Happy New Year to all of my lovely readers. I hope you were able to take some time off in December and relax with your friends and family.

Tea is served in my in-laws’ home like clockwork at 4.30pm. Every day. The tea cups arrive on a tea trolley (yes, in Pakistan we still have those), both tiers lined with beautiful white linen and assorted teacups my father-in-law collected over the years from the antique markets in Paris’ 18th.And there is always cake – homemade cake – which my mother-in-law, Yassi prepares herself. There is a loaf cake studded with candied fruit, perfect with a cup of black, very tannic tea, which I love. And on other afternoons there is a sticky and dense date cake which tastes like a dark molasses. We add a blob of clotted cream and have it with cups of cardamom tea.Read More