Crab delights in North Norfolk - Cookie's Crab Shop

The windswept North Norfolk coast is a popular spot for bird-watchers and Islington residents in search of a weekend away. From the Victorian resort town of Hunstanton in the West to Cromer in the East, the coast is a fascinating and hard-to-find place. The sea and land seem to merge in a series of shallows, dunes, flat lands and lagoons – a haven for a vast range of seabirds including the rare bittern. The coast road is a mile or two back from the sea for most of the time, and towns with names like Wells-Next-The-Sea are very well named. The sea is indeed next…after a while. The visitor centre at Cley Marshes affords an excellent place to find out more, as well as being an impressive example of sustainable and low-impact development.

Cookie’s Crab Shop is on the coast road in the small village of Salthouse (what more seasidy name could there be?). And it’s a good half mile from the sea. It could well be called Cookies-Next-The-Sea though – this is the last bastion of civilisation before the dunes and reedbeds. Cookie’s has been in business since 1956, when Peter Cooke (father of current proprietor Suzanne and her husband Robert Mcknespiey) set up in this tiny cottage by the road and facing the North Sea. From just supplying crabs, the enterprise has spread out into the garden and now features clusters of tables in a summerhouse, a gazebo and in the open air as well as inside the shop.

This is a down-home as it can possible get – and much the better for it. Suzanne and Robert look after cooking and picking the crabs and prawns, making pates and soups and source their other supplies locally. You order at the counter and take a seat to await the arrival of the goodies. And what goodies they are! I started with a warming prawn bisque (this being a chilly October lunchtime), which featured lots of prawns as well as a hint of spice. Just the ticket. My sister’s prawn and garlic pate may have been the most garlicy thing we’ve ever tasted. In a good way.

But the real treat is the arrival of the Royal salads. This is Cookies flagship dish, and mine featured crab as the main ingredient. The delicious dressed crab even came with a smiley face (as you can see in the picture). Not only crab, but also…(deep breath) hot smoked salmon, smoked mackerel in three different guises including pepper and chilli, crayfish tails, anchovy fillets (yum), cockles, pickled herring with delicious sauce, prawns… and beetroot, potato salad, tomatoes, cucmber, bread, mayonnaise, lemon and lime wedges. What a fantastic spread, a real cornucopia of the best of what’s around in the British autumn. The cost? A ridiculous £6.30. The best value ever. No wonder Stephen Fry wrote in the Independent recently that this coast, and Cookie’s in particular, is his favourite place in the British Isles.

Cookie’s is a real king amongst seafood shacks. Get over there at once. Cookie’s Crab Shop, http://www.cookies.shopkeepers.co.uk/, 01263 740352 (and it’s worth calling to reserve a table).