Lavender Blue!

We have at long last discovered culinary pure lavender extract - we have one for hot food and one for cold (don't ask us what the difference is - we simply do what we're told!).
So - the latest additions to our summer menu are:

• Lavender meringues  - snowy white and beautifully fragrant
• Lavender and honey ice cream - a rich blend of the two flavours- very evocative of lazy hot summer afternoons.

We also have a new dish on the savoury menu this week - Pan fried blue shark with a rose petal salt and black pepper crust and served with an avocado and crisp leaf salad.

We had never tasted shark before and were impressed with the softness of the raw flesh - almost like scallop - and the meaty toothsomeness of the cooked fish - it's lovely!

For the sweet toothed, we have individual Summer puddings on at the moment. They are - as are the meringues - entirely fat free.....until you add the oodles of Chantilly or clotted cream, of course!

Business is thriving - and we seem to have just as many of our lovely local customers this summer as we normally expect at the end of the season, it's just what we'd hoped really; it's great to meet new customers and fantastic to see loyal and valued friends- a perfect balance.

We seem to be attracting more and more gluten intolerant eaters, too - since the majority of our dishes contain no gluten.  This is great news - although we do always point out that all food is prepared in the same kitchen so we can't claim to be a gluten free kitchen, but we do make delicious dishes which do not contain gluten. (Does that make sense?)

Thank heavens that the weather has perked up a bit and the children (and adults!) can have some outdoor fun before they get back to school in September. Here's to the rest of the summer - may it remain warm, sunny and full of fun and colour.