roasted pineapples

we had a very delicious lunch at porthminster cafe on 14.5.2015.^^

we ordered a crabmeat seafood linguine & mussels. both dishes impressed us. later we ordered a roasted pineapples dessert. that too impressed, very much indeed. 🙂

we checked out before 11am from trevose harbour house B&B. we were taking the london sleeper from penzance station in the evening at 9.45pm.

over the last few days, we had been to-

minack theatre at porthcurno, porthgwarra, sennen cove walked to land’s end before excellent dinner at tolcarnes inn on 9.5.2015

cape cornwall, botallack mines ending at gurnard’s head restaurant on 10.5.2015

lizard peninsula, from kynance cove to lizard point to lizard village & back to kynance cove on 11.5.2015

st michael’s mount & gardens before lunch at mackerel sky at new street penzance before driving to st ives & walked around the beautiful city, harbour & beaches & had a sunset dining at porthmeor cafe on 12.5.2015

took scenic train to st erth, walk back from carbis bay to st ives, drove to gurnard’s head restaurant for lunch then hike to gurnard’s head on 13.5.2015.

so today we were just walking around town, harbour & beach again & went to barbara hep ford museum before setting down to lunch at another beachside portminster cafe.^^

porthminster cafe

nice ambience, though not as captivating as the sunset dining at porter cafe. 🙂

mussels

the mussels were superb, superlative!^^

mussels

mussels

very tender, sweet & the gravy was excellent. i am going to try cooking this again, though i used the cheap local mussels in singapore. 🙂

newlyn crabmeat seafood linguine

the crabmeat seafood linguine was another huge pleaser!^^

newlyn crabmeat seafood linguine

linguine was al dente, and the crabmeat added special texture, freshness & flavours to the already tasty dish. 🙂

newlyn crabmeat seafood linguine

newlyn crabmeat seafood linguine

newlyn crabmeat seafood linguine

good prep crabmeat though very expensive in singapore, and the cheap ones i got from sheng shiong & ntuc were useless, and i sure not doing it from fresh crabs, so this has to stay as seafood linguine w/o crabmeat.

roasted pineapples

we were very impressed with the roasted pineapples. it came with lychees, coconut ice cream, a mango pudding & coconut flakes. i am going to do this myself but using fresh mango. ^^

roasted pineapples

porthminster cafe

the owner chef was born in australia. he published a cookbook which we flipped through while having lunch. i am going to try out couple of the dishes, a flamed squid & a curry cod (replacing the monkfish).^^

c.h.e.f andy

gurnard’s head

after a very pleasant morning walk from carbis bay back to st ives, we decided to do the gurnard’s head hike in zennor.

of course keeping in mind doing lunch again at gurnard’s head (the restaurant) on 13.5.2015, after an excellent mother’s day lunch on 10.5.2015.^^

lunch menu

weekday 2-course lunch was just £16, cheaper than sunday lunch. 🙂

pork rillette

pork rillette

i had the set lunch. both main course choices of lamb shoulder or sole were ok for me, but my wife don’t take lamb much so i had the sole which was excellent the last time i had so i was happy to have it again! 🙂

i ordered the pork rillette. i liked duck rillette which is usually served as a nicely braised & tender pulled duck meat in duck fat, very flavourful. the best duck rillette i had was at the clifford.

this pork rillete was presented in a pressed, terrine form, and did have bit of pulled texture. anyway it was very flavourful & nice.^^

dressed crabmeat aioli

dressed crabmeat aioli

dressed crabmeat aioli

wife ordered ala carte.

she had the dressed crabmeat appetiser dish. we took 1/2 a share & swapped dish as usual.

we both thought the pork rillette was a far better dish. crabmeat sandwiches were famous in cornwall & we had a very good one at sennen cove. the mistake here was the dressing. next time when we see ‘dressed” we would ask for the dressing to be serve separately. this felt like thousand islands kind of heavy dressing (we like never take thousand islands)..the aioli could not rescue it. such a waste as the crabmeat here always sweet & tasty on its own w/o any dressing.

whole megrim sole

whole megrim sole

my whole megrim sole as tender, sweet, tasty as ever. especially with the pickled capers & the olive oil sauce. truly excellent!

duck leg

duck leg

wife decided on the duck leg. we asked the server & she kind of said it was like a duck confit.

wife actually liked it. i thought nothing of it though. it tasted like the cold storage roast chicken flavour (where the roast flavours is concerned). duck was ok. i think even the duck leg confit at concetto or saveur’s duck leg confit was far better than this.

flat white

we had a flat white. it was only £2.50. & this here was really good, such a great cuppa!

c.h.e.f andy

glorious sunset

after visiting the charming st michaels’ mount & gardens in the morning followed by lunch at mackerel sky at new street penzance, we arrived at our wonderful trevose harbour house B&B at st ives on 12.5.2015 about 3pm.

we had a nice walk around the st ives harbour & beaches & went to dinner at porthmeor cafe at 8pm.

porthmeor cafe

porthmeor cafe

porthmeor cafe overlooks porthmeor beach. it has a casual, a cool ambience, great place to chill.

it was still bright at 8pm. we had a wondrous view of sunset as we dined.^^

seared scallops – £6.80

seared scallops – £6.80

we ordered 5 tapas & 1 dessert plus a prosceco. we felt the price was bit high for the portions.

scallops were good, nicely seared, good herbs & condiments. still the scallops at tolcarne inn were far better by comparison.

marinated aubergines – £5

marinated aubergines – £5

the aubergines were very good, great flavours.

grilled tuna, thai peanut butter – £7.50

the chef obviously had quite a bit of thai & asian influence.

grilled tuna, thai peanut butter – £7.50

grilled tuna though was quite flat, not much taste, improved a bit with addition of quite a bit of table salt & taking with the peanut butter sauce.

grilled baby courgettes & fig – £5.50

grilled baby courgettes & fig – £5.50

the grilled courgette was not as good as the eggplant

seared duck breast – £6.80

seared duck breast – £6.80

seared duck breast was among the best dishes.^^ nice, tasty, firm duck breast. very good. i may try doing a sous vide seared duck breast again!^^

salted chocolate with clotted cream

salted chocolate with clotted cream

the servers made a mistake & we were served a dessert, a salted chocolate tart we did not order. we informed the server & she said we might as well eat it (w/o charge) since she could not serve it to anyone else. 🙂

it was very good though, in fact it turned out to be better than the grilled banana we ordered.

grilled banana, salted caramel, clotted cream

grilled banana, salted caramel, clotted cream

the grilled banana, salted caramel was not great.

flat white

coffee was good!

glorious sunset

glorious sunset

& the glorious sunset, better! ^^

c.h.e.f andy

tasting board-aioli squid, chicken pate, cured herring, cheese platter, croutons, bread

we checked out of glencree house B&B this morning & drove to marazion to tour the st michael’s mount on 12.5.2015. ^^

the castle & gardens were fabulous! 🙂

it was noon time & we were driving to st ives to check into our next B&B. instead of taking a snack/coffee or lunch at st michael’s mount village, we decided to drive back to penzance and have lunch at mackerel sky at new street, penzance.

it was a wonderful lunch.

mussels

mussels

we took the lunch special on the blackboard. it was mussels with chips. this was a mains size, quite a large portion, i think it was about £12.50.

mussels were really fresh, tender, succulent, sweet, and the gravy was really good too, very flavourful, better than many soup.^^

chips for mussels

it came with a portion of chips, which were so so.

tasting board-aioli squid, chicken pate, cured herring, cheese platter, croutons, bread

for the other main we took the tasting board, which cost only £9.75.

it was quite excellent. stye squid aioli was great as usual. chicken pate was ok, cured herring was average, not like the very good ones even on the streets in amsterdam! the olives, olive puree, croutons, bread & cheese were all good.

this was a good quality very affordable priced lunch.

c.h.e.f andy

thai appetiser

had plenty of western food, so decided to try out a thai restaurant right by our B&B, thai moon, on 11.5.2015.

thai moon

view of the road from thai moon

the place was ok, looked a bit the traditional thai, not the modern chef managed type.

place was still empty when we got there at 7pm. we were seated by the window. the restaurant is on level 2, a nice look out on the mont bay.

thai moon set menu

we wanted some thai curries. they charged £2.50 for rice each. figures it would come to £27 for 3 dishes + rice, so we decided to take the set menu £37 for 2. the english proprietor (who married a thai wife in 2003 & started the restuarant in 2005) was flexible enough to allow for some changes of curries/dishes on the set menu

thai appetiser

we had 4 appetisers.

prawn fritters

prawn fritters

the prawn fritters was competent, like any good breaded prawn fritters in any western or japanese cafes.

minced chicken deep-fried with bread

the minced chicken deep-fried with bread was competent also.

chicken satay

chicken satay

wife didn’t like the chicken satay as it did not have the usual satay bbq flavours, felt more like a fritter. peanut sauce was a bit sweet.

pork ribs

pork ribs

the pork spare ribs were done quite well.

yellow curry prawns

yellow curry prawns

the curries though was a huge disappointment. the yellow curry prawns were nothing like the thanying yellow curry prawns we had eons ago. prawns were fresh & sweet, curries were below par.

red curry beef

red curry beef

likewise the red curry beef, tasted nothing like red curry.

stir-fry vege

stir-fry vege

the stir-fry was ok like any average stir-fry.

egg fried rice & jasmine rice

egg fried rice

we had egg fried rice & jasmine rice provided with the set. we finished about 1/3 of the rice.

overall the set menu was not any cheaper than ala carte as i figured the appetisers were 1/2 portion. we gave £3 tip so the bill round up to £40 which for us was very expensive for the quality of food.

i cant say it was not authentic thai, but it was very average street thai. It was certainly no thai express, and there would be no comparison with the authentic quality thai food at patara.

and here in cornwall we could get excellent food at gurnard’s head & mackerel sky at the same price or lower.

c.h.e.f andy

lobster seafood pasta – £14

had a fantastic 5hr leisurely hike at lizard peninsula starting from kynance cove to lizard point to housel bay, then lizard village & back to kynance cove on 11.5.2015.^^

cornish pasty from ann’s pasties

cornish pasty from ann’s pasties

while at lizard village, we tried a cornish pasty, a tiny small one for £1.50 from the famous ann’s pasties, which 2 of us shared. 🙂

this seems to be a commonplace snack in many cultures, italy has its calzone & we have our curry puffs. 🙂 it was actually pretty ok, better than we expected. the minced beef & the fillings of potatoes, swede (yellow turnip) & onions were pretty tasty. for me always, the simple curry puffs taste better, mostly because of the curry, so fragrant & nice.^^

lobster seafood pasta – £14

we went to the coach coffee bar & bistro for a cuppa, a flat white. it was ok, quite strong but not as good as what we had at mackerel sky seafood bar the evening before.

we saw the lunch special on the blackboard & decided to order it, as it was a seafood pasta with lobster, mussels, squid etc for £14!^^

lobster seafood pasta – £14

lobster seafood pasta – £14

wow, it was good!

the tomatoes flavour were good, penne pasta was al dente, and there were quite a lot of lobster meat, fresh & sweet. the calamari fritters were great & the mussels were delicious, very tender & succulent! 🙂

the dish was not out of this world, but really an excellent take, far better than what we expected & at a very good price for the good serving & the ingredients.

c.h.e.f andy