Eating Out: The Old Boathouse.

HEY! HELLO! HI! Does anyone remember when this blog was written by two people?? Probably not, because I’ve been slacking for about a year now, leaving poor Bryden to keep this thing going, but I’m finally back! I’ve tried to write a couple of posts to get me back in to the swing of things, but nothing seemed right. There’s been a couple of attempts at tedious ‘catch up’ posts, which I ended deleting. To be honest, I’d kind of fallen out of love with blogging, I had a lot of ‘real life’ stuff going on, with work, moving house etc. and poor old Trebz & a Mixer fell by the wayside. Anyway, let’s pretend I haven’t been the world’s worst blogger for the past year and get down to the important stuff- food. 

Towards the end of last year, my mam kept telling me about a restaurant that she’d visited with my dad a few times and based on her description, I demanded a visit. The Old Boathouse is located in Amble, Northumberland, just up the coast from my parents’ house, and is situated right on the marina, meaning the seafood they sell is literally fresh from the sea. After my dad forced us to participate in a stroll along the promenade, on a freezing cold, bleak January day, we arrived at the restaurant.  As the name suggests the building was once a boathouse for the local lifeboat. Inside the restaurant is quite small, but doesn’t feel cramped, with various nautical décor as you would expect from somewhere named The Old Boathouse.

The food, naturally, focuses on fish and seafood, with a lot of produce brought straight from the local fishing boats to the restaurant (I spied a box of freshly delivered, poor crabs waiting for the chop) with menu staples such as fish and chips, crab and lobster. There are also extensive lists of daily specials on the walls and for the seafood haters amongst you (seriously, what is wrong with you??) there’s non fishy options such as steaks and pizzas, which look equally delicious.

Naturally, as I’m a fan of devouring crustaceans, I opted for the lobster. This is usually served with salad, chips and garlic mayonnaise, but as I’ve been trying (and mostly failing) to curb my calorie intake lately, I asked to swap them to oven roasted new potatoes, which wasn’t a problem. My mam went for crab, which was absolutely huge and delicious, and my dad chose a salmon dish from the specials board. The portion sizes are decent; however there isn’t any scrimping on the quality of the ingredients.

I’ve been back to The Old Boathouse for another family meal since my first visit and I’ve got a feeling it’s becoming a place that we’ll be going to for a long time to come. It’ll be a lovely place to visit in the summer, as there’s seating outside, where you can sit and watch the boats sail past, whilst getting elbow deep in lobster. 

Does anyone else end up with lobster EVERYWHERE when they eat it, or is it just me? I’m talking- on your forehead, in your hair and even in your eyebrows? Nope? Just me then….

Claire

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I'm just second hand news.

I had a few days off work last weekend, so I thought I’d go to my parent’s house for a few days to relax and get out of the city. They live near the coast in Northumberland, which in my humble opinion is one of the prettiest places in the UK. On the Saturday we went to the market town of Morpeth, where I went to school. I haven’t been back in years, so it was really nice to visit places and reminisce. Morpeth has also changed a lot in recent years, which loads of new shops having been added. Luckily there is also still loads of really well stocked charity shops, The residents of Morpeth don’t give crappy stuff away, no we’re talking some top quality stuff here. I found this out when I picked up a 1980s vintage cream bag which me and Bryden are 99% sure is genuine YSL. It was 3 quid!

Saturday night was spent getting drunk and eating tons of Indian food and cake for my Dad’s birthday. We got up early on Sunday morning (feeling slightly rough from the night before) for a day trip up the coastal route. We do this quite often in the summer. We just tend to drive and see where we went up. I always try to make sure there’s a stop off at Barter Books though, which is one of England’s largest second-hand book stores. If you like books you will LOVE this place. I could spend hours in here; staring at all the antique books in cases or sat on the floor in front of the film and photography sections leafing through pages.

So, here’s my weekend in photographs...

I introduced my Mam to sushi (she was bang into it).

I bought some locally produced beauty products, the lip balm is amazing.

We all ate far too much cake.

I drank beer with my Dad and we had a sing a long.

Book lovers paradise.













The books I bought.

We stopped for a pint next to the beach at Newton by the sea.





Chips and a walk along the prom at Seahouses.



We finished the weekend off with a film and some popcorn.


Both Bryden and I would like to say a big thanks to all of our new followers on both here and twitter. It really means a lot to us and we’re thinking of doing a little giveaway soon to show our appreciation. So keep an eye out!
Claire
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