Fish & Chips in the Lake District: Our Summer Holiday, Part 3

It's a well known fact that the British love their fish and chips and they certainly know how to do them well. A trip across the pond wouldn't be complete without getting a portion of a one and one. On our recent(ish) summer holiday we tried out Ambleside Fish and Chips. This takeaway is situated by the jetty for the ferry and could at first glance be mistaken as a bit of a tourist trap but there was a steady stream of locals visiting it.

The menus in fish and chips shops in Cumbria seem to be a bit more varied than Irish ones and offer a range of items we never see here. Indeed the boyfriend has his mind made up as soon as he saw that they offered battered black pudding! I got myself a one and one as I can't resist some good haddock. We sat outside on the terrace overlooking Windermere Lake and the slowly setting sun. Who knew fish and chips could be romantic!! 

The portion sizes were huge and I'm not even sure the pictures do them justice. The battered haddock was lovely with a crispy light batter while the chips were exactly what you want from a chipper. The boyfriend's came with an full sized black pudding and was surprisingly delicious. I wouldn't be able to eat a whole one but it wasn't as heavy to eat as I thought it would be.

During our stay in the Lake District we kept finding ourselves drawn back to Keswick. It's a great little village with probably the best shops to have a wander about in. On one of the days we visited the Old Keswickian, a local fish and chip shop, at the end of the square. On this occasion we got smoked sausage and chips and this time just shared them! The smoked sausage was great and was an unusual addition to a normal takeaway. I know you might ask yourself why would you get fish and chips - it's just fast food!? I think though that a trip to the Lake District without getting some would be like visiting Ireland and not sampling a pint of Guinness!!

As a little sidenote there is a lovely weekly market in Keswick. It was the only local market that we came across during our stay and it was full of local produce and crafts. I spent about a good ten minutes questioning the man at Cartmel Cheeses but came away with a bagful of local cheeses!

If you would like to read a bit more about our holiday to the Lake District have a look at the posts below:

Ambleside & Grasmere: Our Summer Holiday, Part 2

Nolita Cantina - American Style Dining in Liverpool

Conwy, Wales - Our Summer Holiday, Part 1

Ambleside & Grasmere: Our Summer Holiday, Part 2

Well I am finally getting around to posting the next part of my holiday blog. Our trip to the Lake District seems like a distant memory now that the warm summer days are gone and autumn has arrived with cold intent. It is nice to relive the memories though so here goes!

For our two week holiday we stayed in a beautiful cottage in Ambleside. It was an old gate lodge which used to be part of Rydal Estate and was at the beginning of a beautiful walk up to the old house.  

Park Gates Lodge, a Victorian gate keepers cottage, adj the footpath to Fairfield & Rydal Hall on Holiday Lettings.

The only thing missing from the cottage was wifi so we would find ourselves every few days at the Apple Pie Cafe and Bakery. I was in love the moment I saw the name!!

This family owned  restaurant is set in the heart of Ambleside and does a roaring trade in pies, pasties, cakes, and sandwiches. If you weren't early enough there was no chance of getting your hands on their lovely doughnuts or bath buns!

Bath Buns

There was also an extensive lunch menu with a wide range of options such as the chicken tikka roll and a brie toastie pictured below. All the food here is freshly made and everything we ate was really filling and full of flavour. 

Chicken Tikka Roll

Brie and Veggie Toastie

On one of the evenings we walked from our lodge up past the old Rydal Hall and into the outskirts of Ambleside. Here we decided to have dinner in the Badger Bar.

Now I just thought that the restaurant had a quirky name like so many other places in England but I was delighted when the owners came over to tell us that they had thrown out the evening's veggies for the local badgers. Turns out that visiting badgers gave the place its name!! Don't think I have ever been that close to them.

Besides the badger novelty the bar did great English style food - pork scratchings, Cumberland sausage with mash and game stew.

Pork Scratchings

The main reason we travelled to the Lake District this year was for a friend's wedding. She and her fiance got married in a beautiful old church in Grasmere which dated back to the 14th century. While we were only there for a short time that day the village was definitely worth a trip back. The village is the final resting place for William Wordsworth and you can wander through the garden and visit his grave. You can also see how much you remember from the poem 'Daffodil'. I could only remember the first two lines unlike my friend who remembered the whole thing!!

Grasmere

Grasmere is also home to the world famous Sarah Nelson’s Gingerbread. The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop is tucked away at the corner of the churchyard of St. Oswald’s Church and you may have to queue to get in! It's a tiny little store and walking over the threshold is like taking a step back in time. The gingerbread itself was quite unlike any gingerbread I have had before. It was thin and crunchy but had a lovely gingery topping. 

 Grasmere Gingerbread Shop

Gingerbread

We also ate lunch one afternoon in the nearby Swan Hotel which sits at the edge of the village. This was after the boyfriend had decided we were going to climb a mountain but then picked the most vertical climb I have ever had to do! Safe to say we were starving by the time we got back.

Himself went for the venison suet pudding while I decided on the John Ross Junior smoked salmon sandwich. You would definitely know that they cater for hungry hikers as my sandwich was more a sandwich and a half. It was a great sandwich but I think the winning dish of the two was definitely the pudding. We had never come across food like that in Ireland where we tend to have more pies but this was delicious. It was rich and gamey but the casing it was in was spongy and light and helped soak up all the juices. The meal here cost us £20 so it was perhaps a little on the more expensive side for lunch but it kept us going for the whole day.

Smoked Salmon Sandwich

Venison Suet Pudding, veggies and the obligatory glass of ale

Both Ambleside and Grasmere are well worth a visit. They are both beautiful villages with lots of history and plenty of things to see, eat and do. Most places in the villages, as you would expect, are well used to muddy hikers, children, dogs and buggies so there is no excuse to get out and about and then reward yourself with a lovely meal!

Ambleside at sunset

Check out Conwy, Wales - Our Summer Holiday, Part 1 here.
Nolita Cantina - A day trip to Liverpool here

Nolita Cantina - American Style Dining in Liverpool

One of the great advantages of going on holidays to the Lake District this year with the car was that it left us with the opportunity to go anywhere we wanted to. So we decided to pay Liverpool a visit. We had been to Liverpool once before and it struck a cord with us. It is a lively, culture filled city with a beautiful shopping area and a thriving food culture. It is also only an hour and a half away from the Lake District and a 40 minute flight from Ireland. If you have never been and are looking for a easy weekend away I would say check it out you will be pleasantly surprised. 

So early one drizzly morning we hopped in the car and drove down. We spent a wonderful morning trawling through the shopping district in Liverpool One and then down to the vintage stores on Bold Street. This was all part of a well executed plan because the one place we really wanted to eat at was on that street too! Before I went away I had asked Liverpool Food and Drink Festival on Twitter if they had any places they could recommend. They very kindly came back to me with a whole list of different options including Mexican, Indian, Bistro and American. After much deliberation with the boyfriend we settled on Nolita Cantina having been very much swayed by the inclusion of baby corn dogs on the menu! 

Nolita Cantina is a relaxed, informal restaurant which serves American style food and I knew immediately it was my sort of place when I heard them play HAIM as part of their playlist! We started off our meal by choosing a pitcher of iced tea. It was properly homemade and very refreshing. 

 

Then for starters we decided on a sharing platter as we just wanted to try everything. This came with a selection of chilli cob, baby corn dogs, onion rings and spicy chicken wings. It also came with frickles, which are deep fried dill pickles and which I had never come across before. They also had hush puppies which are small savoury doughnuts made from corn meal, beer & cheese and which I can't find anymore in Ireland. It was a great choice and really covered quite a lot of the choices on the starter menu. 

The boyfriend also decided at the last minute that he wanted to try a plate of burnt ends so that also arrived at our table. The burnt ends are those pieces of meat that are probably a bit too charred to put into the main meals but which are delicious as a snack.

Then it was onto the main course and we had absolutely no idea what was in store for us! We had gone for Nolita Cantina's lunch deal where you can get any sandwich and bottomless fries for six pounds. We just assumed that they would be normal sized sandwiches. We were very very wrong!! What arrived at the table were sandwiches packed full of layers and spilling out from under the bread. My deli sandwich was the hand carved beef rump pastrami with lightly grilled swiss cheese, chipotle mayonnaise & pickle. The boyfriend went for the  pulled pork with lightly grilled monterey jack cheese and chipotle mayonnaise. I have never been to NYC but I can imagine this is exactly what people mean when they talk about the proper deli sandwiches! Both of the sandwiches were just packed full of flavour and the cheese had been slightly melted which brought all the ingredients together. 

Hand carved beef rump pastrami

Pulled Pork Sandwich

The sandwiches were accompanied by a basket full of sweet potato and normal fries which I thought was a nice touch as it provided a bit of colour and a variety of flavours. I actually prefer sweet potato fries as well so it was nice not having to order them separately. 

So could we eat it all?? In short no and I think it was actually the first time I have ever seen the boyfriend beaten by food!! In hindsight we ordered too much but that would be nothing new for us especially when it is our first visit to a place. We also weren't expecting the sheer size of the sandwich as I have never really come across food like that in Dublin. In fairness though if we went back we would probably do it all over again as food like this is hard to come by! As it says on their website Nolita Cantina was born out of the mutual passion of two chefs looking to satisfy their appreciation and longing for traditional, homemade American style food. Well I definitely think they have succeeded in that and also with introducing what real American food should be like to people who visit here 

You can find them on Facebook here and Twitter here.

Conwy, Wales - Our Summer Holiday, Part 1

Summer holidays for us tend to take place in Ireland like last year's one in Kerry. We like the ease of just being able to put everything in the car and drive off without any delays. This year though we had to go abroad as a good friend was getting married in the Lake District. We have always wanted to go there so we used it as an excuse and worked her wedding around a two week holiday. So we packed the jeep to the brim, drove to the ferry and in under two hours we were in Wales. Who knew the ferry was that easy!! I always assumed it took hours for some reason but the Irish Ferries 'Swift' got us to Wales in an hour and 50 minutes. From there we were to drive to the Lake District but made a few stops along the way including one which involved a lot of shopping at the Cheshire Oaks Outlet!! 

First off though we made our way to Conwy which was onroute. The boyfriend is a big weaponry fan and had heard that there was a sword shop located near a castle in Conwy. What we hadn't realised was how well preserved and absolutely stunning Conwy Castle was going to be. The castle itself is huge and is still surrounded by its battlement walls. You can walk all the way around the battlements and there are lot of places to stop and take lots of pictures. The boyfriend was in his element!

After all the exploring it was time for lunch. We found ourselves in The Press Room, a lovely local cafe which was located by the entrance to the castle and which had an outdoor courtyard. We ordered two different types of rarebit: an original Welsh rarebit and mackerel rarebit. They were oozy cheese covered parcels of goodness. The mackerel was beautiful in it and gave the rarebit a nice bit of texture. One lovely touch was that the tomatoes had been roasted and they worked really well with the rarebit. We had just been expecting a small lunch but this was much more and kept us filled for the day. Lunch with two coffees cost £19. There is also a fairtrade shop located downstairs in the cafe so once you have eaten you can do a bit of shopping if you want!

Mackerel Rarebit

Welsh Rarebit

During our holiday I had read about a fabulous sounding fish and chips shop in Llandudno junction which is also in the borough of Conwy. So on our return visit we went about five minutes out of our way to find Enochs Fish and Chips. Enochs is split into two areas; the takeaway area and the restaurant area. It's a bright, airy place with comfortable seating and as one would expect a fishy theme adorning the walls.

 
 

All Enochs' fish is cooked to order and served in batter, golden crumb or poached in milk with parsley sauce. We ordered the Scottish hake and the Scottish haddock. All fish is served with chips and peas. Since I am not a fan of mushy peas the staff kindly allowed me to substitute them for beans.

Hake

Haddock

The batter on both fish was light and crispy and the chips were perfect, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Another lovely touch is that Enochs have bread and butter on sale so you can make yourself a chip butty. We do this all the time at home so it was fun to see this on offer here. In total our meal cost us £23 and that included drinks. 

Conwy is a beautiful town and one that we can't wait to go back to. From Holyhead it takes only a hour so it would also be well worth a weekend visit if castles and great food sound like fun to you too!