Kent – fruits of the land & sea, a fine weekend destination for food & wine lovers

This time last week I was embraced in the warm clasp of a delicious weekend away.  Well-nigh perfect.

Since my partner and I both work from home, weekends away offer a much cherished total break from the office.    Otherwise I’m seemingly attached to my computer by an invisible piece of elastic – good to remember I’m not married to it!

The magic ingredients? Well it all started with The Sportsman in Seasalter, a Michelin-starred gastropub near Whitstable in East Kent (ecstatically reviewed in last Saturday’s Guardian Weekend as it happens).  We booked in for Sunday lunch at 2.15pm, the only slot available.  Perfect as it transpired, because we sorely needed to build up our appetites with a morning walk, having already been exposed to some exceedingly fine fare over the course of the weekend.  Nothing a brisk walk on the Saxon Shore Way from Seasalter towards Faversham and back couldn’t fix!

Poached rock oysters atop the most delicately pickled cucumber and beurre blanc “seasoned” with avruga caviar were well met by a glass of Pol Roger!  Next up another starter of home smoked mackerel on homemade soda bread with bramley apple jelly, horseradish and sorrel.  Modest though it may sound, the subtly of the smoking, moistness/plumpness of the fish and freshness of the jelly elevated this way beyond its modest ingredients.   The Sportsman’s breads (a generous portion of which come with starters) are terrific too.

With two starters and no main, we’d sensibly saved ourselves for pud, not least because I’d correctly anticipated that salt caramel would feature on the menu (The Sportsman makes its own butter and salt).  Warm chocolate mousse with a salt caramel base and creamy milk sorbet reduced me to silence as I allowed this intense, sensual yet “light” pudding to saturate my palate in successive waves.  Sublime!  Cooking of the highest order, to which we’d beaten a steady path.

So what of our previous feasting?  Through the Sportsman’s website, we’d discovered The Linen Shed in Boughton under Blean, where we stayed.  Warm and welcoming owner Vickie Miles, a passionate cook, makes quite the best breakfasts with top veggie options (creamed mushrooms on toasted brioche or rosti potato cake with poached eggs anyone?)  In truth we didn’t need the granola “oatcakes” with which we were despatched on our Saturday morning walk around surrounding orchards, but they were too good to resist! 

I cannot recommend The Line Shed highly enough – its claim to being “a special place to stay” is no advertising puffery.  Aside from winning my award for most aesthetically pleasing make over for a drill hall, it’s also very homely and super comfortable.  You’ll find a write up about it here.  We’ll be back in the summer to road (walk!) test one of Vickie’s gourmet picnic hampers…

And finally, fellow sybarites would also do well to book into Jo Jo’s tapas bar in Tankerton near Whitstable, our Friday night place of choice.  Freshly caught local fish is a speciality and skate cheeks pan fried in lemon butter were the business.  What’s more it’s BYO.  A bottle of Reguengo de Melgaco Alvarinho 2008, a top notch Vinho Verde, had the fruit to power its way most effectively through our fish and robust veggie dishes (mini-red peppers stuffed with feta and herbs, mojo sauce and flatbread, patatas bravas roasted potatoes with spicy tomato and paprika sauce and mayo) and the acidity to refresh and cleanse the palate.

Though I, of course, came equipped wine-wise, Vickie highly recommended a couple of local independent wine merchants – Hercules Wine Merchants in Faversham (next door to fine food emporium Macknade) and Magma Wines in Whitstable.  I notice that Tankerton itself is home to an organic/biodynamic specialist The Wine Room.  All useful to know because Wheeler’s Oyster Bar, one of Whitstable’s finest restaurants, is also BYO.