A seaside food event at its most unpretentious, Porthleven Food Festival (21-23 April) will showcase over 150 food producers and chefs from the local area with a series of demos and workshops. Many of the best-known local chefs (Josh Eggleton and Mick Smith among them) will be participating. New this year will be a series of waterside three-course feasts, where local food heroes Andy Tuck (St Kew Inn) and Jude Kereama (of Porthleven’s own Kota Restaurant) will collaborate to showcase local ingredients in sharing-style dishes.
The weekend will also see the village harbour come alive with craft food and street-food stalls. And local food and drink traders will be showcasing their produce at the Royal Cornwall Food & Farmers Market, including ciders from Cornish Orchards, sourdough pizzas from Chanbury’s Woodfired Italian and floral flat whites from Origin Coffee Roasters. Or grab a pasty at Ann’s Pasty Lounge while participating in an artsy workshop.
Here’s where to eat and drink in Porthleven while you’re there.
Spring forest food trails in Sweden
Celebrate the beginning of spring with a foodie walking trail through the forests of West Sweden. First, hop on the train from Gothenburg to Jonsered, a tiny riverside hamlet home to popular Poppels Bryggeri, where you can taste a range of Swedish beers matched with the likes of torched shrimp, ricotta and chanterelle ravioli, and Swedish roe scooped up with crisps. Round the corner is Brödfabriken, where you can chill out with classic cinnamon bun and coffee fika under a blanket by the river. From here, follow the Gotaleden walking trail, treading through forests blanketed with tiny flowers, winding along rivers and clambering over rocks around Lake Aspen. Reward yourself in Lerum at psychologist-turned-fromager Hans’s Garage Fromage. Hans takes great pride and joy in travelling to remote parts of Sweden to source speciality cheeses to sell in his converted garage shop. Try the likes of clotted cream-like Vallattinge, award-winning Hagbard hard cheese from nearby Halmstad and Mellanbocken, a five-year-aged goat’s cheese from the far north of Sweden. Continue the riverside trek or take a short train ride to spend the night at Nääs Fabriker, an old cotton factory built in 1890, now home to a stylish hotel with onsite restaurants, shops, bakery and brewery. Wrap up in your robe and pad to the al fresco lakeside spa to sink into the jacuzzi, dip in the lake and warm up in the sauna. Book a table in the plant-adorned conservatory room in the main restaurant for dishes such as grilled scallop with fried chorizo crumble, venison tenderloin with Swedish mushrooms and blackberries, and lingonberry and malt hop sorbet.
April promises signs of spring in Gothenburg, when the city’s courtyards and terraces come to life. Try cinnamon buns and coffee at Da Matteo, flash-fried herring at quirky food truck Strommingsluckan and bags of plump prawns by the river outside the charming ‘fish church’ seafood market. Head out on the ferry to the archipelago for a taste of Styrsö’s car-free island life and cinnamon buns at charming Café Obergska before a brisk dip off one of the sandy beaches.
Check out more local favourites in Gothenburg here.
Alfresco dining in Florida
Make the most of the reliably warm yet not too hot spring season in Florida with alfresco eating and outdoorsy adventures. Choose an eclectic city break in Miami, that boasts everything from sandy beaches and swish cocktail bars to an artsy independent craft beer and restaurant scene amongst the colourful murals in Wynwood. Or stay in the heart of Little Havana to soak up the area’s Cuban culture with morning cafecitos, El Sanguich‘s pork-stuffed toasted sandwiches and late-night cocktails at iconic bar Café La Trova.
Down in the Florida Keys, take in ocean views and breathtaking sunsets over seafood suppers on the vast deck of Key West institution, Louie’s Backyard. The town’s picture-perfect, porch-fronted clapboard houses host plenty of restaurants with dining decks; tuck into key lime pie and Caribbean dishes in Blue Heaven’s vibrant backyard complete with live music and chickens mooching around.
In central Florida, the city of Tampa has many versatile alfresco options, from Michelin-starred restaurant terraces to classic Cuban dishes at Florida’s oldest restaurant, Columbia, and hopping between craft beer breweries and street-food spots. Discover Armature Works, where the industrial-style Heights Public Market showcases food businesses from the Bay Area – everything from speciality coffee to traditional Cuban cuisine and sushi burritos. Reward yourself with a slice of NYC-style pizza and a flight of Florida IPAs at LightHaus beer garden in Sparkman Wharf just off Tampa Bay.
For more recommendations, check out our guide to Florida’s foodie neighbourhoods.
