THIS may come as a surprise to many of you, but I'm not very posh. I know – shocker, right? But I do love the finer things in life, especially when it comes to food.
Given the plethora of places to indulge my passion for food these days it's reassuring to know that I'm never more than a few miles away from a decent restaurant, hotel or bar.
One of the newer traditions in my house is to take my girls for a cocktail in The Merchant Hotel on their birthday.
It's five years since the eldest girl came of age and that's half the time the Skipper Street hotel has been open for business. This is the 10th anniversary of the beautiful hotel that symbolises a post-peace-process Belfast more than any other.
Opulent and extravagant, it caused quite the stir when it was first opened in 2006, by Bill Wolsey. His family-run Beannchor company now owns a load of restaurants, bars and hotels across Northern Ireland.
I've always liked his rags-to-riches story, a working-class boy done good. I've known people who have worked in his bars and say he looks after his staff – that always makes me want to be a repeat customer of any business.
At the start it was said it would never work, that it was too high end for Belfast and the customer base just wasn't there. Ten years on and it's still the place to go for celebration dinners, decent first dates or, in my case, cocktails with friends and daughters.
The Merchant also has a reputation for doing an impressive afternoon tea – and right, I know that sounds like the kind of present you'd buy a mother-in-law for Christmas but the reality is much less maiden aunt.
On the day we booked I was meeting a friend, who is also not very posh; in fact not at all posh.
The Great Room of the Merchant is stunning, Victorian grandeur, perfectly restored with amazing architecture. The red velvet seating has dated a little in the past 10 years and may be due an update but that is a small complaint given all attention to detail and heel-clicking service you expect from a five-star hotel.
The tea menu is impressive. I went for the organic Earl Grey blue flower tea, my friend had the Jasmine Flower green tea. We also had a bottle of Prosecco, which came served in wine rather than Champagne glasses which our sommelier – this is the Merchant; you don't just get a waiter – assured us was the best way to drink it.
The tea was delicious, the silver and china all of the highest quality, and then the main attraction, the food, arrived with much aplomb.
The three-tier display had a selection of finger-sized sandwiches, confit chicken leg with watercress, smoked salmon with citrus butter and a smoked beef with blue cheese. There were dinky little scones with clotted cream and jam and a lemon cake.
Then the patisserie, which was displayed like a work of art, included a mango cremeux, which is a sort of mousse, a salted caramel gateau, macaroons, a little tart-type pastry, all beautiful to taste and look at.
I had inhaled the sandwiches, scoffed a scone, mauled the mousse, and polished off the prosecco; I couldn't eat another bite but didn't want to leave anything behind.
That wasn't necessary as our leftovers were packed into two beautiful little cake boxes to take home. But here's the thing: they don't travel well; when I opened the box later it was like a bear had sat on it.
My friend didn't fare much better; she sent me a picture of her splatter of pastries. The moral of the story? Eat it all while you're there.
THE BILL
Weekday afternoon tea £22.50 each
Prosecco £29.50.
Total £74.50
