A half lobster

Last week to Brading, on the Isle of Wight, via the Fishbourne Ferry from Portsmouth.

At Portsmouth, we saw a Brittany Ferry sporting six stretched versions of the orange life rafts, first noticed at reference 1, port and starboard, that is to say three on each side. On our ferry, we had to make do with stacks of orange life rafts, more like large biscuits than boats. An aircraft carrier not sporting any aircraft, at least that we could see. A Victory stripped of its rigging and its upper masts. Top-masts and so forth. What looked like a customs' cutter banging around in the Solent, aka HMS Marijuana. What looked like a blade of a large windmill being ferried from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth. Probably from the yard at the back of Cowes where we once came across them being made. Years ago now, well before the fleets of windmills appeared off our shores. No clues offered as to how the blade attached to the hub - although clearly something very substantial was indicated - given the stress the attachment would be under. Maybe bolts made of some fancy steel, so fancy that we have to send to Russia or China for it.

Two coaches on our ferry with semi-personalised number plates. Perhaps going the whole hog would have been too expensive.

Tried for the beach at Fishbourne, at the head of Wootton Creek, but the small number of slots were all taken. But we did take note of the public house there, perhaps for lunch on some future occasion. See reference 2.

Parked up instead at the car park at the back of Puckpool Park, just behind the eastern end of the esplanade at Ryde, where we found a rather fine oak tree under which we could picnic, out of the rather fierce noonday sun. Reminded how much cooler it is under a tree than under an awning: clever how photosynthesis eats all the heat up.

Next stop the large Tesco's to be found on the way to Brading, to stock up on sundries like English cherries (which make a change from the Spanish cherries which are the usual fare in Epsom) and Johnny Walker (red label). A bit mean not to use the convenience store in Brading, but Tesco's was pleasantly cool, was convenient and was much more reliably stocked.

The cherries were £1 for 100g, which sounded a lot, but is not so very different from the £5 we might pay the Waitrose in Epsom for 600g. Very good they were too, with the two or three packs not lasting long at all.

We were also reminded that the Isle of Wight is old-fashioned enough to run to a newspaper that you pay for. Not something I recall ever having in our thirty years at Epsom.

Arrived and unpacked, and after a bit wandered down to the 'Hungry Bear' to see what they could offer in the way of dinner. 'The Bugle' being shut while new management made themselves at home , 'The Dark Horse' being long gone and 'The Wheatsheaf' catering for locals rather than casual diners. 

Booked in for later in the day and in the meantime took a glass of something wet. Elected to sit on the road side rather than in the courtyard, so getting the snap of the toy museum (above), presumably a relic of the days when Sandown (a little down the road) pulled in many coachloads of holiday makers, some of which would stop off at Brading.

I opted for the seafood medley, while BH went for a risotto. I got quite a lot of stuff for my money, including the half lobster of the title, which took me a while to get into, not having had such a thing for a while. Lots of mussels and prawns, all good. In some white sauce, probably involving both white wine and cream, most of which went down with the bread provided. Plus supplementary bread. BH very happy with her risotto. Full marks for presentation, but not so clever on the practicalities of eating shell fish. No bowl for the debris. No large linen napkin for wiping the fingers. Too small a board for dissecting the lobster.

A satisfactory Sauvignon Blanc, said to be from Moloko Bay in South Africa. A wine which plenty of people sell, but which no-one admits to making. And not the people at reference 4.

But Lanchester Wines, a supplier to the trade, did admit to bottling the stuff. Snapped above from their extensive 2022 portfolio. A supplier from up north, just about midway between Derwent Reservoir and Chester-le-Street. But gmaps knows nowhere of that name in South Africa, with the best that it can do being a reservoir, maybe 100 miles north of Pretoria and not that far from the famed Limpopo River. Perhaps what we have here is a label rather than a vineyard. And a name dreamed up by the marketing people.

Despite being fairly full, I moved onto another dose of cream in the form of a cheesecake. Not bad at all, good of its kind, if rather a lot of it, in all the circumstances. I continue to wonder why proper cooked cheesecakes are so rarely offered for sale. And BH has not made one for years. Perhaps a birthday special?

All in all a pretty good meal. So menu, cooking and (food) presentation good, but the package as a whole might be described as work in progress. Not very busy for a Friday evening. But a place to keep an eye on. With the report from last year to be found at reference 8.

Quick peek at the courtyard on the way out, to find a half moon above and a fatsia (left) rather healthier than the one in our garden, as noticed at reference 6. Maybe this one gets watered. Arch almost certainly faked up, possibly from old materials.

PS: pleased to see an article in this morning's FT advocating a return to the system whereby our party leaders are elected by their MPs, rather than the pretence of democracy we have now whereby party members get a big say - party members who are far from representative of the country at large and who are apt to land us with people like Corbyn and Johnson. Election by MP's has its problems, but representative democracy does seem to work better than the market place sort. For which see Coriolanus of reference 8.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/08/zanussi-or-bust.html.

Reference 2: https://www.thefishbourne.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.hungrybear.online/.

Reference 4: https://www.moloko-beverage.co.uk/. Not the wine at all. Perhaps named for the island in Hawaii.

Reference 5: https://www.lanchesterwines.co.uk/. The bottler.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/11/fatsia-flower.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/07/brading-eagles.html.

Reference 8: Coriolanus - William Shakespeare - 1605-8. Shakespeare clearly knew a thing or two about the world. And I dare say our fat leader could turn up a classical text covering the same sort of ground. One good reason for retaining tuition of both.