We managed to explore a bit of the nearby towns on the first day such as St Austell. Failed in the sightseeing bit, as some of the sights such as The Eden Project closed early by 4.30 pm and we arrived around that time. Interestingly after we had decided to go to Cornwall, I found out that About Time, one of my favourite movies was filmed largely in Cornwall, St Austell. I think that’s partly why Y and I wanted to go Cornwall too, just to relive a bit of that.
Typical view when driving in Cornwall. Lots of farms and happy cows, sheep and horses.
On our first day lunch, I planned for us to go to Truro where there’s a bright and airy seafood restaurant Falmouth Seafood Bay. My crab pasta was rather average but they do really good fish dishes and seafood platters, and oh the Cranachan Sundae which is basically their rendition of Eton Mess was just rocking! Great way to start our day in Cornwall.
We headed to walk around in the St Austell town area where there’s a cathedral, and quite a lot of shops, we were rather surprised it was not such a countryside as we had imagined. Some of the speciality products that they are known for is fudge, MC couldn’t resist going into fudge shops every time we passed by one. I find it hard to chew with my beary mouth though.
Our best discovery was stumbling into this casual pub, and we ordered a cider – Rattler Original Cider and I swear all of us are addicted to it now! Us gals ordered it pretty much everyday at least once anywhere we were. What’s really amusing is this reverse clock we saw in the pub, really messes with your mind, doesn’t it?
Our first day in Cornwall ended with a fantastic seafood degustation dinner at Nathan Outlaw (St. Enodoc Hotel, Rock, Cornwall) He is quite a household name in Cornwall and is known for his use of the day’s seasonal catch, as he has held 2 Michelin Stars consecutively in the last 4 years. A pure seafood centric restaurant that only does degustation meals for dinner, he decides the menu only at 4 pm in the afternoon based on the day’s catch. I can imagine how stressful it is but also how dedicated he is. Located in St. Endoc Hotel, it has amazing views of the coastline from the hotel entrance, we were glad to catch some of that view just as the sun set.
Considering we were rather full from cider earlier, we started the meal with caution only to enjoy every course as it went by. Each dish was rather light and delicate yet well-rounded in terms of its flavours. I loved especially the lemon sole with oyster, and turbot with pickled mushrooms and kale. Even the desserts such as the banana and pistachio ice cream sandwich was delicious, a perfect ending to the meal. And I took home a menu autographed by Nathan himself!
Only thing after this meal was Y having to drive back 48 miles in complete darkness in the country roads back to our hotel. Read more about the sight seeing we got up to in Cornwall in the next post.
