The Winking Prawn

The Winking Prawn

Booking the Winking Prawn is a ritual that we now undertake in early June. So popular is this beach front establishment that leaving it any later always results in disappointment. A visit to the Winking Prawn is a night off for the blogger and I try to have one of these at least once a week - we all need a holiday...

Every seaside resort should have a place like this. The Winking Prawn is a restaurant inside serving both lunch and dinner. But outside it's a beach cafe during the day and a BBQ at night.



Drinks and take-aways can be ordered from the bar and taken to the beach. If you want Salcombe Diary Ice Cream this is available from the (non-mobile) ice cream van and buckets, spades, crab lines, lilos and kites are available from the beach-store caravan. With 50 covers inside and 160 outside it's now a big place. We've watched it grow from the start when everything was crammed into the original building.

Salcombe harbour entrance is a deceptive piece of water. Although there seems to be almost 1/2 mile of entrance opposite Sharp Tor beneath most of this width is a very shallow sand bar made famous by Tennyson's poem 'Crossing the Bar'. Tennyson crossed the bar in the steam yacht Sunbeam but today most of the traffic is smaller. Nevertheless I could watch the entrance for hours and the Winking Prawn provides a perfect view point.

North Sands is a cove right opposite the mouth of the harbour and the restaurant nestles at the bottom of the valley and at the head of the cove. It's a perfect spot and there is really nothing else around at sea level except a large beach car park and the tennis club. But the beach is a big draw for families and with ample parking, safe water, rock pools and smooth sand it has everything a family beach could need. The Winking Prawn is the icing on the cake.

First and foremost it's a family restaurant. Whilst we've moved beyond the need, there's even a big dressing up box for the younger diners and youngsters can be left to play outside in a small play/sandpit area visible to the adults whilst they dine inside. The variation we use, which works when there are plenty of teens, is where they eat BBQ outside leaving the ageing 'rents to enjoy the à la carte menu inside. Last year the young man had five friends staying for a week and this proved a popular option for the independent-minded newly-teens. The restaurant is decorated like a Cape Cod beach house with muted Georgian colours and beach paraphernalia wedged between the rafters

We came here on Friday with another family - a friend of the young man and his parents and sister. Eight of us started dining at 7.30 and were still enjoying conversation at gone 11.00. We enjoyed the food too. The Winking Prawn does not aspire to the culinary heights of the Porthminster Beach at St. Ives or the Riverside Restaurant in West Bay but it produces reliable food reliably.

Three adults chose scallops to start, but the young man and I chose mussels. The adults all enjoyed monkfish wrapped in bacon, and the young people enjoyed steaks and lamb rumps. The young people followed this with Salcombe Dairy ice cream of various flavours whilst the adults chatted over coffee. I was too tired and emotional to remember to photograph the food! Perhaps during the next visit...Thank goodness it's only 10 minutes from the house. A good night off for the blogger.

The Old Signal Box Cafe

Friday

The wife is arriving today by train and we have to go to Totnes Station to pick her up. But first we need to replace some of the vast quantities of food that have been consumed. We go to Catch of the Day and buy Cod for Saturday night. We also discuss with Dave what fish it might be best to buy for some large suppers that we have planned for next weekend. I would like to cook a big Hake or a Monkfish and he thinks it should be possible to buy either. We probably need a 5kg fish so a bit of advance warning is needed.

We also buy a goodly piece of rolled sirloin from Lidstones - from their own farm - as you know both the wife and the young man think Rosbif is their favourite. I spy good Wiltshire outdoor reared pork and buy a big chunk of belly for early next week. We don't need anything for tonight as we are going out to the Winking Prawn with some friends that have been staying nearby. After a visit to Alan's Apple to replenish fruit and pick up Fennel (for the Cod) and to the supermarket to replenish oil and butter, yoghurt and crème fraiche, papers, bags and much other kitchen ephemera. We cannot find tahini - which is essential for the cod recipe - but fortunately we have not completely run out and have enough for Saturday night.

The wife's train is slated to arrive at 2.07 so we leave Kingsbridge in plenty of time to get to Totnes with time to have lunch at The Old Signal Box. This venerable establishment really deserves a review on eggbaconchipsandbeans - a 'greasy spoon' blog by Russell Davies that I follow. Looking again at his format, I realize that I have fallen down on the photography and failed miserably to photograph the condiments let alone the ambience...Any way

The Old Signal Box Cafe

In the days before electric signalling mechanical signals were connected to signal boxes by levers and manually operated by a signal man who would observe the traffic and reset the signal to 'stop' or 'slow' according to which trains had passed through. Points were also manually operated from the signal box. Totnes is now just a small stop on the old Great Western Railway from Paddington to Penzance. But in the days before Beeching there were branch lines to Kingsbridge, to Buckfastleigh and to Dartmouth. There was also an important goods yard here where all the milk from the South Hams was loaded on to tanker carriages for distribution to bottlers. Of this infrastructure remains the milk depot - but distribution is now all by road tanker, the Buckfastleigh single track which is operated as a tourist and hobbyist line and the vast old signal box.

For as long as I can remember this has been a cafe serving both the station users, train tourists and the milk depot workers. Photos on the walls serve to remind diners of the 4-6-4 locomotives that used to pull the Penzance Pullman in the days before diesel. In addition to serving food, the cafe is the station's newsagent and confectioner. The long thin signal box host two rows of plastic covered tables for four and in the morning rush hour all these can be occupied. But Friday lunch time seems not to be a peak hour and just two other tables were occupied. The menu offers standard cafe fare and of course we opted for breakfast which is served until 2.00pm

Two breakfasts with extra hash browns (for the young men) and a super breakfast (for the blogger) arrived in short order supported by strong tea. I had 1/2 fried 1/2 toasted as the bread option and this provided ample sustenance for the 22 minute delay in arrival of the First Great Western service. (signals hit by the wrong sort of lighting).

Of course the eggs had no puntillas and the sausage seemed to be composed of approximately 50% meat but with a bill of less than £11 for three hungry greeters how could we but be other than satisfied.

If you ever find yourself at Totnes with time to spare, the Old Signal Box is a must.

Kingsbridge: The Old Bakery

Kingsbridge is the local market town. At least, it used to be the market town, but where I remember the cattle market to have been is now a bus terminus as well as the 'Town Square'. It sits at the head of the ria* six or more miles from Salcombe by boat but 10 minutes by car. As the market town it's where we do the main shopping whilst we are here. Fore Street boasts the fishmonger 'Catch of the Day', Lidstone's the butchers and Alan's Apple greengrocery (about all of which more in a later post). Our visit to Kingsbridge was to buy local fruit from Alan. But first we need lunch.

At the bottom of the town, where the creek ends, there a a number of Georgian properties and the associated Georgian stabling in tiny mews running behind the buildings. We were headed down one of these mews to Pig Finca Cafe but when we arrived - Pig Finca was gone. In its place had arisen 'The Old Bakery'. The young man and I agreed that this was an inappropriate name (even though the building had been a bakery in the early twentieth century). The Old Bakery sounds like a nice place for tea. What we found was anything but genteel. It turns out that The Old Bakery is a tapas bar. A laid-back, funky, eccentric and rather cool tapas bar with a kitchen that's as sharp as two bright pins.

Apparently this enterprise replaced Pig Finca last year but, with a summer that was washed out, we were here only a short while before we escaped to Turkey to go sailing. So we missed it. But this means they are bedded in and they seem to be surviving. This is good because they are serving some delicious and (for Kingsbridge) adventurous food. Persuaded to stay for lunch the young man and I had scrambled eggs, potatoes and morcilla; a ration of Boquerones - home marinated and a ration of four spanish cheeses - beautifully kept and ripened - with a round of their fresh home baked bread. (Focaccia and rough brown - the sourdough was finished). I have trouble at home getting the wife to eat morcilla so I was impressed that the young man enjoyed it. I'm even more impressed that The Old Bakery can keep this on the mainstream tapas menu here. So far so good.

But there's more. They are also open in the evenings from Wednesday to Saturday. Wednesday is 'Paella Night' and Thursday to Saturday feature an à la carte menu. This week's menu promises amongst other delights a 'torchon of pigs head' - an ingenious combination of the cheeks, ears and skin in a kind of pressed sausage that is first boiled then fried. With line caught Cod and local Crab, Lobster and dive caught scallops from Charlie Yeoward, this has to be worth try - and we will. A sample menu is here

There's also breakfast from 9.00 am which promises 'Baked breakfast of chorizo, morcilla, piquillo peppers, eggs, grilled bread' as well as full English and a Greek Breakfast...I really can't wait! Brunch menu is here.

Inside these mews properties the space are varied and eccentric. The Old Bakery is furnished with an eclectic mix of table and chairs together with big sofas and coffee tables and dressed with 60's lights, Objet trouvé and driftwood...it's really rather fun.

The chef/patron is Giorgio. He was only too willing to talk about the food, his suppliers and to reveal the secrets of his 'torchon' recipe. All in all the whole team seem really comitted to making the place work. We hope they do.

The Old Bakery

Promenade
Kingsbridge, TQ7
01548 855 777

*Ria: Salcombe Harbour is a ria - a sea inlet. There are no significant rivers at the heads of the various arms of the harbour. The whole area is sea water and tidal. This creates an important and unusual ecology and the whole ria is an SSSI due to the important habitats and feeding grounds for sea birds and the various unusual plants and animals that live in the intertidal zone.

Al-Dar

On Wednesday, Swine 'Flu-free and Tamiflu finished, we go to the opening night of Harry Potter on the Kings Road. This is a two and a half hour blockbuster and we'll need sustenance before battle with the Dark Lord commences. So we all meet up at Al-Dar for an early supper of meze.

I've been to Beirut only once and probably shouldn't have. Certainly I wasn't scheduled to be there but in 1980, with a second weekend free between Damascus and Amman, I decided that it would be good to visit the city and hired a car for the 170 km trip. With a war raging around me I went through 4 checkpoints on the way and was probably lucky not to be taken hostage. Perhaps people in their early twenties are just lucky. Anyway I spent Thursday evening and Friday in Beirut, ate meze and more meze, swam, drank Arak and enjoyed the city and managed to return to the Intercon in Damascus without anyone noticing I had been away.

Al-Dar is a little piece of Beirut magically transported to Chelsea and certainly turns the heads of passers-by as the tempting aromas of lamb and chicken shawarma (شاورما ) waft into the Kings Road. Many are tempted and there is always a lively queue at the counter as Chelsea shoppers mix with taxi drivers and bike messengers awaiting their chosen sandwich to take away in black cabs or to their fixies. Lebanese shawarma lines the pita with tahini or hummous followed by the meat and then the sandwich is topped with various pickles. Turnips, beetroot and radish are common together with salad leaves.

But one can also dine in. Al Dar translates as 'at home' and beyond the counter there are 12 rather basic tables for four where one can meet friends and family eat meze and then pastries. If your party is two you will probably have to share. Maroush or Noura it is not. One does not dine here to enjoy the heights of Arabian cuisine. But it is friendly and reasonably priced and one can eat fast or slow. The menu features all of the Lebanese meze one would expect - Hummous, Moutabel, Tabouleh and Falafal are standard fare and these are followed by more substantial vegetarian meze - the young man particularly enjoys the grilled Haloumi and we enjoy the pickled stuffed aubergine - then meat. We often cannot resist the pastirma though from time to time this is 'finished'. So too are many of the Lebanese wines suggested by the list. The best plan is to go to the bar and see what they really have. (I no longer touch Arak tough they offer several varieties). Or order one of their made-on-the-spot fruit smoothies. With sweets and pastries to finish it's a perfect pre or post cinema treat. It's a very cosmopolitan little cafe and in addition to Arabic and English one often hears conversation in four or five different languages. Enjoy! - we do.

Whilst we enjoy Al Dar in the Kings Road this is a growing culinary enterprise. With 4 other outlets in and around central London as well as a home delivery service and a 'traiteur' providing meze catering for the home and office it's clear that Beirut is alive and well in London. Look out for 'le patron' around town. You will know him by his license plate - A1 DAR.


Al-Dar II,
74 King's Road,
London,
SW3 4TZ