18th May 2011
*This was meant to be written about 8 months ago, but I never got around to it.
For the 2011 Norfolk and Norwich Arts Festival events company Artichoke and culinary adventurers Boompas & Parr joined forces to create Dining with Alice, a unique al fresco dining event.
Hosted in the grounds of Elsing Hall, Diss this week long event combined drama, music, food and the cast of Lewis Carrols much loved book, Alice in Wonderland.
My friend Ruth was really excited about this event, and since my birthday fell during Dining with Alice, Ruth suggested we go.
Elsing hall
When we arrived we parked my car in a muddy field, and were directed across a makeshift bridge towards the Hall.
Our tables were scattered throughout the gardens
We exchanged our tickets for menus and were given gin and ginger ale cocktails and game flavoured crisps.
We lingered in a tent for a while, and then a fleet of waiters arrived all wearing different coloured turbans.
We were separated from our friends and split into small groups and assigned to a waiter who then showed us to a walled garden where we each ate dinner alone on a table of our own.
My table for the first course
Our first courses were a teacup full of soup and tiny bottle of ‘drink me’ liquid.
My first course - theres a quails egg at the bottom
Our first courses were a teacup full of soup and tiny bottle of ‘drink me’ liquid.
Thats me!
We were then ushered to our second course, where we were mixed into groups again and seated at tables of two.
We ate a crab or mushroom and a bread roll and a small jam jar full of white wine to accompany the course.
My drink
White wine in a jam jar - classy!
For the main course we were seated in fours and reunited with our friends. On each table there was a steak pie, a dish of vegetables and a bottle of wine to be split between four people.
Ruth and I were seated with a mother and daughter from ‘the outskirts of London – NOT ESSEX.’ They though we were about 18, and from what we could gather, pretty childish.
As we ate we had the Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit and the rest of the Alice cast asking us questions in character.
Jelly!After dinner we were lead around the side of the lake, to a floating dock which was where we had desert: tiny scones, victoria sponges and a gorgeous Boompas and Parr jelly.
Baby scone 
After dinner entertainment
During desert, the cast of Alice sung us some songs, and then we went home.
It was a really fun and different evening, I am really looking forward to the events of next years NNAF and attending some Boompas & Parr events in 2012.
The turbaned waiters
Excited Ruth
