Newcastle Mela 2012

A great occasion as always! The highlight for me this year was Kashmiri tea!  It was advertised as pink tea and it is bright pink and very sweet - like hot milkshake.  I am hooked!  Fortunately there are numerous recipes online.

The Green Room, The Customs House, South Shields

Lest you think that my diet is composed solely of sausage sandwiches and cake, I can assure you that my culinary horizons stretch to Sunday lunch as well, and this Sunday a friend and I ate at the Green Room.  It's a place I'd had in mind for coffee for ages but lunch it was to be.

There are two sitting and we'd booked on the later, and though we were early we were shown to our table straight away.  The decor is calm and neutral, the furnishings quietly comfortable.  It was classy but not so much as to make a humble sausage sandwich eater like me feel uncomfortable.  Indeed I felt very comfortable.  The tables aren't on top of each other so you don't feel like you're eavesdropping on conversations, and the views across the river were great.  I know canned music is not to everyone's taste, but the 'swing' that was playing was actually quite relaxing, someone even sang along for a while.

I ordered lamb, my friend the nut roast, and the meals were served quickly and with a wide variety of well cooked veg.  I'm pleased to report that the dessert menu was excellent and that the raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake and sticky toffee pudding lived up to expectations!   It was all beautifully presented.   The staff were friendly and efficient.  It was a lovely relaxing meal.  No queueing at the carvery, everything brought to you.  I wonder if they do sausage sandwiches during the week...

M&S Kitchen, Northumberland Street

It's always a pleasure to meet friends after work, and do you know that the only cafe venue we could find open was M&S Kitchen (there was S**r*ucks but that doesn't count)!  Seems you can be in town after 5 but not if you want a cup of tea.  The Kitchen setting is nice, well spaced tables and chairs, light and bright decor, and it goes without saying that the selection of cakes is second to none.

We blithely ignored the 'wait here to be seated' notice and installed ourselves at a table near the counter.  It seemed natural to go to the counter to choose and order, but we were told it was table service and so sat back and waited.  It was a slightly long wait, in fact the whole thing was a bit clunky, involving the poor waitress going back and forward several times to take each order individually, take payment, bring the food.  Surely the place doesn't operate like this at busy times?

But such niggles are banished by good company and huge slices of Victoria Sandwich.  Hurrah for both and hurrah for M&S!

Interval Cafe at the Gala Theatre, Durham; and Vennells

It's been a Durham day today, I do love that place, and not having visited for so long makes a visit all the more special.  My friend and I have a routine of meeting at Interval and then attacking the town centre.  Today we enjoyed cheese scones and a nice latte (me) and a tea (friend).  I asked for the teabag to be left to one side as I know she is a weak tea person but the guy serving forgot to do that.  When he realised his mistake he did her a fresh pot, really kind I thought.

After browsing the shops we slid up the alleyway to Vennells.  You always know you will get good service and good food at Vennells and that there will always be a queue and a scramble for tables.  All worth it, of course.  Somehow Vennells is Durham, isn't it?

The cafe @ the library, Huntingdon

I stopped off at Huntingdon on my way home.  Found the Cromwell Museum with no problem and had a look round.  There was a choice of cafes too.  However, the tourist office and the public toilets remained elusive.

Step forward Huntingdon library!  Well signed from the outside and inside excellent signage to clean toilets and a nice clean cafe area in what I took to be a fairly new building.  AND a library assistant who was able to direct me to supermarket petrol!  Everything I needed under one roof!  Lose these libraries and we lose more than the books!

Beaches Cafe, seafront, Clacton-on-sea

Although Clacton was a last minute choice of destination, once I arrived I have to say I was impressed by the place.  It is the traditional bucket and spade holiday, no pretensions, and seemingly enjoyed by all.  On a morning stroll up the prom, I came across the Beaches cafe down by the shore next to the beach huts.  The weather being uncertain, the tables, chairs and sunshades were still inside the place and not a soul was stirring except for the occasional dog walker.

After a false start, I decided I would go in and sat drinking my tea and eating my cookie amidst the parphernalia of a seaside shop - inflatable sharks, buckets, spades, cheap trinkets and postcards.  I had the place to myself as I gazed over the grey sea.  There was a gentle and poetic melancholy about the place and you just knew that when the sun came out, so would the tables and the holidaymakers and the whole scene would be one of bliss.  This is what seaside cafes are all about.

Maybe I am invisible, or maybe people just don't see me, whatever the case once again I was privileged to hear the proprietor and another man discussing the state of the cafe trade in Clacton.  They were gloomy.  Are cafe owners like farmers I mused, never happy but you never see a poor one?  But what stuck in my mind was the chance remark that there were about 290 eating places in Clacton.  Wow!  That's nearly a year's worth!  I was only there for a day and a bit, but this was my tally:  Georgina's Cafe for fish and chips; and the cafe at the end of the pier for icecream and tea.

Street Level, Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmunds

The A15 eventually deposited me at Bury St Edmunds.  Well worth a visit.  I decided on an all day breakfast and the first place that I came upon was Street Level, which offered the works for £3.95.  I got in early and had the place to myself - later I noticed it was full and had tables and an icecream stall outside.  It was prettily decorated with hanging baskets outside and inside was clean and cosy. Staff friendly too, but I hope that would go without saying in what is obviously  tourist area.  One question:  can you iron toast?  Mine was very straight and very flat but nonetheless tasty.

Later in the day I visited the North End Cafe for a milkshake (a throwback to York) and was impressed by the value for money and the layout of the cafe.  They have a huge aisle down the middle, ideal for buggies, wheelchairs etc etc and have obviously sacrificed table space to do this.  It made for a peaceful atmosphere where you might have least expected it.

To sum up.  You will never starve in Bury St Edmunds while our economic system holds up.  There are cafes everywhere!

Mochachinos, Kings Lynn

Yes, Grace is on tour again!  It's a road trip to Essex via Kings Lynn! And so it was that I found myself in Kings Lynn bus station looking for a cup of tea.  A word of warning:  Kings Lynn closes at 4pm, most cafes I tried were about to close up but Mochachinos was resolute in opening well after the rest of the town had been abandoned.

The first hurdle, of course, is do you order at the counter or sit and wait to be served.  No helpful notices either.  I accosted a waitress and then sat down, later she came and took my order.  Even later another group came in and ordered directly at the counter - aaarrrggghh!!

That said, M's is all that a bus station cafe should be.  A glorious mix of quite contemporary furnishings, cheap food and a mixed clientele.  I felt quite nostalgic.  The tea and cinnamon bun were tasty and welcome and I went on my way rejoicing.

The rest of my journey led me down the A15 and I feel a whole mini series about truck stops along the A roads of East Anglia coming on!

The Wentworth Cafe, Hexham

This is an interesting one indeed!  Situated in a portakabin alongside the main car park in Hexham, by rights it should be a 'greasy spoon', but actually (I reflected on my last visit) it's exactly the kind of place my mother would have loved.  It's clean, reasonably priced, comfortable tables and chairs, and they bring the food to the table!  Nothing like a bit of old fashioned service in my mother's book.  Sadly, the newspapers available weren't up to date the day I visited, but that's just being picky - the cheese scone and the tea were fine.

I was there at a quiet time, no other customers and no intrusive music.  Now I have found over the course of my life that if you sit quietly and unobtrusively, people forget you are there and you get to hear some remarkable conversations and it was true of this visit.  The boys from the cafe and a friend sat in a corner and gossiped (so glad men gossip too) about the eating establishments of Hexham.  It was better than the soaps!  Will so and so ever get another job having walked out of two?  Will his old boss have him back?  Is that really all he was being paid?  And on and on, who said what, who owns what, and some heartfelt but very unPC remarks about Olympic football at Newcastle.  I said cheerio as I left and they sheepishly acknowledge that they had been talking as if no one had been there - what the heck? we all do it.  I dread to think what some of the punters where I work have heard over the years.

So it's another one I can recommend, and it can surely only be a matter of time before it has its own series.