Skys Diner, St Ives.

It was a foggy day and it's a very long and twisty drive on the coast road from Sennen to St Ives. The result was, that the Passenger was not in the mood for a cream tea when we stopped off in St Ives. Well not a cream tea to herself, but a quarter share of the drivers tea and a bottle of Elderflower Presse which had her revived enough for a later paddle.

Anyway we are getting ahead of ourselves. In the end we found a place to park the car, after witnessing the aftermath of possibly the worst car park crash ever. A wall and a transit van demolished by a Jeep.

The choice of eateries in St Ives is vast with many an offer of fish and chips, pizza and cornish pasties. Less shops were offering cream teas, and of those that did the look was not inviting. In the end we found Skys Diner

It had seats free it looked clean and it sold cream teas, in other words it ticked all the boxes. We wandered in found a seat near the window and looked at the menu.

Apart from the inconsistent use of capitol letters it looked good so tea was ordered.

As mentioned before the passenger was not in the mood for a cream tea but shared a scone with a bottle of fizz. The driver had english breakfast, which arrived in a mug!
Now for me mugs are for coffee and chocolate. Tea should be served in a cup and saucer, from a pot with a pot of hot water on the side. I also think that it is value for money as a tea bag is good fort more than a single mug full.

To compound the irritation with this tea the scones were dusted in sugar, were large and strangely shaped and the jam and clotted cream were too small for the scones.

The problem with misshaped scones is how to cut them. They are impossible to cut so so as to give an even depth of scone. They all end up wedge shaped with too much scone on one for the jam and cream. Here the last bite was almost all scone with little jam and cream. Also the scones were a bit dry and very sweet with the sugar coating on the top.

Overall the the cream tea was OK nothing great but perhaps they know their market.

Ambiance and Presentation:- 3 room was clean but not much atmosphere.
Jam and Cream:- 3 small portion in relation to the scone size.
Scones:- 2 dry and sweet
Tea:- 2 Mug and no pot
Service:- 3 Staff friendly

Overall:- 13/25

The Eden Project. Help yourself to jam and cream!

While in cornwall we had a trip to the Eden Project. We had never visited and one of our friends we were staying with also wanted to visit.

The site is remarkable as it is in an old china clay pit. With all the visitors there are several places to eat. We had a coffee and a cake when we arrived but later we all needed more sustenance after wandering around the Biodomes. 

In the large food court a sign caught our eyes.

Help yourself to jam and cream! 

Well we all three thought we were in heaven and next to no time, three scones were chosen and tea was ordered. We went for fruit scones as there was only one plain scone left and that was a bid of an odd shape. Tea was presented in mugs. The Passenger is not a great fan of mugs as she thinks tea should only be served in fine china cups and tea pots.

The Passenger and the Friend also like their tea the same strength. Strength is perhaps the wrong word to describe their tea, anaemic is a better word. Frugality is also a trait they share so we ended up with two mugs of hot water and a, as in one, tea bag. The driver had his usual everyday tea.

We helped ourselves to the jam and cream, luckily there was enough for the three of us!

The cream was clotted and the jam was strawberry. 

The whole ethic of the Eden project is of sustainability and in this spirit the jam and the cream are both sourced locally. The scones are backed fresh each day in the kitchen of the restaurants. The scones were good, a bit heavy, fresh but not just out of the oven fresh. It would have been better if they had been popped into an oven just to reheat them.

The cafe area was interesting, it was laid out with long tables and benches made from RSJs and thick planks. 

Milk was supplied in a large jug from which you helped yourself and serviettes were a kitchen roll on a pole, dotted around the tables.

When we were there it was not very busy and we had plenty of space but I would think if the Cafe was busy it could get very cramped.

We all enjoyed our cream tea, especially the Friend as she was finding a bit of a long time since the last feed. The Passenger managing to help herself to the correct amount of jam and cream without the embarrassment of having to go back for a refill. 

Ambiance and Presentation:- 3 Not a room for a quiet cream tea but more like a motorway service station. Mugs and not cups.
Jam and Cream:- 5 Quality and portion size as we did the portion control it could hardly be anything else
Scones:- 4 Good and made on site.
Tea:- 4 A reasonable choice.
Service:- 4 Friendly counter Staff.

Overall:- 20/25

Lanhydrock House cream room.

The Driver and the Passenger visited Lanhydrock house on the way back from their honeymoon many years ago.  Lanhydrock house near Bodmin in Cornwall has one of the most impressive sets of kitchens of any National Trust house we have visited. The Kitchens had been remodelled in the late Victorian era, after the house had been almost completely burnt to the ground.

It has kitchens for almost all the different needs of the house. A bread bakery, a meat preparation room, game larder a dairy and something I had never seen before, a clotted cream room.

It was laid out with broad shallow bowls sitting over a heat source, with the cream scoops and cream jugs beside.

It was a nice little insight into the backstage areas of a grand victorian country house.