A taste of Italy from Whitstable.......{Spaghetti alla Vongole}

I wax lyrical about Whitstable so much on this blog but then I love it so much. Last Saturday we wondered down to the fish market and I decided against mussels and instead opted for some fresh clams - a bit pricier but then you need less to make a rather wonderful Italian meal. This took me right back to summer holidays in Italy although it was March on the Kentish coast. I don't eat pasta very much at all these days but when I do, it has to be worth it - full of flavour and not to heavy. Don't be scared of shellfish when you are cooking clams they tell you when they are ready to eat as their shells open - makes it so simple!

Spaghetti alla Vongole

750g fresh clams (approx)

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 red chilli, finely chopped

20g butter

olive oil

150ml white wine

zest and juice 1/2 lemon

handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped

enough spaghetti / linguine for 2 people

cook the spaghetti according to instructions, you want it slightly al-dente. warm the butter and olive oil in a pan and add the garlic and chilli. once it has softened add in the wine, when it starts to simmer, ramp up the heat, add in the clams and put the lid on the pan. shake a few times as it cooks. the clams will take around 4-5 minutes, once the shells have opened. discard all clams that haven't opened. add in the pasta, parsley, lemon juice and zest and toss them all together. season and serve. It's really that simple but tastes a million dollars!

Linking up with Vicky at Honest Mum

When fish is this fresh........{Grilled Prawns)

We spent my birthday weekend in one of my favourite places - Whitstable. One of the things I love about it is the fresh seafood market. Often one of the evenings of the weekend we will forgo the many places to eat and just buy some fresh fish from the market and go home and cook it.

We were spoilt for choice at the market this week and after a lot of umming and ahhing I picked up some lovely fresh large prawns. You could do so much with these BUT I can't help thinking when fish is this fresh you are best keeping it really simple. I went for a really simple but fragrant butter made with juicy garlic and lots of fresh parsley which soaked into the prawns under the grill. We lingered over them with a fresh glass of prosecco and some fresh baked bread from one of the deli's. There's nothing better in life really.  

Grilled Prawns with Garlic & Parsley Butter

10 large raw prawns 

50g good quality butter

1/2 shallot, finely chopped 

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

handful parsley, finely chopped 

1 tbsp olive oil

if you wish take the heads of the prawns and then de-vein them and then butterfly them so they lie flat on the grill. mix all of the other ingredients together and then dollop it in the prawns. place under the grill for around 10-15 minutes until the prawns are nice and pink and cooked through. How easy is that?!

Wednesday Winners..... {5 best places to eat in Whitstable, Kent}

Maybe I'll do this every week; maybe I'll get bored of it. Who knows?  I talk about Whitstable a lot on this blog (here, here) which is because it is my happy, safe place. One of the places where my soul is joyful as soon as I get there. Where I feel soothed and rested. Where I eat the simplest but most delicious locally sourced food. Where people smile more and I become more engaged in life. Yes Whitstable is my safe haven.

It's also a foodies dream and today I am offering my five best places to eat while you are visiting this little Kentish seaside town:

The Sportsman 

 

I wrote a full review of The Sportsman here and my oh my the food here is out of this world. They take really simple, fresh, local ingredients and make food that is so exquisite you just smile the whole way through the meal. The place is nothing fancy from the outside and none of the tables match inside, but I love that. For a Michelin starred restaurant it is totally unpretentious and just focuses on the food which makes it my kind of place. I would recommend you go for the tasting menu which although isn't cheap (£65 per person) it is a bargain for the amount of courses you get and the high quality of it. The Prosecco is the perfect accompaniment. I never wanted to leave. 

Sportsman Website

Wheelers 

 

Picking a favourite between Wheelers and The Sportsman is like asking me which of my babies i love best (if I had two babies) I love them both equally although they are different. Wheelers is tiny; they have 12 covers and do just 5 sittings a day and you have to book. And it gets so booked up - I have learnt that if you want a table at the weekend you need to call up on the day they release the tables (2 months beforehand on the first day of the month) although you have more of a chance of you are looking for a weekday. The food is predominately seafood and they are famous for their oysters which are divine. And their lobster lasagna is one of the most complex but beautiful things I have ever eaten. I love their spider crab dish and that's often what I will go for to start and remember to save room for pudding, because their puddings are something really really special. Oh and did I mention it's BYOB? Hence the Champagne in the picture - it helps keep the price down. So ignore the fact this place looks like your Granny's parlour and enjoy some of the best food.

Wheelers Website 

Oysters at the Harbour 

One of our favourite things to do is go down to the harbour and eat the fresh oysters whilst watching the world go by. It isn't fancy and the tables are a bit wonky but the oysters are the freshest and most flavoursome and only around 50p each which is a bargain. Take a look at the wonderful fish markets whilst you are there!

V.C. Jones 

Ah the age old British tradition of fish and chips. It's not my favourite food but when in Whitstable we do love to get some VC Jones fish and chips, wrapped in paper and take them to eat on the sea wall, watching the waves and crunching on salty vinegary morsels. Nothing quite like it especially after a 18 mile bike ride!

V.C. Jones Website

The Forge  

Source: Trip Advisor

Literally a little shack on the beach which sells very reasonably priced lobster and chips which you can wash down with local beer and finish with some of their amazing doughnuts! I love sitting in their deckchairs and watching the world go by. It's kind of what you spend a lot of time in Whitstable doing.... .eating seafood and watching the world go by...... 

Our Happy Place: Whitstable (again)!

Beautiful Beaches (minus the seaweed) 

If you've read this blog before then you will know that Whitstable is our happy place (I talk about it here and here). Everything about it, I love.  I'm smiling from the moment I get there to the moment we drive away (with me asking my beloved how soon we can return).  All being well its where we would like to get married and one day maybe we'll even have our own little fisherman's hut on the waterfront. Until then I just love having the luxury of it being just 45 minutes away and knowing that's it just waiting for me to return. 

The working Harbour 

We spent the whole day blissfully relaxing...... We swam in the sea, he sunbathed whilst I read, we drank Prosecco whilst listening to the waves, we ate fresh oysters by the harbour, wondered around the delightful little shops, sheltered from a storm in The Pearson's Arms, sat outside and listened to jazz whilst drinking wine and picking at fresh seafood....   

The Amazing Native Oysters - best in the world!

It truly has my heart, this little sleepy seaside village in Kent with a vibrant food and music scene.... I'll be seeing you again real soon Whitstable. 

Whitstable (again): The Sportsman

I don’t think I shared my list of things that I want to do in 2014. It’s not a really long list about 10 things that my love and I have decided that we want to tick off. One of my favourite ones was “Eat a tasting menu at a Michelin starred restaurant”. Last week I got to tick that one of the list at my favourite place – Whitstable, well its actually in Seasalter but that's just a stones throw away. It was my birthday meal and it was outstanding. SO good that at times I couldn’t talk. That actually happened.

The Sportsman looks like a slightly tired pub from the outside. Nothing to write home about, I actually thought we had the wrong place. You go in and the food is just on the chalkboard. We went for the tasting menu which had about five items on it. Turns out to be more like 10. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
 

How all good meals should begin

Let me take you on my culinary adventure...

Amazingly clever presentation

 Yes we started with an egg. But my goodness what was in that egg was pretty special. Smoked eel (no I didn’t think I would like it either) with this creamy foam and then the egg yolk with a parsley like sauce. It literally exploded in mouth and really got my taste buds going. Twas immense.

The most amazing scallop

 

Next up was a scallop with seaweed butter (they use the seaweed from the beach which is right outside the restaurant) I don’t usually like scallops but this was delicate and beautifully cooked.

 

Oysters: My Favourite

 

I love Oysters they are one of my favourite things to eat.... This was a rock oyster which had been poached for just a couple of seconds in oyster milk with some caviar. I can’t even talk about how good this was. Usually I like raw oysters with shallot vinegar but this was just stunning – lush. The second was a native oyster with homemade chorizo – yup they make their own chorizo. Lovely it was too.

Who knew bread could be so wonderful

 Next up was my beloveds’ favourite. Three types of homemade bread with homemade butter. Yup they make their own bread and their own butter. And if I had to live of bread and butter ever, I’d hope it would be like this.

Vegetarian Loveliness

 
Next up was the dish that I wasn’t really looking forward too but that was a culinary delight. It was braised red cabbage with the most beautiful sauce and homemade cheese, YES THEY MAKE THEIR OWN CHEESE. It was beautiful and what I loved most about it is that it was unexpectedly beautiful. Being a fresh produce kind of girl, I loved the way that it was the main component of the dish – No meat, no fish just a really underrated vegetable cooked and served in a really exciting way. Kudos Sportsman, Kudos.

My absolute favourite

Our sixth dish was a simply cooked piece of sea bream, crab bisque and a crab croquette serves on a bed of samphire. My favourite. I loved this dish probably because I love seafood so much but it really was beautifully executed and the flavours were sublime.

 

Never thought I'd like pork belly so much

Pork Belly followed with some of the best mash potato I’ve ever had in my life. Mash potato is after all my favourite comfort food. The sauce was lovely and I’m not usually a fan of pork belly but this was good.

Hoe cute is that?

 

Next up was the funkiest palette cleanser– rhubarb ice lolly and cake milk. I love rhubarb and it’s really in season at the moment so the sharpness of the fruit with the creamy sauce just blew my mind and was so fun.

Then I failed as a blogger because I forgot to take a picture of the pudding which was a chocolate and salted caramel tart with blood orange ice cream which was every bit as good as it sounds.

 

I smiled my way through this lovely meal

Great staff, relaxed atmosphere, quirky, The Sportsman is a gem of a venue serving un-pretentious, brilliant food which showcases local produce at its optimum. Wheelers you’ve got a rival for my favourite restaurant ever. I can’t wait to return.....it’s our anniversary in July *HINT*

Go, you have to just go.

Whistable, how much do I love thee? Let me count......

This is such an overdue post.... opps

The man did good. Whitstable was where I was whisked of too for my birthday; and what an amazing weekend it was. We ate at a Michelin starred restaurant (I have written about this in a separate post here), drank in our favourite pub The Pearson’s Arms, ate fresh oysters in the harbour, sampled lots of ice cream, cycled 18 miles along the seafront to Herne Bay and then on to Reculver and then all the way back again and just relaxed a lot. We were blessed with amazing, unseasonably warm weather and I fell in love with Whitstable a little bit more, which I had thought was impossible.

 Our very quirky vintage cottage we stayed in, find it here. Central location and the sweetest place. We loved it. Emma who owns the place was just delightful as well!

The Sweetest bedroom

Best Breakfast table in the world, cutest kitchen tiles as well

Drinks on the beach as the sun set

 

How beautiful is that?

Cycling...... my bum hurt after 18 miles

The sun was in his eyes!

 

Fresh Oysters whilst watching the harbour

 

The Harbour

 

Yummy Oysters fresh from the Sea

 

Whitstable, you have my heart – I’ll see you real soon.