Tea and Cakes

This, my friends, is the best ice-cream you’ll find.

To find it you need to fly to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, get a bus for 2 hours to Plovdiv, and take a walk down the main shopping street, past the roman ruins, past the on-street cafes, until you come to the small ice cream stand just before the main square with the post office on it.

Then take your pick from the selection there. I recommend two scoops, although scoops implies a carefully measured small portion, and in reality it’s a giant spoonful or two in a massive sugar cone. Add your choice of sprinkles, and you’re off. The cost is calculated by weight, and the above ice-cream cost a bit less than €2. Yes, you read that correctly.

I tried a selection of flavours, some mine, some a sample from my companions, all of which were excellent and obviously made from what they claimed to be made from: Cherry - Mmmmm, Strawberry - Mmmmm, Vanilla chocolate - Mmmmmmmm. Above you see hazlenut, which was the nuttiest most delicious nutty ice-cream I’ve ever had, with chunks of praline chocolate in for good luck, and the one I came back to time and time again: Coffee and Whiskey flavour. Oh boy. This tasted like it had a generous slug of both in it and was top. Just wonderful.

It’s a good thing I was eating salads most of the rest of the time, I had a giant ice-cream each of the 4 nights I was in Plovdiv. I’d do it again too.

Filling:
300g rhubarb, washed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
360g red gooseberries, topped and tailed, washed and dried
140g tayberries
75g unrefined caster sugar

Heat gently until rhubarb is softened and starts to break up.

Topping:
50g unrefined caster sugar
50g brown sugar
150g wholemeal flour
75g butter
half teaspoon ground ginger
half teaspoon ground cinnamon

Rub together until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Mix in:
40g oats
30g chopped hazelnuts

Put filling and topping in dish and cook at 220C for 20 mins.
Serve warm with cold natural yoghurt.

Tastes like summer.

Cornwall was lovely.

I’d been down there twice before, once as a sulky teenager on a family break in Mevagissy, and once on a geology field trip.

The family holiday I remember very little of. I suspect this is because I was stroppy and sulky and antisocial and generally horrible to be around and I’ve blocked the whole thing from memory.

The a level geology field trip was mainly spent on beaches in the rain, mapping the layers and taking notes on the folds, or down mines. Actually, it was probably only one mine, but quite frankly that’s enough.

This trip was different. This was a few days relaxing by ourselves as a treat after lots of rushing around.

We stayed in Lostwithiel, a lovely little village with a pretty river to walk along and a surfeit of delicious places to eat. With only 2 full days we had to be selective about what we did, and I’m very happy with our choices.

We spent a day at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which were beautiful and fascinating and I can’t recommend them enough as a day out. I’m halfway through the book written about the history of the gardens and their restoration and it’s really interesting.

The Jungle

Mud Maid

Giant Head

Our second day we decided to spend exploring some of Cornwall, ignoring the pull of the nearby Eden Project.

We started off in the little port of Mevagissey for a walk up above the harbour and to see if we could find where Merry lived.*

Then we headed off to just outside of Fowey, for a hike along the cliffs by Menabilly, the house that Daphne du Maurier lived in for a while, down and around to Coombe Farm.

Coombe Haven, a smugglers cove that I have no photos of because as we walked by it was playing host to a naked elderly man stood up to his knees in the sea.

While in Mevagissey we’d cunningly bought our lunch: pasties.

Cheese and onion pasty, and a chick pea and cumin one that was delicious. I now want to make everything into pasties.

After our big long walk it was time for a treat, so we headed into Fowey for high tea:

The Dwelling House is a grade 2 listed property, and serve absolutely fabulous teas and cakes. High tea in the garden was a delight.

I think next time we visit Cornwall we’ll be heading back there. I may have to diet first.

*Mevagissey is the model for Trewissick in The Dark is Rising books by Susan Cooper.

Cornwall is trying to kill me with delicious food.

Today we started off with breakfast at Muffins, an award winning tea shop.

Cornish tea (yes, grown in Cornwall), fruit with local yoghurt and museli, followed by fresh granary toast with local orange marmalade.

We spent the day at the absolutely wonderful Lost Gardens of Heligan, where I had a roll with Cornish brie and cranberry sauce followed by a fresh cream lemon cake.

Then a snack of vegetable crisps and organic St Clements (lightly sparkling orange and lemon juice drink).

Back to Lostwithiel in the evening, to Trewithen Restaurant, for one of the best meals I’ve had in ages. I can barely move right now, but I just couldn’t stop.
Parmesan and herb bread, and olive bread as a pre-starter.
Pea, spring onion and pesto risotto with parmesan shavings to start.
Red and yellow pepper tarte tartin with chilli and mango as a main, served with fresh steamed vegetables, new potatoes and potatoes dauphinause (yeah, I cant spell that.)
Then strawberries and champagne sorbet almost to finish.
I say almost because our enormous pot of great coffee was served with home made petit fours.
An awesome meal, in a lovely location, with great service.

Everywhere we’ve been, on top of all the delicious food (actual choices for vegetarians!), everyone has been super friendly and nice and helpful.

I don’t think I need to eat at all tomorrow.

So, lots (well, some) of you have wondered about the Mango KitKat balls.

Well, I managed one. The Gurrier managed two.

I was wondering what to do with the rest.

However, when confronted by a birthday boy who’d had too much beer and wanted some mango kitkat balls at 3am, I caved.

There are two left.

I will happily send them to anyone who is interested. Add your name in to the draw for the rest of the kitkats and I’ll pop them in the envelope if your name comes up.

Although I have just discovered a couple of untried KitKats here in Ireland, I couldn’t really end the Week of KitKats with anything other than the classic.

Sweet milk chocolate, crispy wafer, the bright red wrapping - what’s not to love?

The perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of tea and a sit down, possibly with knitting, the KitKat is a classic chocolate bar that is hard to surpass. Sure, pretenders and limited editions often appear, but I come back to these time and time again.

As chocolate bars go, this isn’t one for stuffing into one’s face to satisfy a sudden craving - it’s restrained, civilised. Slightly repressed. In other words, very English.

Verdict: 9/10. The classic lost a point due to the modern wrapping. Nothing can really replace the ritual of slipping the paper off without breaking it, running a fingernail through the foil between the bars, and then snapping the first bar off still in the foil. Sigh.

~~

And so ends the week of KitKats. Enormous thanks to Fuji Mama for the Japanese KitKats, and to Krafty1 for starting Luke on his world trip and setting the whole thing off.

Now, a teeny tiny giveaway seemed in order. If you would like to receive an Irish KitKat sampler pack (plus bonus berry KitKat) just leave a comment below and I’ll draw from all the names entered by Tuesday, 8pm Irish time.

Included: Regular KitKat, Dark Chocolate KitKat, Chunky KitKat, KitKat Senses, and a 2 finger Japanese 3 berry KitKat. You’ll need a lot of tea.

Now, the one I think that everyone’s been waiting for: The final KitKat that accompanied Luke from Fuji Mama, the Mango KitKat Balls.

Curious. An interesting idea, the little balls. They’re sort of square really. Clever though.

Now. The important part.

Taste.

These really taste like Mango. They have the mango flavour down. And I can report this: Mango and KitKat does not go at all.

These were really horrible. Just nasty. Just wrong. I only managed one.

Verdict: 1/10. I have to give points for ingenuity. I’m very glad I tried these, but I’ll also be glad not to have to eat one again.

This came from Frankfurt Aiport, on the way back from Bulgaria.

Again, excuse the not-great photo.

Oh wow. If these were readily available in Ireland there’s a strong chance that they’d replace regular KitKats as my favourite in the KitKat range.

Chunky chocolate on the outside, and sweet, salty peanut butter with wafer on the inside. What else is there to say. Wonderful.

Verdict: 9/10 Pretty much perfect.

Taking a short break from the Japanese KitKats, today I bring you one from Bulgaria. Hazlenut cream chunky KitKat

Apologies for the out of focus picture.

I’m quite a fan of the Chunky KitKat. It’s no original, but it’s a great adaptation - imagine one finger of a regular KitKat, put through a making giant machine.

Hazlenut Cream was… interesting. I love nuts, and the cream element made this smooth and sweet, and softer tasting than the regular ones. The chocolate on the outside was the same, and it was just the cream in the middle that had the hazlenut flavour. It wasn’t that strong a flavour though, or maybe there just wasn’t enough to make the taste come through.

Verdict: 7/10. Delicious, but lacking a little substance.

The third of the KitKats that accompanied Luke from Fuji Mama, this seemed to be a berry flavoured KitKat.

First off, I loved the packaging. A cute cardboard box, that opened really cleanly at the end, to reveal 2 individually wrapped two bar KitKats. OK, so it’s a bit unneccesary, but it’s so neat and convenient.

The inside revealed white chocolate KitKat with pink strawberry flavoured swirls in it. It was suprisingly yummy. Sort of summery. Great for those days when it’s a bit too hot for chocolate but you want some anyway. Quite sweet, but tasty too. I was glad for the individual wrappers as one satisfied me nicely and was perfect with my cuppa.

Verdict: 7/10. Great packaging, sweet and tasty.