Did They Have The Magic?

Looe Estuary

 It was another day of food, this time in the village of Looe where the Sardine Factory drew us in and fed us well. It had all started with friend Rosie and our Em discovering The Great British Menu streaming show after Rosie had hurt her knee and Em came to comfort her. They sat on the couch over the span of one weekend, and became addicted to it. 

The BBC comes up with some good things to watch if you can figure out how to set up and use BBC iPlayer. Since I am an American it is a little bit harder to do this; there seem to be road blocks that are hard to figure out. But tonight both these smart ladies helped me learn how to manipulate a Sony television and the iPlayer so that we could sit on our couch here in St Ives and become addicted.

The reason we were determined to watch the Great British Menu is that we ate at one of the winning chefs restaurants today! Chef Benjamin Palmer. It is called the Sardine Factory, which ordinarily would have put me off because I have a low view of sardines. But there were hardly any sardines there today so there was nothing to be put off about. Here are just a few of the things we ate:

Crispy fried potato skins

Cloud Bread with special butter

Scallops

Hake

Smash Burger with skinny chips

Yellow beetroot

Homemade vanilla and Cornish clotted ice cream with lemon curd

(There are some things not listed here because I couldn't remember their names, and people have all gone to bed now. But tomorrow I will make appropriate additions and corrections to this anemic list).

Once we had eaten ourselves under the table, I took off on a 4 mile woodland walk from Looe to Polperro. I had seen and heard a lot about Polperro on Instagram, and was very excited to see what all the excitement was about. The entire walk was mesmerizingly gorgeous. The day itself was too, surrounding me with a light breeze, emerald green rolling hills dotted with white sheep and crystal blue skies. It was a good thing I have got my St Ives legs back because, man!. I had to walk practically straight up. 

Another reason for wanting to see Looe and Polperro was to find out if either of them might have the magic of St Ives. Do you think they did, dear Readers? Is it possible to find a place in Cornwall that is as magical as that?

In a word or two, no, but both were beautiful and charming in their own way - as is Cornwall itself every day of the year. But soon I will actually be staying for one week in another Cornish village that is NOT St Ives. It's a sacrifice giving up a whole week to this search, and I'm thinking - if that village doesn't have it, I need look no further. 

I've left my heart in St Ives Cornwall, 

high on a hill it calls to me.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady