This is a Matt and Cat special event report

Hands up who’s ever heard it said that the Isle of Wight is stuck in the past. Quite a few of you - you can put your hands down now.

The sneerers have missed the point; it’s actually a compliment to this slow-paced, temperate county. As The Future might not be all it was cracked up to be, who wouldn’t want to live somewhere with a steadfastly local paper, long-standing businesses and time-capsule restaurants? As ever, the Island is on-trend: vintage is the new cupcakes and The Royal Hotel, a positive Methuselah of the Isle of Wight’s hospitality industry, hosted an event to underline the Island’s leading role in the retro revival.

Scheduled to coincide with the Michelin Guide’s centenary, The Royal courted vintage fans to help it mark the rare distinction of being one of only thirty hotels to be listed in every Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland since it was first published in 1911. With a programme of entertainment and - of course - food, Matt and Cat were delighted to receive an invitation to join the festival.

Regular readers will know that M&C love the Royal Hotel and held one of their Dining Club events there. Always pleased to be eating the cuisine of executive chef Alan Staley, they were particularly excited about the weekend’s menu. Phil Baldock, head of communications at Michelin UK was also going to be in attendance on the Saturday: the kitchen staff would surely pull out all the stops.

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There are few places that are truly off the beaten track. The Boathouse seafood restaurant at Steephill Cove is not one of them.

It's one of the Island's worst-kept secrets, a place that all the travel writers love to imagine they discovered. And well they might. It's probably not somewhere that you would come across en passant, not least because of the horrifyingly old-school fact that you can't actually drive there, you have to walk. Yes, walk! The disabled access is probably under-compliant, the restaurant is not particularly well-signposted and its popularity means it is notoriously hard to get a seat in. Nevertheless, the Boathouse manages to attract customers keen to try its famous seafood dishes.

Fortunately for Matt and Cat - who have had the Boathouse suggested to them on a yearly basis but have hitherto been too indolent to book a table - a friend arranged a lunch date.

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Visit the website: http://www.theboathouse-steephillcove.co.uk/seafood_restaurant.php

Living in the green and pleasant land that is the Isle of Wight, Matt and Cat can't help but wonder how concrete-dwelling urbanites know when summer's arrived.

Surely they don't have the same pastoral indicators that a rural county can boast? No wildflower verges, shrieking swallows or the tedium of crawling through Sandown behind a mid-summer turkey and tinsel coach. Matt and Cat list these plus other key performance indicators, such as the sublime mid-summer pleasure of eating fish and chips out of their wrappers in a rainy and windswept coastal town. Following some enthusiastic recommendations, Matt and Cat headed to the Ventnor Haven Fishery to partake in this traditional seaside dinner ritual.

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Wanna know a secret? Matt and Cat don't have one but, like many Island folks, they have been privy to all sorts of open speculation about the next occupant of the suddenly vacated Ocean Blue Quay.

From Michelin hopefuls to Mediterranean transients and maybe even One of the World’s Best-Loved Television Personalities™ Jamie Oliver (clearly the wildest of speculations): all have been in the frame. Why, Matt and Cat themselves considered stirring up the rumour-mill with a whisper that they would be opening their own eatery there. Imagine! The Island's tongues would be sharpened to stiletto-like points as slighted restaurateurs queued to give M&C a taste of their own medicine. But be reassured - such eventualities will remain firmly the stuff of fantasy.

As it happens, none of the above have become the latest tenants in Ventnor's newest and shiniest purpose-built restaurant. That privilege goes to Besty and Spinky. Having run a very popular cafe on Ventnor Esplanade for over half a decade, it came to pass that the duo were given their marching orders. The reasons behind this are documented elsewhere and are of no concern to Matt and Cat who are far more interested in eating top nosh in a nice place. So, a month or so after pop-up chef Mourad Sahnoune popped out, the Ocean Blue Quay welcomed its new occupants. Would Besty and Spinky be able to transfer their culinary magic to their new home at the other end of the seafront?

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So, just how far south do you have to go before you can sense the North African influence of Morocco? As far as Ventnor?

For four days only, this is apparently the case. Chef Mourad Sahnoune has opened his first ever pop-up restaurant, Chez Mourad, in Ocean Blue Quay, Ventnor, to coincide with the Minghella Film Festival. Matt and Cat received invitations from three different people to give it a spin, so how could they resist? As a part of a large party of interested Moroccan-foodseekers they rolled up on Ventnor esplanade on the opening night of the pop-up, ready to see what Mourad could offer.

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Visit the website: http://www.chez-mourad.com/