Use Your Own Brain!

The Art Café, West Mersea

I have been visiting my sister and her family on Mersea Island and very much enjoying the wares of The Art Café; Cinnamon Toast (read about my way of doing it plus other yummy toasts here) and gorgeous coffee for breakfast, for instance …

… interesting and delicious lunches and wonderful breads and cheeses, olives, charcuterie,  chutneys, preserves, homemade cheese straws and other baked goods and so on and so forth from their shop next door; The Cake Hole.

Today I had a wander about the island.  The weather has been fantabulous and I had a great time  …

Even the funerals look tempting!

BUT the day was spoiled for me by an irritation so here is a bit of a rant.

Rant!

Many, many years ago when the world was young (around the time of the Jurassic) my sister and I and our then-husbands owned a couple of restaurants where we had some original ideas and put them to good use.  Not amazing ideas, just a few “signature dishes” as they are now called and some different ways to promote our businesses.  A dish that springs to mind is “Cornish Rarebit” which was basically crab or crab pâté on toast topped with cheese and grilled.  No big deal, I know, but we had never seen it before but have been seeing it ever since in many restaurants in that part of Cornwall.  It’s years ago, however, that we had that idea and is no problem at all now although a bit of a pisser at the time.  

The second thing that I frequently see ripped off is our Pauper’s Supper.  I well remember the day we invented this because my then-husband woke me up in the middle of the night to say he had a good idea – why not do a cheap 3 course meal on Wednesday evenings to get the punters in?  So we did, called it Pauper’s Supper and on Wednesdays we were packed to capacity ~ we did 3 sittings plus people sometimes ate in their cars.  Now 25 years later in the general location of our restaurants Pauper’s Suppers are still offered on Wednesdays in several eating establishments.  It’s as if Wednesday and the word “Pauper’s” are the only possibilities.  

Why oh why can’t people use their own brains?  I mention all this because  …

The ­Art Café is a bright and sunny place with pine tables and chairs and outside seating serving lovely freshly made interesting breakfasts and lunches, homemade cakes and excellent coffee.  It is called The Art Café because they also display and sell art on the premises

Very nearby, within sandwich lobbing distance, is a pub called the White Hart which most people will have to pass on their way to the Art Café. 

 They have recently opened a café on the premises called The Hart Café presumably in the hope that people will mistake their café for their intended destination and pop in.  For all I know the Hart Café may sell wonderful food and drinks but however good it is they are obviously inept at using their imagination and I think this does them no favours.  Several people in the area have already, in the few days I have been here, told me how irritated they are by this apparent imitation of an established and popular business. 

Their drawing of a cup of coffee is not dissimilar to the Art Café logo (see photo at the start of this rant for comparison), even the steam squiggles are the same! This is surely not a coincidence, in fact the words “blatant plagiarism” spring to mind.

I don’t think the Art Café are very discombobulated by this at all, maybe they are even a bit flattered, but I am a grumpy middle aged lady and it’s really got up my goat!

Anyhoo, sorry about that - get it off my chest and all that!  I shall be going home in a couple of days and back to writing about leftovers as soon as I have some! 

The Cheeses of my Sister

~ Menu ~

The cheeses of my sister

Pain au Levain

Aloe Tree Shiraz

Lindt Sea Salt Chocky

As expected we spent the last few days in Mersea Island, off the Essex coast near Colchester, visiting my family. 

They have a lovely café there called The Art Café  where my sister, my niece and their staff make lovely food - home-made cakes, breakfasts (fried and otherwise including great cinnamon toast) and interesting lunch dishes.  

My brother-in-law, James Weaver, a talented artist, born and bred on Mersea sells his work, the work of other artists and makes wonderful coffees.

Looking out the window of West Mersea Art Café

(I stole this lovely picture from their blog, The Artist and the Tartist – I hope they won’t mind)

They also run an interesting food shop next door-ish called The Cake Hole. The other night we sampled a range of cheeses from said shop and, just to check, I sampled them again today for lunch, to see if they travel well. They do.

The board comprised ...

~ Milleens – this is an Irish cheese which I had heard was pungent and I was a little nervous, in the way that one is when offered a Stinking Bishop but whilst vigorous and tangy it is really rather good.

~ Keen’s Cheddar – “cheddared by hand” and utterly delicious.

~ Norfolk Dapple – a Cheddar-ish sort of chap with just a hint of other things!

~ Mrs. Temple’s Binham Blue – a lovely cheese, soft and creamy with a good blue taste.

~ Comtē – more correctly called Gruyère de Comtē, sweet, nutty, French and traditional.

~ A lovely lightly smoked crumbly item the name of which escapes me – Good-something, I think. Anyone got any ideas please leave a comment. In fact, treat yourself – leave a comment anyway!

The bread was from Waitrose. We don’t have one anywhere near us in Cornwall (nor in the BVI funnily enough) so a browse in one of their stores is always a pleasure for me. The Colchester branch was not the best one I’ve been in but still worth a visit. I think there is one in the Toon so I’m looking forward to that. Anyhoo the bread was very good which is the point.

The wine is one I hadn’t heard of; Aloe Tree Shiraz. It is not a gently mellow thing like a Merlot but a rich delicious wine that said to me, mind you I’m no expert, “I’M A RED WINE!” (Writing that reminds me of a wine tasting piss-take on the telly years ago when a "expert" likened a wine’s taste to that of a newt on holiday in Tangiers. Tee hee.)

For dessert, knowing how much I like Lindt Excellence Chilli Chocolate (nothing gets past me, you know), I treated myself to their Sea Salt version and very pleasant it was too; not salty in itself just with a happy crunchy hit of salt occasionally, amongst the rich dark chocky. I hope to get my hands on a bar of Marmite chocolate sometime – I wonder what that’s like. (News from the future - I did get to try Marmite's Very Peculiar Chocolate - read more here.)

So anyway that was a good lunch, as they often are.

We are Up North now and the weather is freezing but I am lovely and warm here in my father in law’s home with the aroma of my steak and red wine casserole wafting about.

Keep warm everyone.