer to your heavier spread as “high tea” as well as dinner or chai k baad dinner. But I do think that if the type of tea is not specified then just the word tea/chai is generally associated with finger foods and simple dishes
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So jesa des waisaa bhais hum wahee karein gey jo hamarey mulk main hota hai. Dil Dil Pakistan. I wrote before no rules in khana peena its totally on your choice.
Your understanding about word tea may go right but desi taqazey bhi hotey hain na aur yoon bhi we are never totally english/any other culture people toatlly when food comes. Shawarma (Arabic dish) has spices, we have chicken tikka pizza (italian Dish), There are chilli steaks too. So desis are always desis whatsoever:biggthumb:
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I agree with Alfayiz. Haleem can be served as a high tea item for sure.
High tea involves serving a mix of light and heavy items whereas just tea party is set up for lighter fare.
and most high end restaurants including the international chains of restaurants in Pakistan have haleem on their high tea menu.
you can have it without sheermal or naans in the evenings. infact, Haleem is one of the items that is served as after dinner snack in some Mehndis, dholkis, rat jagas functions too.
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besides fried food you can have:
Grilled fish fillets
bbq kebabs
chicken mushroom quiche
mini pizzas
chicken wraps
chowmein/pasta/macrooni n cheese
fruit chaat/papri chaat/dahi badey/ lobia ki chaat/ Aloo chaat
prawn toast
hummus and pita
scones
walnut squares
lemon squares
banofee pie
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Honestly don’t you guys get tired of typical desi menu haleem biryani lasagna on every event, be it breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea party, or dinner.
I would strongly suggest light dishes with variety of finger food.
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Depends upon your taste buds, I am never ever tired of Haleem. Biryani can be but no one mentions it to be in the menu. Waisey bhi yaar merey aik Haleem par pata nahin kyoon itna zyada shor mach gyaa, I like it to be in tea menu and I dont stick to the rules of having lighter tea is my choice na. Polished gem asked suggestions and I think we were free to give that so I just gave it as a suggestion so if one does not agree its really fine, but making it a discussion like it SHOULD NOT be part of tea is something where I was disagreeing. It varies from choice to choice, Its not that we will be penalized if Haleem would be in the tea manu or would we be.
By the way Lasanga is desi dish?
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I think that if the host doesn’t call it “high” tea, then most people take the a tea or chai invitation to mean light snacks that just take a few minutes to prepare and not grueling labor and this point is valid. I think that even in Our culture when you invite someone for chai they tend to think they’ll be served light refreshments and if the guest ends up staying close to dinner time, the host offers “khaana” that will be viewed by the guest as part of dinner and not chai k appetizers. In other words, I believe that both the guest and the host make a mental distinction if not a verbal one. So, both opposing arguments…apni apni jagah pe…make sense. :halo:
Now is it just me who has to have roti with haleem? The idea of eating it nom nom nom with just a spoon as though it were cereal makes me feel sick. Won’t say why…it’s just that a certain image seems more pronounced with using only a spoon and not roti. I’ll just leave it at that.
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In my famiy there is not much tradition of giving someone invitation over chai if guests come more than welcome and they are served with the refreshment. Even you know one of my tayee keeps haleem frozen so if some guests would come at chai she can present instantly. Similarly when my nand had to get married and people used to come over our house my MIL used to serve Haleem at chai but for rishta process thats a different thing. I have got invitation twice or thrice for tea and everytime it was a very high tea. Moreover people even came around 7:30 for tea which is actually a dinner time. We living abroad have concept of eating dinner early but in Pakistan even 7 is sometimes tea. So may be thats why we dont have that much formal tea invites. Here I have not been to tea anywhere yet. Moreover I move more in multiculural circle and I have got idea that Tea time is more with us Pakistanis and to some extent with Indians. Malay, indos, Bangladeshis have lesser of this concept
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Tell me something Afayiz. Jab tum tea ki dawat rakhti ho…to bayshak tum Urdu main “chai” hi kaho gi because in Urdu we don’t have the concept of high or low or darmiyaani chai…we simply call it chai. I think you’d agree with this. Par phir bhi …as a host tumharay zehn main yeh baat hogi k falan dishes mehmaan ki dinner requrements ko poori karain gi aur falan dishes chai k appetzers k group main shaamil hon gi. And the mehman …even in his or her dimaagh knows that yeh dishes dinner waali hain. Agar to sab dishes (light and heavy) akatthi ..yani aik hi dafa serve ki jaayen (buffet style)…to then I think it looks more like a high tea.
Par agar tum light aur heavy dishes ko separately ya aik break k baad serve karti ho…to mehmaan k zehn main bhi yeh baat hogi k chai ka period khatam hua aur ab yeh heavy dishes jo serve ki jaa rahi hain woh dinner main count hoti hain.
Restaurants main to high tea jaisay labels use hotay hain…but aam taur pe (and It doesn’t matter k tumhari family ka kya tradition hai because woh alag baat hai)…AAM taur pe…when we say “chai”…even guests don’t think of dinner. And when visiting relatives in Pakistan or even Desi family friends here in the US…the host specifically says k “lunch” ya “dinner” ki dawat hai. Us se pehlay if they serve appetizers…woh aur baat hai…but the entire affair is usually (from what I’ve seen) not called chai. And if dinner ka intezaam karna paray because the guest overstays…the two meals are given a separate distinction.
If you think about it if the host tells someone that i had someone over for chai…the listener generally assumes k mehmaan ne phir dinner nahi kia hoga. But most hosts specify k mehmaan also had dinner. The usage and interpretation in aam daily language is different from terms used in a restaurant.
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Im totally unable to understand that what offensive kind of thing have I said due to which everyone has to pin point. Ok you people know more ADAAB and FORMALITIES of chai, may be i dont.
Moreover Alhumdulillah I am happy with whatever menu I serve either in chai or any other event. I said in start somewhere that we can agree to disagree and yes family tradition matters. You know in our Pakistan is there any concept to serve cake as sweet dish nahin na. Here in many malay, indo families they serve cake as sweet dish jiska khaaney kay baad dil bhi nahin chahta, ab kya insaan unko yeh seekhnaye lagey that its not right to serve cake. So jiski jo marzi ho woh kerta hai. I dont think so is cheez kay liyey koi Saza kabhi muqarrar huwee hai. Moreover bhayee mujh sey to tea kee dawat kay baad khana nahin khaya jaata. As I said before that usually tea is served when guests tell you 1-2 hours before coming otherwise we dont have tradition of chai. One of my cousin did tea party of birtday of his daughter and u know when it started 8:30. And there was pizza, noodles, sandwitches and 2 more things. SO after such experience we avoid doing chai in our family as no one comes on time.
But yes if we tell someone we will come to have a cup of tea then obviously we dont expect dinner from them but its only that we dont have tradition of chai parties but agar main kisi ko bulaoon to main to Haleem menu main rakhoon gee
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If the guests are known to arrive habitually late..at a time that falls in the dinner bracket…then you call it dinner and serve them dinner.
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tea party = light-finger-dry food items 
I would suggest
mini sandwiches
mini pizzas
biscuits/cookies
french fries
chicken/vegetable Patties/pastry puffs
potato puffs
Dry Fruits (salted Nuts)
chana chat
chicken/veggie mini samosas
dahi bhallay
Plain teacake
Gulab Jamans/sweet dumplings
mini cheese cakes
Bas chai rakhna na bhooliyay.
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what is this abomination
Desi “high” tea 
Although yanks are not much better, I think it’s a colonies thing.
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Lol how is this any different from a lunch or dinner menu!!! Don’t get me wrong–I’d LOVE to be served this menu, but it doesn’t sound like “tea” to me… american equivalent is coffee I guess, you wouldn’t really serve heavy dishes w coffee..
EDIT: just read the rest of teh thread..awww 
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Except bihari kebabs/bbq kind of thing n haleem nothing else is presented in lunch/dinner in my menu.
Thanks for your hug anyways 
, i like such kind of tea to serve so i guess its not offensive na