Two of our friends invited us to dinner
days ago and we were wondering: The
Restaurant, Veranda or Off The Ship.
Fortunately we were all in agreement and it was Off The Ship. So a short 10 minute walk brought us to Rick
Stein’s Fish & Chips on the quayside.
This is no ordinary chippy, but a beautiful, simple, gourmet chippy
(Rick Stein is a famous English chef) where the essence of what makes great
fish and chips is foremost; not fancying it up to be something other than what
it is supposed to be.
I went with the grilled sardine
starter. It was absolutely beautiful.
This was followed by haddock fish and
chips along with mushy peas. Perfect. (So much so that I took a taste before I took the picture!)
After dinner it started to rain (again!)
so it was back to the ship for a cocktail and chat among friends. To be sure, it was a wonderful end to a
rather rocky beginning and those high seas are hopefully behind us.
We woke to another
sort-of-sunny/sort-of-drizzly days. Me
and my wife decided to hire a taxi for a couple of hours to see the Cornish
countryside. While the scenery was
beautiful, our driver was a bit of a dud.
But this is where a keen eye and spontaneity can turn the ordinary into
a truly memorable day of travel.
While traveling about we stopped at a
local off-license shop so that I could purchase some local wine for our Food
& Wine Tasting. But while there I
started chatting with the merchant and a bottle of Mead caught my eye. Mead, I didn’t know, is a very Cornish
fortified wine made with honey. So you
know I had to pick up a bottle.
As we drove southwest of Falmouth we
came to the small town of Helston. Our
driver pointed out a rather old, but otherwise non-descript pub, called The
Blue Anchor. As our day was just so-so,
my wife said, “Why don’t we pop in for a beer?”
And the magic started.
We peered into smallish dark pub and saw
a couple of locals who most certainly appeared to be fixtures leaning up
against an ancient bar. We asked – not
knowing the reputation of the pub (thank you dud taxi driver) – what was the local
brew. The charming…yes charming…woman
bartender behind the bar said Slingo Special, but they also have Medium. What did I know? We went with the Special.
What we didn’t know is that Slingo
Special is known not only for its unique strong flavor, but its high alcohol content
(6.8%…higher at Christmas and Easter!).
We noticed a small room on the other side of the pub and wandered
over. It had an amazing old fire with
stone seats built in. We sat by that
side of the bar and the chat with the locals and bartender began.
We saw they served pasties and ordered
two as the pub became more comfortable.
Unfortunately it wasn’t quite noon, so they were not available. Bummer.
The pub, so we were told, is over 600
years old and is reputed to have the oldest pub-brewery in England…which, as
you can see below, is not exactly “state of the art”.
So with the bartender manually placing
labels on the bottled beer and one character staggering to the toilet while
another explained how he waxes the 500 year old table and the bars once a week
(and who has been everything from a sewer cleaner to a landscape gardener), the
bartender explained that the locals mix the Special with the Medium…and that
the Medium has a bit of a Mead taste (fortunately I had just found out what
that meant!). The reason: They couldn’t drink Special all day because
they would be too drunk. Live and learn.
After learning that the locals receive a
discounted price, which they were not shy to mention, and a couple of good
laughs, it was back to our taxi for our return to Falmouth (a bottle of Special
and Medium in hand) with the bartenders recommendation that we go to Oggy
Oggy’s for pasties. Let’s just say I was
glad I also ordered a sausage roll.
After a walk around we hopped on the
Seabourn shuttle bus to the ship and mentioned we had been to The Blue
Anchor. The bus driver said, “How’d you
get all the way out there?” and then a discussion of Slingo Special began with
himself and the guide. It is, you see,
quite famous and another good laugh was had.
After boarding the ship the announcement
came: The seas will be three times as
rough as they were the other night, so batten down the hatches and secure
anything that moves! But now sea legs
and stomachs were at hand for all but the weakest and the Seabourn Pride was
actually quite a lively ship as we sailed toward Cobh (Cork), Ireland.