How to plan a food weekend on the UK's Suffolk coast

Candy coloured beach huts, coastal homes of red brick, timber and thatch, smart bakeries and shrieking gulls — you’ll find all of these clustered at end-of-the-road settlements along Suffolk’s coast. It’s a scenic stretch, where several long estuaries slink to the sea through marsh and reeds — havens for birds, otters and seals. But there’s plenty to sustain its human visitors, too, with the area’s sandy soils optimum for breeding pigs, and local meat and charcuterie highly prized. The shores are rich in seaweed, with sea purslane and rock samphire, both brine-loving herbs, used to make Fishers Gin, while, further out, under big skies, fishing boats haul in the bounty from the North Sea, whose cold waters are rich in native lobster, sea bass and skate.

Five places to try

 1. Butley Orford Oysterage
On a bend on the sluggish Butley River, Bill Pinney cultivates Pacific oysters in a ‘fattening creek’, while in his oak-log-fired smokehouse, cod roe, trout, mackerel and Wester Ross salmon are smoked. Two miles away, at the family’s restaurant in Orford, the plump, briny oysters are served up alongside a vast array of tantalising seafood dishes. The platter of smoked fish and oysters is a particular winner, served with horseradish sauce and homemade sweet mustard sauce and Suffolk trencher bread, stuffed with seeds and honey, made by Orford’s Pump Street Bakery.

2. The Canteen, Southwold
The Canteen is led by head chef Nicola Hordern, formerly of Soho’s Quo Vadis and Darsham Nurseries Cafe. Part of a community project set in the former Southwold Hospital, the restaurant celebrates farm-fresh global flavours at affordable prices with weekly changing menus. The mezze plate comes packed with Duncan cabbage slaw with golden raisins, a lovely chickpea hummus, tabbouleh, Syrian muhammara dip, beetroot borani and moreish courgettes tingling with sweet pickle, vinegar, sugar and saffron. For dessert, the lemon posset topped by a layer of divine local raspberries is accompanied by the softest pistachio and almond biscuits. Once a month, invited chefs cook a pay-what-you-can Sunday lunch.

3. The Unruly Pig, Woodbridge
The success of award-winning The Unruly Pig, set in a timber-framed Regency building, is testament to owner Brendan Padfield’s commitment to good food with big-hitting flavours. Head chef Dave Wall’s glorious menu is what Padfield calls ‘Britalian’ food. Deft plates include the silkiest of veal sweetbreads slathered in herby lardo di Colonnata with a warm sweetcorn puree, a pretty porco tonnato, and a delicate custard tart finger served with raspberry sorbet on a bed of crumbled shortbread beside a tempting dollop of limoncello gel.

4. Sole Bay Fish Company, Southwold 
At Southwold Harbour — all black-stained timbered fishermen’s huts, wooden jetties and scattered boats overlooking the lazy River Blyth — there’s always a queue for Sole Bay’s ‘catch of the day’ takeaway menu. The favourite is size-of-your-forearm battered local cod with chunky chips cooked in beef dripping. But lightly chargrilled crevettes cooked in lemon and garlic butter, and dressed Cromer crab with Marie Rose dip are also recommended. Generous shellfish platters that include local welks and cockles make fabulous picnic goodies.

5. Black Dog Deli, Walberswick
This diminutive deli-cafe in the gorgeous seaside village of Walberswick, is decorated with heart-warming illustrations by Charles Mackesy, of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse fame. What’s more, it’s the perfect pitstop for beach hampers. The Great Taste Award-winning traditional sausage rolls are a must, but its quiches are also well worth a try, with the warm-from-the-oven broccoli and blue cheese version a particular highlight, covered, as it is, in a joyful mess of sticky caramelised onion.

Experience

Adnams Make Your Own Gin Experience, Southwold
These fun, 90-minute lab sessions start with a distillery tour, then a potted history, followed by some nuts-and-bolts instructions. Then it’s time to make your own gin, using the company’s award-winning extra smooth Longshore vodka as your base. This is distilled in mini copper stills with your choice of 36 botanicals, which are first laid out for you to smell. All that’s left is to choose a name for it, while it trickles into being, and then taste Adnams’ own selection of seasonal gins and vodkas. Be warned: there’s delayed satisfaction — it’s two weeks before the gin can be sipped. £95 per person, including 70cl personalised gin.

Where to stay

The Suffolk, Aldeburgh
This restored 17^th-century timber-framed inn opened in January in this town of indie shops and art galleries by the sea. Its six rooms soothe with warm colours, antique finds and watercolours. Meanwhile, its restaurant, The Suffolk Sur-Mer, serves up dishes made with seafood bought from a fisherman at the local beach, foraged coastal herbs and quality local meat and veg. The signature Pinney’s native lobster bathed in a lake of garlic butter is epic, while a pantry supplies overnight guests with Suffolk charcuterie, crackers and tipples. Don’t leave without trying the Full Suffolk breakfast, then walking it off on Aldeburgh’s sloping shingle beach. Rooms from £216 B&B.