Monday 14 June 2010

Polpeor Cafe, The Lizard, Doughnut with Clotted Cream


This is my guilitiest pleasure in the whole world.  The Most Southerly Cafe in England is Polpeor Cafe, perched on the clifftop at the point of The Lizard in Cornwall.  They serve all sorts of wicked goodies, including the Cornish Heava Cake (full of fruit and doughy).  My sinful indulgence is the freshly fried doughnuts served hot with strawberry jam and a huge dollop of clotters on the top.  This is the most calorific food imaginable and should really only be consumed by Michael Phelps and marathon runners.  And me.

This is their knickerbocker glory, conjured up by visiting fairies:


The views from this cafe are awesome.  Sitting here is a real spiritual tonic - you feel renewed by the sea air and the expanse of ocean - it's also quite exciting feeling that at any point you might be the MOST southerly person on the English mainland.  The dramatic cliffs slope down to white-flecked turquoize waters (if you're lucky enough to be there on a sunny day).  From the cafe seating area you can sight the rare chough (similar to a crow, with a red beak and feet) that first started renesting within a few hundred yards of the cafe a couple of years ago.  There are currently thought to be eight of them.  Twitchers with binoculars abound.  Seals are frequent visitors to the waters below and we have spotted them several times while tucking into doughnuts and knickerbocker glories.  One day when we got down to the beach after a trip to the cafe, the seal approached us like a friendly dog - he was as curious about us as we were about him - sadly, no pictures!


7 comments:

Choclette said...

I've walked past this cafe many a time, but never actually been in it. Now I know they do such a wicked thing as doughnuts and cream, I'll be stopping off next time. Every time we've been there we've seen the choughs, which is always exciting. Isn't the Lizard a wonderful place.

lolb said...

I want before and after photo's. IE before I became a food blogger and then after. Did you eat the doughnut and then the Knickerbocker glory? Heh, I hope you ran your ass off after that :-)

Catherine said...

Mmmmmm I bet it was worth every single calorie though, I'd happily run miles for that doughnut!!

Grazing Kate said...

Choclette - you must go in there! It's part of our well-established routine that any trip to the Lizard when the sun is shining should incorporate tea and doughnuts at Polpeor. The choughs are cool and the word is a constant source of amusement to my double-entendre fixated husband.

Lol - hmmm, I'll have you know that on that particular occasion, I had the doughnut on the weekend of the Coverack 4 mile Fun Run which I participated in. I think I came in 28th of 38 runners - that's how fast I am post-doughnut(Neil was 7th) However, that doesn't excuse all the other times I've eaten them.... When we go to The Lizard there are certain family 'tradition' things that we have to do each time: the doughnut, Roskilly's ice cream, Ann's Pasty, crab sandwich, fish and chips, cider, bacon sandwiches at The Wave cafe. And each time, we manage to do nearly all of them which equates to a surplus of 10 million calories and for all the SW coastal path walking and swimming, I generally come home half a stone heavier!

Catherine - honestly, it's worth it. When I'm feeling particularly virtuous, I skip on the clotted cream. Good job I live about two hours away from the cafe, or it could cause me real probs!

Angie said...

I saw a recipe the other day which called for LOW FAT clotted cream!!! Now where would you get that from?

I've never been to Cornwall but from the sound of the wonderful food to be had you wouldn't want to do a day trip!

Grazing Kate said...

Hi Angie - Low fat clotted cream! Now that's given me a laugh. No, I don't reckon you can buy that in the real world.

I have to say that most of the time I can't bear 'reduced fat' in any shape or form. I would rather have a super-tasty lovely morsel of cheese than a whole kilo of 'half fat' or 'lite' cheese. And butter - I adore butter on toast, but would rather not have any toast at all if low fat spread is the only thing on the table.

My only low fat option is milk - I am a convert to (red top) skimmed milk - it's lovely in tea, coffee and on cereal. Previously I thought it tasted of water, but now I think it's normal. Tea with full fat milk tastes as though it's got cream in.

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