the other newquay

July 11, 2011 in beaches, camping, cornwall, national trust, newquay, north coast, surf | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s a strange coincidence that I was going to write a post today about my very un-Newquay holiday near Newquay last week when into my inbox landed an email about a new video promoting a more positive image of the much-maligned seaside town. Fair enough – but ‘the British California’!? Come on, let’s not get carried away. Well, perhaps, but only through lack of other contenders.

Think of Newquay and we all think: surf, first, then projectile vomiting, stag dos and vile clubs. At night, it’s a war zone.

But the thing about NQY that no one can take away is that it Read the rest of this entry »

chop, chop

July 11, 2011 in cornwall, farming, food, newquay, north coast, old cornwall, shops | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I interviewed Andy Appleton, head chef at Fifteen, some time ago for Food magazine – interesting guy, very keen to place the emphasis on Fifteen’s charitable status, which can often be lost in the Jamie factor and the general desirability of the place.

But one other, smaller thing also stuck in my mind from our chat: he was very excitable about Read the rest of this entry »

top five golowan highlights

July 1, 2011 in cornwall, events, festivals, penwith, penzance, singing, south coast, west cornwall | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A few ale-addled snaps from Mazey Day in Penzance last week. It was my first and I loved it – the chaotic anything everything goes atmosphere is pure Penzance. One couple had dressed up as hippies – which is akin to dressing in camouflage.

I want to get more into top-five lists on pasties & cream, so I’ll kick off with my top five Golowan festival highlights:

1) The DJ in the Arts Club garden dropping Black Box ‘Ride on Time’ at 3 in the afternoon. Not only did he get away with it – people went crazy.

2) Singer Dom Youngman at the busk-off at Zero Lounge’s alfresco bar on Mock Mayor Wednesday (incidentally, was anyone else confused by the brisk trade they were doing all week in Veuve Clicquot??! Do these people know of a secretly booming industry in Cornwall that I don’t?).

3) Pondlife ska at the Dock (listen here) – young and old dancing in the streets and things starting to get messy.

4) Mr B’s new vintage ice-cream van’s first outing.

5) Of course, Pirates on the Prom – 8,734 pirates and a real pirate ship. Rad.

Till next year…

pieces of eight… thousand, seven-hundred and thirty-four

June 27, 2011 in events, festivals, no way, penwith, penzance, west cornwall | Tags: , , | 1 comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In case you can’t wait for the splash in the Cornishman on Thursday, here’s a quick post to bring you news of our great victory: Penzance now holds the world record for the most amount of pirates in one place. The title is in its rightful home! We beat Hastings by several thousand, with a total of 8734 Cornish pirates, most armed with cutlasses, lined up on the prom.

It was a truly uplifting event, with communal ‘oooo-arrrrrrrghs’ encouraged on the sound system – and, of course, the mother of all ‘oggy, oggy, oggies’ when the winning result was announced.

Some people looked like they had hardly needed to dress up – what with the prevalence of beards and unruly, salty hair. And one pirate had a real parrot on his shoulder, which was causing mass piratical hysteria.

mumbai relish

June 22, 2011 in food, markets, sennen, west cornwall | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Look what I picked up at Sennen Market on Tuesday: Mumbai Banana Relish hand-made by Sarah of Peace and Plenty near Sennen (another contender for my favourite Cornish place name).

Full credit goes to Helen over at Newlyn Cheese for the tip-off about Mumbai mania: it is super fruity with a gentle curry kick – best spooned with gay abandon on a mature cheddar, I find.

I love the pretty, low-low-key labels, which are unbelievably hand-coloured in pencil by Sarah (cheaper than a colour laser printer apparently!). Peaceful and plentiful indeed…

Also in the range is the (Cornish-grown) Chilli Relish and Apple Relish. £3.50 for 400g from Sennen market, Newlyn Cheese Shop or a variety of farm shops and delis around the county (phone 07711 730713). More pics: Read the rest of this entry »

6,166 pirates? rubbish

June 15, 2011 in events, festivals, penwith, penzance | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Unless you actually are a pirate, and therefore a bit off-radar, you will probably have heard about Penzance’s forthcoming attempt to beat the world record, currently held by Hastings, for the number of pirates in one place.

Hastings managed just over 6K but surely, Cornwall, we can pound that – we are in a piratical class of our own. Many people do actually wear kerchiefs in their daily life, after all, not just on pirates Sunday.

Read the rules on costumes here. £1 to enter. 1pm. Sunday, June 26th, 2011. Penzance promenade. Be there or be, well, a massive spoil-sport.

Bandanas are de rigeur for the event – pantaloons also welcomed with open arms.

Pirates on the Prom (www.golowan.org)

where cornish toilets go to die

June 14, 2011 in penzance, shops, south coast, vintage, west cornwall | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Or rather to be born again. Thankfully, I have a gorgeous dusty pink bathroom suite all of my own so I had that particular area covered.

This ceramic installation comes care of Shiver Me Timbers reclamation yard at Long Rock, near Penzance: west Cornwall’s answer to IKEA. Good browsing. More pics.. Read the rest of this entry »

if you only see one open studio this week…

June 1, 2011 in art, events, historical figures, history, newlyn, old cornwall, penwith, views, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

…make it the Anchor in Newlyn.

Open to the public for the first time this year as part of the Open Studios event, this wildly atmospheric studio in Newlyn was once the workplace of 19th-century Newlyn trailblazer Stanhope Forbes and has, it would seem, changed brilliantly little since. It’s all overgrown outside Read the rest of this entry »

instant exposure

May 29, 2011 in art, design, new cornwall, st ives, vintage, web, west cornwall | Tags: , , , , | 1 comment

These pics are my favourites from a v neat exhibition in the Vintage Storeroom in St Ives until tomorrow called Instant Exposure by talented downalong-dweller Emily Fishpool – designer, illustrator and most importantly creator of the super-cute Teddy Pasty, ‘the cuddliest teddy in all Cornwall’!

All the pics are taken on the iPhone. Framed prints are £30. Why don’t mine look like that?

www.emilyfishpool.com/instant-exposure

cool coffee

May 25, 2011 in cafes, design, food, helston, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

origin coffee cornwall designs

Origin, Cornwall’s favourite coffee (based in Constantine but moving to Helston to accommodate big new roaster), has started producing limited-edition coffee bags for the Seasonals range, with illustrations by artists and designers from Devon and Cornwall; just a few hundred packets of each are printed.

My favourite design (and taste) is the Costa Rica Finca de Licho, one of their seasonal blends, with lemony accents – I ground and brewed one up this morning, and it was most spring-like. New designs out this week for June.

www.origincoffee.co.uk

ukelear attack

May 19, 2011 in east cornwall, festivals, fowey, gigs, music, singing, south coast, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I went to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Du Maurier Festival in Fowey last night – plucking amazing, they were.

Watching them dismember rock songs on titchily tiny ukuleles is a formula that never seems to fail (which may be why they sell out hundreds of gigs a year).

It’s a relentlessly entertaining, semi-ironic show but musically it’s no joke – these people are slick pickers. Even Ralph Read the rest of this entry »

shades of grey

May 16, 2011 in art, galleries, new cornwall, newlyn, penwith, penzance, west cornwall | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

newlyn art gallery

These are pics of a specially commissioned installation at the Newlyn Gallery at the moment by Phoebe Cummings (recently artist in residence at the V&A) in response to the Cornish landscape.

People (myself included) tend to bang on about the colours of Cornwall, don’t they, so there was something interesting and different in her intricate, clay-grey mini Cornwall.

I attended a workshop on Saturday morning with Phoebe, in which Read the rest of this entry »

salad supreme

May 4, 2011 in cafes, cornwall, food, restaurants, truro | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

Move over Ottolenghi, step up to the magimix Billy, the salad supremo at Archie Brown’s in Truro.

Archie Brown’s salads, originating in Penzance, are something of a cult classic in these parts. Chopping up into colourful pieces any preconceptions you might have about salads being boring and/or a side dish, these salads are strong enough to be the main event – they are packed with herbs and sprouts and nuts, as well as secret, rather thrilling ingredients such as preserved lemon and pomegranate molasses.

Long having wondered how they managed to make salad that exciting, I was stoked to see they have started doing salad masterclasses at their Truro kitchen, and immediately snapped up a couple of tickets.

Obviously I am not the only one who is obsessed with them, as all the salad classes have sold out until October – so, it’s not often I say this in Cornwall but, er, book ahead!

£12.50 including a salad and recipes to take home (www.archiebrowns.co.uk); £3.50 for a takeaway salad.

new exchange

May 3, 2011 in art, cafes, cornwall, design, penwith, penzance, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I am photo-rich (cheers, Jen) and time-poor this week, so without further ado here are a few picturarios of the reopened and tweaked Exchange gallery. I am a fan of the cafe (in particular, the strawberry in salad policy, which I hope still stands!) so I approve of the expanded space and more bar-like feel.

Ahem, not forgetting the art amid the lattes, the opening show of the season is an exploration of printmaking – check it out here.

porthmeor: new favourite perch

April 19, 2011 in beach food, beaches, cafes, food, new cornwall, north coast, penwith, sea views, st ives, views, west cornwall | Leave a comment

Seeing as it’s scorchio outside and I’m feeling more deckchairy than bloggy, I’m going to be brief and post some pictures of sunset from the Porthmeor Beach Cafe at the weekend – all in all, a pretty smug-making Read the rest of this entry »

to market

April 15, 2011 in bread, cornwall, food, new cornwall, shops, web | Tags: , , , | 7 comments

You know that thing people say about things that seem too good to be true usually not being true? Well, I really hope that isn’t the case… because I just got my first delivery from Cornishfoodmarket.co.uk – the Cornish online groceries store bravely aspiring to be a genuine competitor to the Big 4 – and frankly it bodes well.

But before I get into detail, can I just say OMG THEY DO CORIANDER FOR 99p, an ingredient so exotic in these parts that it is the sole preserve of the supermarkets, or a fixed price of three million pounds a sprig in Read the rest of this entry »

google’s going loco

April 13, 2011 in cornwall, historical figures, mining, no way, old cornwall | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Cornwall is in the spotlight on Google today – check out Richard Trevithick’s google-ised steam loco, to commemorate his 240th birthday.

An Illogan boy, and engineer at Ding Dong mine (yes indeed, this is partly an excuse to type out ‘Ding Dong’, my favourite place name in Cornwall, pipping Praze-an-Beeble to the post), Trevithick is Read the rest of this entry »

porthleven food fest

April 11, 2011 in beer, cornwall, events, festivals, helston, new cornwall, porthleven, south coast, video, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

OK, I realise that two consecutive blog posts have contained images of bunting fluttering in the Cornish breeze – you’ll have to forgive me (particularly male readers) but really you’ve got to make hay while the sun shines.

This is a clip of Porthleven Food Festival on Saturday, taken from next to the food marquee, where I sat pint of Betty in hand, enjoying Read the rest of this entry »

top up pop up

April 10, 2011 in beach food, cafes, cake, caravans, cornwall, design, new cornwall, penzance, sea views, tea, that's pretty, views, vintage, west cornwall | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Like any girl, I swoon at the sight of vintage crockery, bunting, wild flowers and cakes (in pretty much any combination), so imagine my excitement at this pop-up tea shop called Tea by the Sea, which pitched up in the old shipping container that is currently on Penzance prom as part of Cornwall Design Season.

Despite being the only seaside prom in Cornwall – with twinkling views – Penzance prom is quite a bare kind of place. Occasionally, and seemingly randomly, a few potted palms appear, but then they disappear as mysteriously as Read the rest of this entry »

trereife on tv

April 4, 2011 in cornwall, country houses, old cornwall, west cornwall | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Trereife-House cornwall

In case, like me, you missed Penzance’s rare moment of TV fame in Country House Rescue last week, you can still positively demand a viewing on Channel 4 On Demand.

Ruth Watson – she of never-ending supply of bold necklaces – takes her cut-the-crap business sense to gorgeous, but struggling Trereife House near Penzance, a ladylike Queen Anne pile on the outskirts of Penzance.

Interesting show – and an insight, as ever, into just how much effort it takes to keep a house of that scale and history alive – and some stunning aerial pics. All the best to the Le Grice family with their new ventures – yes please to more literary events btw.

According to the narrator, a PZ renaissance of cool is in full swing! I’ll be looking out for that ;-)

www.trereifepark.co.uk

walking on water (sort of)

March 30, 2011 in cornwall, marazion, penwith, sea, sea views, views, west cornwall | Tags: , | Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The last time I went to St Michael’s Mount was circa 1986, which is a poor state of affairs when you actually live in the same bay. The trouble with living locally, I suppose, is that there is always tomorrow…

Most locals Read the rest of this entry »

fresh and wild

March 24, 2011 in cornwall, fish, food, new cornwall, restaurants, spring festivals, st ives, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | 1 comment

porthminster beach cafe, st ives, cornwall

This piece of culinary art, my friends, is a morsel of almond-battered cod cheek with salted grapes, darjeeling tea gel and wild sorrel. I loved it so much that I ended up dreaming about it.

We are in the midst of Cornwall Spring Feast, a county-wide foodie shindig celebrating the joys of the local larder. The main shtuck is the one-price-fits-all special menus (£14 for two courses) in all participating restaurants – even the Outlaw’s Grill. But the county’s headlining chefs are also hosting a few special events – opportunities to perform culinary cartwheels outside the parameters of the daily menu.

When the opportunity arises to see young Australian chef Mick Smith of the Porthminster Beach Cafe perform culinary cartwheels, it’s one you Read the rest of this entry »

11 inches of pasty

March 22, 2011 in cornwall, fast food, food, pasties, penwith, penzance, west cornwall | Tags: , | Leave a comment

What can I say? This pasty speaks for itself. It is a standard ‘large’ pasty from Lavender‘s, which measures in at 30cm long. Twice the length of my hand. Look no further for a recession-busting family meal.

without meaning to name names…

March 21, 2011 in food, new cornwall, penwith, penzance, restaurants, west cornwall | Tags: , | 1 comment

….new bar-restaurant Untitled – the work of chef Robert Wright of Gurnard’s Head fame – is surely the most exciting thing that has opened in west Cornwall for ages.

In the interests of hype limitation, I hadn’t dared to get too excited about it beforehand but I went last night and it was all pretty fabulous. Saloon-bar chic downstairs (the sort of low-lit ambiance that makes you involuntarily order a Disaronno on the rocks – ok maybe that was just me). Terry Frosts and fresh white linen upstairs. Prices feasible. Steak gorgeous. Full of locals. The stuff of PZ dreams!

More, and better, pics here.

www.untitledbyrobertwright.com

where to eat all the pies

March 17, 2011 in beer, cornwall, food, pubs, st just, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | 3 comments

king's arms cornwall st justking's arms cornwall st just

I have been woefully lacking in blog material recently due to six crushingly dull weeks on crutches – and I didn’t think micro-analysis of the Tash-Summer storyline on Neighbours would pass muster.

Anyway, I am now in possession of a perfectly healed greater trochanter (hello world!), which called for a celebration: a mid-week outing to the King’s Arms in St Just for midday pints of Tribute, and a steak and ale pie.

The old granite-fronted pub, on the square in St Just, has won a plethora of awards since new owners Brad and Molly took it over a year ago. We found a warm welcome, spick and span bar, and some pretty exceptional pie (£9.95, served with parmesan mushy peas and mustard mash), so I think I’ll award it the Read the rest of this entry »

lil’ eyes (but not as we know it)

March 3, 2011 in cornwall, folk, gigs, music, new cornwall, video | Tags: , , | 1 comment

What do you make of all this then?

My mouse-clicking finger looked sharp today when I received an email with a link promising a ‘punked-up version’ of old-as-you-like Cornish folk song Lil’ Eyes.

This little blast of Cornish anarchy comes care of a band called Crowns – a rocky, folky, Pogues-inspired band made up of four 21-year-old Cornish lads from Lanson currently living in exile (while Read the rest of this entry »

beyond the biomes

March 2, 2011 in cafes, cake, cornwall, east cornwall, eco, new cornwall, st austell, west cornwall | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

eden project cornwalleden project cornwall

I think one way or another we all suffer from bouts of green fatigue. Does anyone else, as they toss a lone newspaper in the recycling bin, get a weary feeling of futility? Surely, I can’t help thinking, it is going to take a shitload more than this to get ourselves out of this mess.

The revolution starts at home, and don’t get me wrong Read the rest of this entry »

a year in blogging

February 23, 2011 in blogging, photos, web, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | 6 comments

According to an email alert reminding me to renew my domain, or forever lose my Cornish corner of cyberspace, this week marks pasties & cream blog’s first anniversary *Camel Valley champers all round*.

Cliche as it is to reflect on time’s stealthy passing, it really does seem like no time since I was tentatively tapping out my first posts, too self-conscious for weeks to actually share the link with anyone.

I’m still a little self-conscious on occasions but blogging a few times a week has quickly become an integral part of my life. It is something I always appear to have time for when far more urgent tasks languish on the list. But why, I wonder, do we blog?

For my part, I love Read the rest of this entry »

shell like

February 21, 2011 in beaches, books, cornwall, old cornwall, scilly, west cornwall | Tags: , , , | 3 comments

shell_cornwall book

As surely as night becomes day, we all turn into our parents while we’re not watching. And so it is written in the genes that I shall collect old, obscure books on Cornwall. One of my recent acquisitions is the sweetest little book on shell collecting in Cornwall – published by Tor Mark Press in the 1970s.

I’ve always had a soft spot for shell collecting, unable to resist any vaguely good-looking treasure on the shoreline – and I know enough to feel lucky if I find a cowrie. But I don’t really do identification, much less labelled display cases. This book is so geeky about it all, it’s Read the rest of this entry »

p&c january header: artist’s studio Newlyn

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Enter your email address to subscribe to pasties & cream and receive notifications of new posts by email.