_What is there to eat and drink in Norfolk

What food is famous in Norfolk? Cromer crab, mussels and samphire, the most microbreweries in the country and brilliant malting barley, Colman's mustard, superb artisan cheeses and strawberries, English whisky, and that's just for starters. 

As this is the place where the UK’s Agricultural Revolution began (thanks to ‘Turnip’ Townshend of Raynham Hall and Thomas Coke, first Earl of Leicester at Holkham) and where tides from Scandinavia bring nutrient-rich cool water beloved by crustacea, it’s no coincidence we have great food and drink.

If you’re spending time here, here’s some of the must-have ingredients you should be looking out for on restaurant menus, and in farm shops and farmers’ markets. And feel free to ask about your ingredients’ provenance – our producers and sellers will be very happy to tell you more. 

Cromer crab

It had to be in pole position – it's as distinctively Norfolk as pasties are to Cornwall and champagne to northern France. The reason they're so good is that Cromer crabs thrive in the shallow waters of the unique chalk reef just off the coast, producing the sweetest, meatiest crustaceans.

Theoretically Cromer crabs are the same brown crabs that are caught all around the coast of Britain. In practice everyone knows they are unique. The special nature of a Cromer crab isn't a matter of opinion, it's recognised in law. The minimum legal shell span of Cromer crab (115mm) is smaller than any other UK crab – Cromer crabs, with their 'pie crust' shells, really are little bombs of flavour!

Cromer crab is revered by foodies, brimming as it is with a high proportion of white meat. It's also very healthy, full of brain-boosting Omega-3 and low in fat. Eat with a little black pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of smoked paprika on buttered brown bread, with mayo, cucumber or avocado. They're usually available from around March to October.

There's also a Crab and Lobster Festival each May in Cromer and Sheringham. Oh yes, did we mention the lobsters, available from June to September, and shrimp from The Wash.

Beer and microbreweries

Norfolk produces the best malting barley in the country and the best is grown in north Norfolk where the salty sea frets, high fields and warm climate make ideal growing conditions. Premium varieties for beer making (and whisky) are Golden Promise and Maris Otter. The barley is turned into gorgeous, thirst-quenching real ale. Norfolk also has the most microbreweries of any county in the country. Order a foaming flagon and toast those wonderful brewers and barley farmers!

It’s no surprise that Norfolk also has more than 50 breweries – putting it in the top three in the country. 

Whisky

St George's Distillery at East Harling was the first whisky distillery in England for 100 years and since 2006 has been producing award-winning whisky that has gained a worldwide reputation! Take a tour and learn about the ‘Angel’s share’.

Samphire

Otherwise known as 'sea asparagus', and pronounced sampha, the green leafless stalks thrive on our tidal salt marshes. Samphire is wonderful steamed and eaten with butter.

Asparagus

Blink and you might miss them! They’re around from April to June and you can look out for them in farm shops and at farmers’ markets and you’ll see pop-up shops on the roadside.

Brancaster mussels

They're big blighters, tender and juicy and available from September to April. Collected when they're young, they're then moved to lays (beds) in the tidal creeks and left to mature nicely before harvesting. You think the French have the monopoly on cracking moules et frites? Don’t you believe it. 

Stiffkey cockles

Also known as Stewkey Blues on account of their colour, a pale lavender to dark grey-blue, that comes from their habitat a few inches under the mud and sand. They're still harvested with short-handled, broad rakes and nets. Traditionally the cockles are steamed, put in soups and pies, or boiled and eaten with vinegar and pepper. They’re so famous, Farrow & Ball even have a paint named after them!

Oysters

Go back to Victorian times and these would have been a staple diet on the Norfolk coast as they were abundant in the cool, clear tidal inlets. There’s less of them now and they’re a bit more expensive, but well worth looking out for on menus Shucked in front of you, given a twist of lemon or a dash of Tabasco, this is a real taste of the sea.

Norfolk’s oysters come from Thornham, Blakeney and Brancaster.

Artisan cheese

Nothing like a Binham Blue, a soft blue veined cheese made by the redoubtable Mrs Temple of Copys Green Farm at Wighton using milk from the Chalk Farm herd of Holstein Friesians and the Copys Green herd of Swiss Browns. Once you get a taste for that (and you will), move on to her Copys Cloud, with a fluffy white rind and melting centre; Wighton, a fresh curd cheese; the hard, matured Walsingham; a supple mountain-type called Wells Alpine; or Warham, a semi-soft available in mustard, tomato and herb, or cumin flavours.

Look out for Fielding Cottage’s award-winning goats cheeses or, better still, head to their Goat Shed Farm Shop and restaurant at Honingham.

Norfolk black turkey

Yes, it really is 'bootiful', and it's not just for Christmas either. Lean, healthy and versatile, it's a great food for any time of the year. Norfolk historically leads Britain in poultry production because the birds can feed on grain left over from the rich arable harvest. Geese used to dominate but, in the early 16th Century, Spanish explorers returned from Mexico with some strange, jet black creatures that became known as turkeys. The fertile, flat plains of Norfolk were the perfect place for these birds to thrive and they were soon challenging geese as our favourite winter feast.

Pork

We have some of the best pork in the country, particularly in the Brecks, where they’re reared free range on gently-sloping, free-draining sandy soil. Look out for the rare breed Large Blacks.

Game

This is a specialty of the Brecks - no wonder, with all those forests and high grass - and usually refers to wild animals and birds that are hunted and eaten. Look out for venison, pheasants and pigeon on pub and restaurant menus, or cook it for yourselves.

Venison is a sustainable meat, high in protein and low in fat.

Mustard

If you're here in Spring you'll see fields swathed in yellow. Much of it will be rape, grown for oil, but a lot of it will also be mustard. Norfolk is, as everyone knows, the home of Colman's Mustard and you can see its story at the Mustard Shop in Norwich. In the early 19th Century, Jeremiah Colman took the idea of milling mustard and turned it into an industry. A former flour miller, he blended both brown and white mustard seed to create a strong English mustard. By the 1880s more than two thousand people were working at the Norwich factory, with another 4,000 earning their living directly through the company.

Rapeseed oil

Those fields of yellow but just be rape rather than mustard! Used for biofuel and cattle fodder, it’s also great as an oil for baking, roasting, frying and even as a dressing.

Mint

The vast majority of mint grown agriculturally in the UK is done in Norfolk and a lot of it is used by Colman's. In the 1970s, hundreds of varieties were tested to find the right species to create the perfect jar of mint sauce. The winner was a plant found tucked away in someone’s back garden in the village of Brundall on the Norfolk Broads. Harvesting starts in late May and continues until the end of September or the first week in October.

Wine

Yes, really! Norfolk has the perfect climate and terroir for grapes and gently sloping valleys are where you’ll find Flint Vineyard and Chet Valley Vineyard. Both have tours and tastings.

Sugar beet

Half of all the sugar in the UK comes from sugar beet - and most of that starts life in Norfolk. Cantley, the first sugar beet factory in the UK, opened in 1912 and by the 1930s the British Government was actively encouraging the production of homegrown sugar. Norfolk had the farming skills, the soil and the incredible transport network of the Norfolk Broads to help put British sugar on British tables. Now it’s an industry worth £800 million a year making a major contribution to Britain’s economy. And it wouldn’t happen were it not for the British navy blockading Napoleon’s ships in the Caribbean and preventing transport of sugar cane. The French, having a sweet tooth, had to find an alternative – sugar beet. Et voila!