RESTAURANTS:Devon and Cornwall have sunshine as well as good food
THERE COMES A time, I find, when the ideal holiday involves staying at home, turning off the phone, and doing nothing. It has not quite worked for me this year, due an e-mail addiction, but it's good. Sitting outside, I can gaze upon a very lovely landscape with the gentle music of muckspreaders wafting up from the N72.
The landscape is actually very similar to the one in which I spent a few days this summer, in Devon and Cornwall, which was not so much a holiday as facilitation of a daughter's social diary. But I enjoy such facilitation and it was a very pleasant break which involved several days of undiluted sun. Weird.
"Sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea." I re-read that and many other Betjeman lines as we sat in the dunes overlooking St Ives Bay. He was a great believer in Cornwall's essential difference. And lunching in the celebrated Porthminster Café in St Ives we could see that remarkable purity of light that still brings painters so far south. The purity of the grub there is pretty impressive, too. Outstanding haddock and chips, proper Thai green curry, crisp baby squid, decent crab cakes. My only gripe involved oysters served at something approaching room temperature.
Down by Land's End, in the tiny village of Sennan, is the rather more populist Beach House where we revelled in Sennan Bay lobster (amongst the very best I've ever tasted) and chips and the charm of the staff.
A trip up north to Padstow, or Padstein as a lot of people call it these days, was fun. We went for the Rick Stein element, but fell for the town itself, one of the loveliest in the west of England. Neither the holiday mood nor the budget suggested his Seafood Restaurant on the front (main courses costing £30 or more) so we trotted around Mr Stein's other establishments: the very cool fish and chip shop, the funky and informal (no bookings) Rick Stein Café and, finally, the moderately posh St Petroc's Bistro which occupies a lovely old Georgian house on one of Padstow's vertiginous little streets.
Sitting in the garden at the back in bright sunshine with friendly and chatty fellow lunchers and being looked after by delightful staff, it was all very jolly. Almost Continental. Except that my aperitif was a bottle of very good local bitter, Chalky's Bite, named in honour of Mr Stein's late canine companion. It was a very pleasant beer, but I couldn't detect the promised wild fennel flavouring (where do you get wild fennel anyway?).
Starters were simple and very good (these two qualities often going together). We had Toulouse sausage with a tomato, caper and shallot salad, the very essence of bistro, and meaty local prawns with proper, thick, homemade mayonnaise for two.
The two girls had rib-eye steak with Bearnaise sauce and thin chips, the latter two elements being very sound. The meat itself, cooked as rare as possible with this cut, had a curious texture that suggested it might have been tenderised with one of those needle-punching devices that some butchers use. But, I have to say, both steaks were consumed in their entirety.
My haddock with sauce vierge and butter beans was . . . fine. It was neither good enough to wow, nor bad enough to moan about. But I suppose if one were there to worship at the Stein Shrine one would not be entirely gruntled, so to speak. Two puds sufficed. Profiteroles were limp and pretty disgraceful, but their coffee ice-cream was very good indeed. And the frozen berries with hot white chocolate sauce was pronounced by Georgia to be the best sweet dish she has ever eaten. And she's a tough judge.
The bill for the three of us, with a beer, a glass of wine, two bottles of mineral water and a coffee, came to £116.50, service excluded.
Air Southwest flies from Dublin and Cork to Newquay and Plymouth, which means that Cornwall is incredibly close. And the fares are very keen. (I flew Aer Arann to Bristol, which is a good two hours' drive from St Ives).
A final word of advice. When visiting the small towns of Cornwall, always use the park and ride service. Otherwise you will spend hours not finding a parking space. And by God do they clamp.
THE SMART MONEY
The Parmigiana di melanzana (aubergine, tomato, cheese all baked togther) looked great and weighs in at £12.50. With a glass of house red at £4.75 and an espresso, you will be well fed for a shade under £20.
Wine Choice
I lacked the courage to try a Brazilian Pinot Grigio/Riesling at £20 (or £5 a glass) and thought, instead, of Mas St Laurent Picpoul de Pinet (£22/£5.50), only to plump for Ocone Falanghina (£26/£6.50). The house wine, which has served for 30 years, is an Haut-Poitou Sauvignon (£16.50/£4.75) and Château Bauduc Bordeaux Blanc (£17.50), much loved by Gordon Ramsay and not so much by me, also features. The lovely Beaumont de Crayères Champagne is £34.50 (there's no extra duty on fizz in the UK, which is the kind of thing we fought against in 1916), or £6.75 for a generous flute. Domaine du Tabatau Le Tabataire Saint-Chinian (£29.50) is one helluva red.