I knew about The Yellow Canary Cafe. Not from experience, but from having passed by it numerous times last year. There just wasn't enough time or enough hunger to propel me in. First, there was the Digey Food Rooms, which trumped just about every other place. And there was the Porthmeor Beach Cafe which drew us back, and then back again. Nothing really could have been better than that (I still owe you a post about it..). So for any number of reasons, I never made it inside the Yellow Canary.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/claypole/2364155747/
But I'm here now. Inside. Sitting at a little bistro table and feeling very replete. From the ceiling somewhere drifts the duel magic of Simon and Garfunkel, serenading us with Feeling Groovy. "Slow down, you move too fast," they say, and I wonder if I will ever not want to hear them. It's doubtful.
I had just tried, once again, Poppins Tea Room. And Poppins was, once again, closed. How on earth!? I won't stop trying to grab a cream tea there but it may take an act of Parliament to find them open. And so at 3:15pm on a bright and sunny Saturday, I thought of the Canary. I had heard their cream teas might be good, might be very good in fact. So I headed on down Fore Street, until on the right, the little canary peered out at me.
I went to the counter and asked the available lady (who was sweeping the floor just then) my usual precursor questions:
- do you do a cream tea here? ('of course')
- may the scones be warmed? ('yes. of course')
- will there be clotted cream, or whipped? (she actually stopped sweeping. 'clotted. this is Cornwall, madam')
- may I also have a pot of tea? ('that's what makes it a CREAM TEA, madam')
The patrons all stopped talking and listened to this exchange. I think they wondered who the crazy American was. But it was worth it, and the lady brought me out a delicious Cream Tea. I could tell just by looking at it that I would not be disappointed.
By now the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel had finished, and we were on to "Stand By Me". But as I cut the first scone in half, as I spread on the jam and the cream, and as I drank satisfying sips of good, strong British tea, I gazed out at the quirky cobbled street and thought to myself,
Slow down, you move too fast,
You've got to make the morning last, just
Kickin' down the cobblestones,
Lookin' for fun and Feeling Groovy.
Paul Simon, 1966
(source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/)
'Groovy?' I could not have said it any better.
See you along the way!
the SconeLady
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55031801@N02/6065417132/
photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/claypole/2364155747/">Simon Clayson</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/55031801@N02/6065417132/">Tude e João</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
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