NABM travels to: Folkestone, Kent

If you consider a one hour drive travelling, that is. While trying to figure out which district Folkestone was in, I Wiki-ed it and found these interesting facts.

1. Currently Folkestone has the only sandy beach and coastal park within an hour of north London.
2. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port.



And as a bonus; personal observations:

1. They sure do good prawns.
2. Seagulls don't care about your hair, and they are playground bullies intent on dive-bombing you. If you are brave enough, you could stand up to them, but that could also result in your having seagull in hair.

Setting the scene - it was about 2 months ago, and the day was bright and almost warm. We HAD to make use of the good weather so decided to make a day trip to our favourite place by the coast that is Folkestone. It's roughly around an hour's drive from where we are, and on a warm day like that one, what could be better than having a relaxing drive with the wind in my hair, sunnies up and face sticking slightly out the window?



I sometimes find it hard to believe that Folkestone is in England. On a sunny day, the photos make it look like somewhere in the middle of sunny Italy.

Seems warm, doesn't it? Don't be fooled, it wasn't. But it looked warm, and that's all that matters on this blog.



If I had to find one reason to come to Folkestone, this is it. Chummy's fish stand which is located right by the entrance to the pier, and surrounded by queues of hungry people all the times we've been there.

For £3, you get the smaller round containers shown above, and if you wanna roughly double it (in terms of quantity), you pay £6 for a rectangular takeaway box. We bought both versions that day, and concluded that you do get a little more than double with the £6 portion (and that is more prawns than anyone can have in one sitting. Really.)

Shown above are: Mixed seafood, king prawns and scampi tails.

My personal favourite is the king prawn, and that was what we bought more of after.

I'm guessing it's gonna be fresh fish? I know, I know. Some people will argue that the fish you buy in the UK has probably been caught somewhere in the Atlantic or wherever, and then frozen, and shipped to the UK so it's never really that fresh but come on, it tastes fresh so that's all that matters.

We walked around the high street for a bit, and considering it was quite a sunny day out, the high street was very empty. Maybe I've just gotten used to how busy it always is in London, regardless the day or the weather.

Despite having scoffed down a good few bowls of seafood earlier on, we stopped at this cafe for some lunch.

It was one of the nicer looking cafes along the little alley leading to the high street.

Because I have so much coffee daily during the week, I try not to have too much of it during the weekends. Theoretically speaking, I don't really need caffeine when I should be relaxed and just wandering around in Folkestone, but by the time it was noon and by the time I'd had my fair share of the seaside breeze, I felt myself getting warmer and warmer to the idea of a nice, smooth latte.

Not my lunch - this was a Ploughman's platter.



Fresh, full of different sorts of nibbles and perfect for a warm day out.

I had this instead, which was what I bought earlier when we first arrived, and nibbled straight away so wasn't too hungry for any sandwiches.

The husband had a ham and cheese sandwich. Just couldn't resist.

The mixed seafood was pleasant, but nothing special - tasted similar to the stuff you get from the fish aisle at your supermarket. Scampi tails were fresh and sea-salty. Usually I have my scampi deep fried and served with chips, but this version was good too.



The prawns were so very crunchy, slightly salty, and when dipped in the tangy Marie Rose sauce, oh my it was like a prawn cocktail gone very right.