There's a lot of hot air talked about 'real' tapas. If there's such a thing as authentic tapas, then presumably you'd need to go to Spain to get it.

Or maybe not. Tapas, like so many other national cuisines, has already generated its own separate identity within British cooking that isn't necessarily a strict copy of the archetypical native style. On the Isle of Wight an example of this in practice is the menu at the Blacksheep Bar, which although not quite as extensive as it once was still includes some great tapas-English fusion dishes. But if you do want to enjoy tapas close to its Iberian roots then the Island has a remarkable treat in store: El Toro Contento tapas bar in Ventnor, a delightful experience which Matt and Cat always enjoy. This bar is great - but tiny. So, rather than expand the existing site, the same folk have opened another bar a few hundred metres away down on the seafront, the Pintxo Playa. Matt and Cat were not going to pass up on the chance to try it out, and so on one of the few sunny evenings in August, they picked up a pal and set off for a tapas-fest.

Read more »

Matt and Cat have spent a lot of time in Ventnor recently, so much so that Matthew is thinking of buying a phial of patchouli oil to perfume his Afghan coat. Having had an extremely pleasant morning with some astronomers at the very windswept and wonderful Castlehaven, M&C headed into town to find a light lunch before a pre-booked afternoon tea at Ventnor's Royal Hotel.

Although tempted to revisit Goodman's Deli; the delicious Forme d'Ambert cheese was still a happy memory, it was time to go somewhere new. Surprisingly, despite it being a very drizzly weekday, most of the shops and cafes seemed to be open and Matt and Cat took a slow stroll southwards until they found something that took their fancy. That something turned out to be Tilly's Café.

Read more »

Mat and Cat have often bemoaned the fact that their home town of Ryde has not a single delicatessen to its name.

Eating-out places jostle for attention, but if you want to buy artisan cheeses or gawp at the trotter of a Serrano ham you're out of luck.

Not so in Ventnor, where the little High Street boasts not one but two charmingly bourgeois delis. Having visited the Island Deli not that long ago, M&C thought it best to redress the balance, and made a foray southwards to see what Goodman's Deli had to offer.

Read more »

Visit the website: http://www.goodmansdeli.co.uk/

Hippies, eh, with their free love and beads. Ventnor's bloody full of them. In the 1960s they say all the beardy-weirdy sandal wearers ended up in this most southerly town because it had the perfect climate for growing cannabis. Whether or not that was the reason, it seems that some of them never left. So today their children, the second-generation Ventnorians, might not look quite so Bohemian but still carry the ideals of the Summer of Love.

The heart of this nest of peaceniks is the Community Café, open every Saturday morning in a well-used space on the corner of Albert Street and Pound Lane. Here one imagines well-intentioned comrades can eat gluten-free cakes and stroke their tufty chins earnestly whilst decrying the state of the planet. But, as is often the case with Ventnor, appearances can be deceptive. The Community Café's reality is not the tediously worthy hippy Elysium one might assume - it's actually pretty good.

Read more »

Aren't humans lucky? We somehow find this lovely planet awash with things conveniently at a manageable scale: buttons, houses, cutlery. Also, being omnivores, we can eat pretty much anything. It's as if it was all designed for our use! Imagine how dull life would be if you were a koala. Sure, you'd live in a nice country and look pretty cute, but what good are a pair of unfeasibly fluffy ears if you can't manipulate a mirror to admire them? And who'd want a monovorous diet of eucalyptus leaves? Not Matt and Cat, who are out and proud as omnivores.

Not all people embrace their ability to chew and digest most of what Mother Nature provides for them. Some people live in places where their diet is not always a matter of choice; others have objections to eating animals that others simply think of as food with a face. Some choose to restrict their diet on a whim or principle: as a child, Cat was a very fussy eater and it's a surprise that she grew up at all, living as she did on salad cream sandwiches and milk. Matthew was less discerning; tea time at the vicarage was a meal without waste.

As she got older, Cat's diet broadened and she was a vegetarian for many years. However, eventually the lure of tuna was too much even for her steely will. This Damascene conversion suited Cat well. These days she has a penchant for fillet steak and, of course, bacon - the vegetarian's temptress.

Both Matt and Cat are happy to eat hay for pay, so were delighted and flattered to be invited to The 'V' Word at The Royal Hotel, a vegetarian tasting evening where they could mingle with the Island's eminent vegetarians. Could they spend an entire evening in such august company and not mention bacon? The only thing to do was to brush off the posh togs and find out.

Read more »