Feasting at Fistral

I think it's safe to say we filled our boots on our weekend away. My excuse is that we needed the extra padding against the bracing at Atlantic winds.... or that the food was just too good to resist.

We started our Saturday morning off in true lazy holiday style...full Cornish breakfast in bed with an unbeatable view.

However, the views and food downstairs in the restaurant are just as good. There's the usual cereals and fruits, a self serve buffet of full English items and cold meats, and you can also order from the hot menu. FYI, the eggs benny are awesome.

In between breakfasts, we found a food truck called Wild Foods, and devoured an incredibly crunchy wild garlic and nettle falafel. Very filling and just enough garlic to keep the vampires away.

Of course, who visits Cornwall without one of these? Heartbroken that my favourite pasty shop was shut, (I'm hoping that it was just for the winter) but this one filled in quite nicely.

Our deal included a 3 course meal on one night at The Headland, so Saturday night we stayed safe inside from the elements with a bottle of red to keep us warm.

Golden crunchy Cornish crab fritters with a creamy curried mayonnaise, with just enough spice.

Szechuan pork and spring onions. This dish was 100% prettier in real life than in this grainy light! A light and zingy starter with spicy marinaded pork.

Braised shin of beef, with a slice of fried polenta and garlic broccoli. The beef literally fell apart as soon as I stuck the fork in, and never underestimate the power of perfectly cooked broccoli! I could jump through the screen and eat this again right now.

The venison was pinker than the picture, and just as soft. The parmesan crisps added a nice crunch, and look striking, but are a lot harder to eat as a meal than they look.

I was a little disappointed with dessert. Cornish Gouda, quince jelly and biscuits. The jelly was both sweet and a little sharp, but that cheese barely stretched to two of the generic crackers.

Especially when over the other side of the table was this huge slab of sticky toffee pudding with popcorn ice cream. Deliciously sinful. It's probably a good job I only had a little slice of cheese, as Mr P was struggling and what kind of wife would I be if I didn't help out eh?

The restaurant is open to the public too, so if you're down this way at all, pop in for a cosy meal and nose around this beautiful building.

Autumn Update

Autumn is just the best time of year for me. Multicoloured crunchy leaves and cosy nights in, but most importantly, the food!

We kicked the season off in style with a bit of rugby and a lot of food at the Newport Beer Festival, at Rodney Parade. We got there early in the afternoon, ready for lunch, so I made a beeline for the food stalls! It was hard to make a decision, but enticed by the pumpkin curry with salmon escalope, I headed to Big Fish Little Fish!

There was a huge meaty salmon escalope on the top, which had a lovely grilled taste, and I loved the raita on the top. The pumpkin curry underneath however was a bit lacklustre. I only had two small lumps of pumpkin and the sauce tasted of tinned tomatoes, watery spinach and not much else.

The beer tents were pretty good. Tiny Rebel, Sharps, Tudor Brewery and Otley were all in attendance, among others, and we tried a fair few random beers throughout the day. My personal new favourite was Safe As Milk by Crafty Devil, a beautifully smooth chocolatey coffee stout. Yum.

I was pretty jealous of the guys food choices earlier in the day, so I rounded the night off with an offering from the Dirty Bird van.

3 chunky pieces of fried halloumi, with their 'dirty fries', which were covered in parmesan and spring onion. Lots of cheese and fried carbs, perfect beer food!

I've also been indulging in some autumn baking myself lately, and am hoping to get some recipes up soon! Getting them down on paper is hard work, as I'm much more of a throw it all together girl than following a recipe to the word!

Comfort food at it's best, Nana style cheese, leek and potato pie!

The slow cooker has also come back out of it's summer hibernation at the back of the cupboard and made itself a permanent fixture on the worktop! Perfect for the rugby world cup, put a curry on in the morning and it's ready by half time! This one is a juicy chicken bhuna (with half 'n' half, obviously).

 

After a few weekends in, Mr P treated me to a night away from the stove and we popped to a local favourite, Gemelli's (Bridge Street). I've blogged about this before here, so I won't go into it too much, but the food is always too pretty not to share! It's a little over the top with the presentation, but I can't help but love it!

I started off with a quartet of large mussels, topped with a garlicky prawn and surrounded by a Mediterranean salsa. 

The star of the show however was the signature gnocchi dish. I love gnocchi, I mean what's not to like about cheesy potato? Served in a cheese and bacon sauce, with mushrooms and a hint of garlic, this was no exception! 

We did manage to fit dessert in, but were too greedy to remember to take a photo! Suffice to say, the amaretto cake is the one!

I think that's enough food to keep you going for now? I'll try and get some recipes up soon! What are your favourite autumn dishes? Let me know in the comments!

Newport Food Festival

Saturday was the 5th annual Newport Food Festival, and by far the best the city has held, in my humble opinion. It's been a long time since I've seen it so busy, and hopefully a taste of things to come with the new developments opening in the coming months.

As per usual, Mr P and I headed in at lunchtime, sans breakfast and on the prowl for some great food. We were not disappointed! Last years festival was overrun by chutney stalls and not enough fresh cooking, whereas there was an abundance of choice this time around.

Trying to do the rounds first, the smell of the hotdogs coming from the Parc Pantry were just too good to resist, so we joined the queue. Deciding to share a 'Festival Dog' would turn out to be one of the best decisions of the day.

Usually I'm not a big hot dog fan, I cannot stand the pointless dry processed rolls that fall apart and the plastic 5% meat sausages that inevitably come with it. This was a complete game changer!

A 10" 'proper' sausage (with a crispy skin to boot) nestled in a pillowy soft seeded roll. Topped with Pastamore roasted pepper sauce, chunks of Caws Cenarth sundried tomato and chilli cheddar, with a generous helping of crunchy onions. This hot dog hit all the right spots, combining tastes and differing textures! I loved the fact that all the toppings are well publicised that they are local suppliers, especially as both of the above were also exhibiting at the festival.

All washed down with a 'Gingerella', which yes, I bought just for the name.

Satiated for a little while, we carried on for a wander up and down the stalls, picking up some really lovely treats along the way.

Macarons and flapjacks from Clams Cupcakes...

A couple of bottles from my favourite local brewery, Tiny Rebel...

And some vegetarian delights from The Parsnipship. Yeah, that's right, vegetarian. The Glamorgan Crumble was snaffled up so quickly by my devoted carnivore husband that I had to hide mine from him. I'll be looking out for these guys in the future, that's for sure.

We took a break from the shopping and ventured into the indoor market just in time to watch Simon Crockford from the Celtic Manor show just why he's head chef across the hotel's six restaurants. With a total coolness that wouldn't be out of place on Ready Steady Cook, he knocked up a pork sharing platter, including an incredible ham hock pie, loin, chop and accompaniments in about half an hour. Without breaking a sweat. Great to watch, and I'm looking forward to trying out the recipes for myself with the recipe cards that were handed out.

By this time, we were definitely ready to eat again, and I was more than happy to see that my favourite souvlaki crew, Meat & Greek were grilling up a storm.

I know I've gone on about these guys all summer, but the souvlaki pittas really are the bomb. Especially when you go all out, extra halloumi is a necessity. Tzatziki and houmous too... I promise you there's some pork under there!

We had a great few hours out, and picked up some wonderful drinks and nibbles of which I'm looking forward to finishing off! Well done Newport Food Fest, I'm looking forward to the next one!

Cheers!