The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2021 - Issue 29

Cornish dishes like crab linguine, whole grilled lobster and monkfish curry with seafood sourced locally from St Ives, Newlun, Looe and Mevagissey.Vegetables, herbs and salad are taken from the Porthminster Beach Café’s garden. Porthgwidden Beach Café, overlooking the beach with plenty of outside seating for al fresco dining in the warmer months, specialises in Mediterranean and Asian seafood cuisine. On the menu, you’ll find bowls of mussels with chorizo, St Ives mackerel fillet, Cornish fish pie, and the catch of the day served with a hearty portion of chips, or you can choose from meaty main seafood dishes.The café is also open for breakfast, so begin your day with poached eggs, coffee and fantastic sea views. Seafood Café is tucked away from the harbour in the cobbled backstreets of St Ives and has a different take on traditional dining. Diners select their desired catch from a large cabinet of ever-changing fish and inform the chef of their cooking preferences. Pick from sides of potatoes, salad and vegetables and a sauce to accompany the fish, and your personalised meal will be freshly prepared for you to enjoy. There is also a range of meats and poultry, including steaks, lamb shanks, pork fillets, duck and chicken. The Mermaid is conveniently located in Fish Street, in the old fishing quarters of St Ives and renowned for its exten- sive seafood menu. Fish platters, seafood pots, tiger prawn curries, scallops and traditional fish and chips are available from this eatery. For non-fish lovers, meat and vegetable dishes are also on offer.The restaurant has a nautical décor with fishing nets hanging from the ceilings and pictures of old fishing boats and their owners hanging on the walls. One of the cosiest restaurants in St Ives is The Cellar Bistro, with a Parisian-chic setting of rouge red walls and candlelit tables, perfect for a romantic supper. It samples some of Cornwall freshest catches of the day and serves dishes like herb-crusted hake, crispy sea bass fillets, and tender calamari alongside classic dishes such as chicken supreme and sirloin steak. It has a cheeseboard served with port and uses local cheese sourced from nearby farms and dairies in Cornwall. To see St Ives from a different perspective, visit Seal Island, a small rocky inshore island 3.5 miles west of the town toward Zennor, home to a colony of Atlantic grey seals and other species such as the anglerfish, dogfish and sea anemones. Boat trips operate throughout the day during the season and depart from whichever point in the harbour the tide allows. Hopefully, you will get to spot a few seals who seem unfazed by visiting boats these days and also basking sharks, dolphins or porpoises. A shipwrecking story related to Seal Island says in 1916, the Enrico Parodi, a 103 m long steel vessel on wartime cargo duty, struck Gurnard’s Head (a headland west of Zennor) in thick fog while carrying coal from Cardiff to Messina. She sank off the Carracks (a group of tiny islands from the Cornish word for rocks, kerrek ) while towed towards the harbour. It is said that the ship is still down there and a popular diving site for experienced divers. To glimpse Seal Island from the coastal path, head west from Porthmeor Beach, on a challenging but beautiful stretch of the famous trail where you will see the group of small rocky islands between St Ives and Zennor about 200 metres offshore. If you wish, you can carry onto Zennor, bitetravel