The last time I was in New York I was on my way to OSCON in Portland, OR but I took the opportunity to spend a couple of days with my much missed friend David (dha) Adler – founder of the New York Perl Mongers, Doctor Who fan, terrible movie aficionado, comics fan, fountain pen collector and all around delightful nerd.

For lunch that first day, he took me to his favourite New York restaurant, Shopsin’s in a corner of Essex Market. The menu was bewilderingly long and seemed to make absolutely no sense, but once I’d finally decided (almost by shutting my eyes and pointing at random) what I was having, the food was magnificent. Flavour combinations of sweet and savoury that I would never have thought of. Ludicrously large portions. The very best kind of brusque service. And a queue halfway around the market by the time we’d finished to let us know exactly how special the place was. We ate lunch there every day of my layover and everything I was similarly bonkers and delicious. The pastrami on rye from Katz’s deli that evening was pretty damned overwhelming too, but that was a one and done. Shopsin’s was a place I could have happily eaten my lunch at for the rest of time.

Which brings me to Slice, which sits in an unassuming shed on a back road halfway between Gweek and Falmouth in Cornwall. Another Perl monger friend recommended it to us as a great place for brunch, so we paid a6 visit when we were on holiday a couple of weeks back.

As soon as I saw the menu—stupidly long, full of sweet/savoury flavour collisions, remarkably inexpensive—I thought, “Hmm… this reminds me of somewhere.” I ordered a “Morio II”, Slice’s take on a steak sandwich made on a sourdough flatbread packed with steak, caramelized onions, cheese, hash browns and really good salad greens, and the first bite was a seriously emotional experience. It was nothing like anything I ate in New York, but I was back there in the corner booth by the pass, talking shite with a much-missed friend and love, love loving the food. Everything about that meal was about as close to perfect as you can get. The Morio II was amazing. Every bite a brilliant collision of deliciousness. Gill’s “Full Hash Up” was a more conventional take on the full English breakfast which I confess I helped her to finish and which was very good indeed. And, oh god, the huge charred marshmallow and hot chocolate I had to finish up? Stunning.

We didn’t manage to eat there every day after that, but we did get back once and the food was just as good and imaginative. My “The King”—waffles with steak, maple syrup, butter and deep fried crispy poached eggs—was good, but not to my taste. Gill’s poached eggs on sourdough toast with green oil was everything you could want, and was quickly polished off without my assistance (sadly).

Both delightful experiences, with that lovely Cornish casual service that’s commonplace on the peninsula: Friendly, passionate about the food and helpful. As typically Cornish as Luke’s service at Shopsin’s was stereotypical New York service.

I really can’t recommend the place highly enough. If you have fond memories of Shopsin’s and can get to the middle of nowhere in Cornwall, then you should definitely give this place a try. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, but you like generous plates of enormously tasty surprising combinations of food, then get your arse down there too. You won’t regret it.

And if you have the time, go and sit on the harbour wall in Porthleven with an Ann’s Pasty and admire the fine selection of gorgeous dogs taking the air with their owners while you eat. It’s a great tradition of ours that more people should share.