Sheila's, on Portstewart Prom, is a bit of an institution. It's been there for ever, I think, and, unusually, hasn't changed much over the years. A real traditional sea-side shop selling buckets and spades, fishing nets for kids to see what they can find in rock pools, plastic windmills, plastic footballs, plastic kites, sweets - you name it, if it's seaside-related, Sheila's sell it.
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| Queuing outside Sheila's on The Prom, 2020 (Ilford MGV paper) |
Finn McCool, if you didn't know, is our local giant (him of Giant's Causeway fame). I doubt very much he does shop at Sheila's - he'd be far too big to get in, for a start. And can you imagine him with a quarter of Liquorice allsorts? Sure he'd be needing more than that to keep his strength up...
The signage at Sheila's hasn't changed much over the years either - dulse and yellow man. Dulse is a reddish sort of seaweed that grows on the rocks around the coast here - it's the sort of thing I remember my grandmother eating and would still be fairly popular with a lot of folk. You can pick it yourself if you know what you're looking for - I think it can be found around the bottom of rocks at low tide. It's a while since I've had it but I remember it being very salty. Full of goodness, apparently - the old minerals and trace elements and what have you.
Yellow man is a kind of chewy homeycomb rock, sold in small cracked bits in paper bags. It's bright yellow in colour, in case you were wondering...
Due to COVID-19 and social distancing, like a lot of smaller shops Sheila's was limiting the number of people inside at any one time, so there was small queue to get in. There were a lot of people on the Prom that day, but most were masked up, even outdoors. I didn't hang around, though - I just snapped a couple of shots on the 'Blad and headed for home.
Fingle will rise again! And dole out sweets to the youngsters.
ReplyDeleteKoreans have a version of honeycomb that lacks baking soda. I think the colour comes from being made with brown sugar. It's quite flat and shaped like a biscuit. Manufacturers stamp their company symbol in the top. You used to be able to find guys sitting on the sidewalks making it with a broad soup ladle in cities. My wife says she and her siblings burnt up and ruined many soup ladles making it at home. I prefer mine in a Crunchie bar. Which is finally available in Korea! :)
Haha we can't resist a good Irish legend (and there are many to choose from). It's a shame that in the Causeway's Visitor's Centre Finn is reduced to a cartoon-like figure just for children when the tales offer so much more.
DeleteMy wife likes Crunchies but I find them too sweet. Every time I think of Crunchies I'm reminded of John and Mary, characters from the Father Ted comedy series. They're always fighting with each other but when caught out pretend they're deeply affectionate. In episode one we catch them arguing and John utters the wonderful line - "Get the effing Crunchies out of the car". Has me in stitches every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTn6c1NMxjM
DeleteHa ha. I remember the episode about the fair. Father Ted goes on about fortune telling just being superstition and Father Dougal says, "It's just like the church, isn't it?" When Ted gets upset Dougal says, "Sure you don't believe all that stuff, do you?" Haha.
ReplyDeleteWe got the Box Set of FT about 15 years ago...the DVDs are worn out. Still great to watch.
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