Day 14-15: UK, Gorran

Day 14 – Visit to Falmouth and The Wheelhouse

I forgot to mention that, last night after we’d arrived back from the Eden Project, tired and with throbbing feet but still talking about how fantastic it was, I had prepared for us to have a braai. 

The meat by now was defrosted and ready to slap on the fire.  Mini-me and the gorgeous Mr T make a fantastic team.

All it needed was for me to make the Loveless Creamed Corn and Canarian Potatoes.  I need to mention here, a little swiftly I think, that the Loveless Creamed Corn is so named not because of the attitude with which you make it (!!!) but so named because we first drowned ourselves in it at the Loveless Cafe just outside of Nashville on our road trip around the southern states of America in 2016. 

I’ve posted the links and the recipes for you. 

The sweetcorn is definitely not a dish to be had when on diet and is completely decadent and so unctuously good that you forgive it it’s trespasses of being made with lashings of double cream and butter – neither of which you should scrimp on or omit and once you taste it, you’ll understand why!!! 

The recipe for Canarian potatoes, funnily enough, comes from our first visit to the Canary Islands in 1999 (and where we discovered fairly late in life that we loved to travel) where we had these amazingly wrinkled, salty, creamy new potatoes.  They pop up at most of our braais and have been a hit where ever they are served.  A friend of ours, Sue, who doesn’t eat potatoes, has been know to eat 8 or more of the little buggers with lashings of butter and freshly ground pepper.  They are very, very good!!

Back to this morning…..

We’d spent the day lazing around in the sunshine at the campsite catching up with a bit of blogging and reading, doing a bit of admin ….and nothing much much more strenuous than that. We have been so lucky with the weather since we started out and the sun has shone gloriously almost every day that we’ve been this side of Cornwall.

By 4pm we were ready to embark on our adventure to Falmouth. Although it’s only a 24mile drive, the drive actually takes over an hour to drive. Mainly the fault of the extremely narrow lanes (have I mentioned these? LOL) forcing a slower drive and then causing a traffic build up because of it. On the positive side, it’s never boring on the roads in Cornwall!

As soon as we had arranged to spend the time here in Cornwall with Beth & Lee, I had told them about the Wheelhouse in Falmouth and shortly afterwards made a booking. I should mention here that bookings are made 3 months in advance and even then you’re most likely only to get in Wednesday or Thursday….Fridays and Saturdays are booked even further ahead (we were here in September and all weekends have been booked up to christmas with a few odd weekday bookings available). Hence our Thursday booking. We’ve been coming to The Wheelhouse for 7 years now and they have never, ever disappointed us. We continue to be blown away!

We arrived in Falmouth in time for a walk around the harbour and pre-dinner drinks with a view.

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Then it was time for supper. I need to tell you a little about this restaurant. It’s a well-hidden gem down a little alleyway called Upton Slip in Falmouth.

The decor is very eclectic semi-romantic/baroque, lots of draped fabric, gold, mini chandeliers, melted, dripping candles, collections of hats and head gear, hanging copper cataplanas and an open kitchen to watch chef create if that’s your thing.

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It only open Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm to 10pm. They serve seafood. That’s their speciality and they are soooooo good at it.

The menu is on a chalkboard and your choices are oysters, prawns, scallops, mussels, crab (brown or spider) and lobster. All seafood is cooked and served in the copper cataplanas. As you place your order, the items are crossed off the board.

You have a choice of sauces: garlic butter, lemon butter, brown chive butter, thai or mariniere.

Sides are chips and/or salad and the wine choice white or red.

That’s it.

The simplest concept of restricted opening hours (meaning chef and staff are rested, happy and motivated), a limited menu, sticking to what you know best, locally sourced, quality products, cooked to perfection producing outstandingly fabulous food ….and totally worth the 2 month wait.

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That, folks, is how to run a successful restaurant. 

And that is how to enjoy the best seafood meal.

Day 15 – Mevagissey Part II

Overnight the wind picked up and started to rock Kaya back and forth (not guilty… this time!!) and I woke, or rather opened my eyes, at some ungodly hour with the awning rattling and banging. A swift elbow into the gorgeous Mr T’s side woke him up too (he sleeps through earthquakes, I do not lie!) and after a quick few words we decided that we needed to go out and wind the awning in. We stumbled out of bed and, wanting to rescue the awning, I didn’t stop to think and stepped outside……wearing nothing but a t-shirt!! It took a few seconds for it to dawn on me as my brain slowly woke up and I felt the night wind whipping round my bare nether regions.

OMG ….. as I dashed inside, passed the half-asleep other half, to cover both my embarrassment and bare bum with a pair of hastily pulled on tracksuit bottoms. I am blaming it on my menopausal absent-mindedness ….

The awning came in safely.

Back to bed, a cup of coffee and a couple of biscuits later and we were back to sleep for a late lie in. Well, why do admin & blogs if you can laze around in bed instead? Like I said, fickle.

We had talked about going back to Mevagissey for fish and chips tea and so there we were back again. The idyllic, calm scene of 3 days no longer existed. We arrived on the harbour front to get fish & chips from the wagon on the front with the wind howling and us leaning in against it. Perhaps not. Didn’t fancy losing my tea to a grumpy seagull never mind the bloomin’ wind. And I wanted to eat it hot not cold, so we decided to get it from somewhere where we could eat inside.

The Fisherman’s Chippy it was. Cod and a shared portion of chips and as an extra surprise, they also sold mushy pea fritters. I’ll have me one of those as well. With our parcels of food and a diet pepsi (this is all about not eating unnecessary calories and to counter the effects of another gazillion calories from the chippy tea……as if!!!) we made our way to a seating above the chippy. If you leaned out the window on one leg with your arm twisted around behind you, you could see a view of the harbour. So instead we sat in the warmth of a corner and left the view to someone else.

Lashings of salt & vinegar and homemade tartar sauce finished it off and once again we were blissed out on fat calories, tucked into our corner table with all thoughts of grumpy seagulls, rude locals and howling wind dispatched.