The Cook Book

The Cook Book is a great little cafe cum bookshop in St. Just, an ancient mining town in the far west of Cornwall near Land's End. What better means to while away a thoroughly unpleasant wet, windy and misty Sunday afternoon than munching on delicious homemade cakes whilst browsing through the secondhand books!

The cafe serves an all day breakfast, seasonal soups, lunches, cakes and scones and as far as possible source local produce. It is dog and child friendly with cheerful staff and a warm welcoming atmosphere. There are daily newspapers laid out on a communal bar and the place is crammed with an ecletic selection of books - 5,000 or so in three rooms upstairs, spilling down the stairs and in the cafe itself.

Their cream tea is a true Cornish feast – two homemade scones and a saffron bun, served with Rodda’s Cornish Clotted Cream, delicious local Strawberry Jam and a big pot of tea. Saffron buns are a traditional Cornish specialty - rich yeast buns, coloured yellow with fresh saffron and loaded with currants. They are all to scarce these days, so a rare treat indeed.

Disappointingly Dave couldn't manage his saffron bun as well as the two large scones, so he wrapped it up for breakfast next morning!

The Cook Book claims to feed body and mind, it is true but places like this are also good for the soul.

The Cook Book
4 Cape Cornwall Street, St. Just, Cornwall TR19 7JZ

This post forms part of a series about our 2010 gastro camping trip in Cornwall.

A cream tea at Prideaux Place

Any self respecting visitor to Cornwall needs to sample at least one traditional cream tea. To this end, after pottering around and an admittedly less than strenuous walk along Padstow beach, we strolled to the top of town to Prideaux Place - a beautiful Elizabethan manor house which has been the home of the Prideaux-Brune family since the 16th century. Prideaux Place offers a peaceful haven just minutes from the bustle of Padstow, but more importantly serves cream teas out on the terrace.

We ordered one apiece and were warned that each cream tea was served with two large scones. That was lucky as we hadn't had any lunch and it was after 3pm.

Expectations duly heightened, we were not disappointed. Our cream teas arrived, complete with 2 large soft fresh scones - slightly warm - a pot of deliciously fruity local strawberry jam and a very generous portion of Rodda’s clotted cream. There was also a huge pot of tea per person.

Of course the question is, should the scone first be spread with strawberry jam and then topped with a spoonful of the clotted cream, or vice versa? I believe the difference may lie in whether it is a Devonian or Cornish cream tea but ultimately the choice comes down to personal taste and I am not sure that either method is better or more acceptable than the other. Besides, we all opted for the jam followed by cream method.

The challenge then is to perfectly judge the application of jam and cream, ensuring that equal amounts can be dolloped on to each scone. It wouldn't do to be left with scone and no adornments. The size of the scone, jam and cream made it tricky to eat but we persisted and piled on as much as was possible.

It was the perfect combination of quality and quantity and we declared it one of the best cream teas we've ever had!

Prideaux Place
Padstow, Cornwall, PL28 8RP

This post forms part of a series about our 2010 gastro camping trip in Cornwall.