FOOD - DRINK - ACCOMMODATION
Next Issue: We report on
Morgans, Shanklin.
Handy, historic,
and good for
all seasons
“The Cornish pasty is the original handheld convenience food with a pedigree
that dates back to the Middle Ages.”
and we were assured that all the
puddings were prepared fresh on
the premises.
Being a banana fan, I had to go for
the caramelised banana and coconut
risotto (£4.95) which was worth
every penny. Just one problem,
though - I think they forgot to
caramelise the banana! The other
pudding we opted for was the
vanilla, mascarpone and hazelnut
cheesecake (£4.95), which was real
value for money, I think there must
have been a 1lb of hazelnuts in each
mouthful, it was very filling.
The winning factor for us and
many other diners were the
surroundings – which are just so
fresh and different Simon Wrattan and his wife told us:
“We like Fulton’s because it’s clean,
non-smoking, and the atmosphere is
great. You can have a great evening
with a group of friends, and that’s
what it’s all about!”
Fulton’s is the sort of restaurant
that has a real buzz of atmosphere
even if there are only a few diners
in.
Without question this place
is worth a visit. The Island is
desperate for good restaurants, and
Fulton’s provides a great example
that others can follow.
To make a reservation please call
01983 875559.
So you thought
the Big Mac was a
novel idea? Wrong,
I’m afraid, by nearly
800
years.
The
original hand-held
convenience food
has a pedigree that
dates back to the
middle ages, when
royalty and the upper
classes would tuck
into pastry-wrapped
fillings of venison,
beef, lamb, salmon
and – for that extra
yumminess – a dollop
of lampreys. The
latter was an eel-like
fish, somewhat overenjoyed by Henry I,
who is famous for his
unfortunate death in
1135 from ‘a surfeit
of lampreys’.
How King Henry
liked his lampreys served is unrecorded but he would
surely have loved the idea of a pasty. Toby Wren,
owner of the Pasty Shop in The Square, Newport,
describes it as “a great fast food. You can feed a family
of four for under £10 with good, wholesome food, and
that’s really an achievement nowadays.”
The pasty is, of course, synonymous with Cornwall,
where it became popular with tin and copper miners,
who found it just the ticket for their meal breaks. Filled
with beef, potatoes, onion and turnip, they could pop
it in their lunch-bags and boost their energy levels
for the next gruelling shift. They even developed the
complete-meal pasty, with meat at one end and apple
and jam at the other.
Cornwall is still considered to be the home of the
pasty, but 90 per cent of the three million pasties
Island Life - www.islandlifemagazine.net
produced there every week are
sold outside the county. Toby
Wren obtains supplies for his
shop from a small Cornish
village.
Toby went on to tell us “They
are h