Want to talk about food? Who doesn’t? I love talking about food almost as much as I love enjoying it!
I’m a courageous eater. I will try anything, especially dishes that reflect an unfamiliar culture. Most often, I find I like the tastes of things, even scary things, much more than I thought I might. I have eaten all types of wild game animals; that’s because my family loved to hunt and fish. When I was a little girl, if my father went on a squirrel hunt, we had squirrel smothered in gravy for dinner. I don’t remember my father hunting deer, but we had our share of venison later in life, courtesy of my stepfather and others. Venison was never my favorite; I did not enjoy its gamey flavor. Recently, I learned there are better ways to prepare venison than what my family knew. My best friend has his venison made into Italian sausage that tastes so good, he could sell that stuff. And people in Spain and Portugal serve a venison stew that is one of the tastiest dishes found. My father loved to quail hunt. This is a very expensive sport because, in addition to the requisite brag-about shotgun, quail hunting requires the year-round training and upkeep of a hunting dog or two. Above all things bagged by hunters, quail may be the best. It’s a true delicacy. Some people hunt doves. I have prepared and eaten dove, but never again. Why shoot a dove?
Fish? I grew up on fried freshwater fish; a big fish fry was a special event, a party. Even today, one dinner Stan and I must have while we are home is a hot, crispy catfish. Growing up in Arkansas, I didn’t know anything about saltwater fish until I was 21, but I am a quick study. Now, if given a chance, I’ll order the grilled fish dish over anything else on the menu.
Not only have I eaten lots of wild game and fish, but I can cook it too. I can make a dish of roasted wild duck or fried frog legs, for example, that would charm a prince.
Wild game is not my only adventure into exotic foods. I have eaten guinea pig, a special holiday dish loved by Peruvian families. I enjoy steak tartar, French pate, octopus, cuttlefish, escargot, and almost any shellfish—we tried a new one here, cockles and laverbread. In Iceland, I tried hrefna; it was delicious (think tender white meat textured like steak), but I nearly cried afterwards when I learned that the dish was minke whale. I have even tried Black Pudding and haggis. I can pass on having Black pudding again, but Scottish haggis with eggs is a nice breakfast.
I could talk about fruit and vegetables I prefer, but I enjoy them all, especially those grown in a backyard garden; I could easily become a vegetarian.
Oh, how I digress! Let’s talk about Welsh food.
Welsh favorites are much like foods we have at home, but there are very few specialties that foodies like me absolutely must try. We did our best to find them.
Lamb cawl is right at the top of Welsh favorites. It’s a family staple, especially in the winter, but many days passed before we found some here this time of year. It’s a soup made of root vegetables with lamb in a light broth. What sets it off is a slice or tiny loaf of sourdough bread with a slab of Welsh cheddar. Not overly seasoned, lamb cawl is rather bland but yummy. I ordered it as often as I could.
A well-known Welsh food is Welsh Rarebit. What a disappointment! I’ve heard of it for many years, but to me, it is just glorified cheese toast.
Another unique dish is called “faggots and peas.” So far, we have not been able to try this strange-sounding dish because it was sold out in every restaurant where we found it on the menu. I wonder why. Google says faggots consist of pork offal (organs, herbs, and fat belly meat) formed into balls, wrapped in a pork belly membrane. The meatballs are baked in beef stock, then covered in onion gravy and served with mashed potatoes (mash) and cooked dried green peas. Sometimes faggots are served with mushy peas. In this case, green peas are boiled, drained, and mashed like mashed potatoes. The Welsh people say a bowl of faggots and peas is the ultimate comfort food.
Maybe we were just lucky that no faggots could be found to try.
Besides producing some of the most prolific and largest blackberries we’ve ever seen, Wales is famous, probably most famous for their Welsh cakes. These little jewels are lightly sweet cookies (biscuits as they are called here) studded with currents, baked on a grill, and lightly dusted with granulated sugar. They are a pure delight . . . and for a cookie, they are quite filling.
You won’t go hungry here. They have some of the best pizzerias this side of Italy. And here in Cardiff, we had outstanding souvlaki at a stand in the big Cardiff Market made by a couple of gregarious Albanians by way of Greece. Old standbys like fish and chips and burgers are on every menu; the F&C plate is cheap and tasty, but one can only eat fish and chips just so often, and Welsh burgers are not so good unless you savor hockey pucks. While they look good, Welsh law says all ground beef must be cooked well done for health reasons. So big juicy burgers are not juicy; they are lovely, big, and fat, doused with pepper jam, crispy onions, special sauce on delicate buns, yada, yada. But chewing them is like grinding on dry, rubbery crumbs. Health reasons? Heck, we ate steak tartar many times in France and never got sick. It’s a medium-rare burger for me.
In short, there are plenty of good things to eat here, but I would not say Wales is a foodie paradise. It is, however, a haven for gorgeous seacoasts, mountainous national parks, classic architecture, friendly, delightful people, and a vast array of resort villages.
Stan and I never imagined we would enjoy this month in Wales as much as we have. This small but mighty country is like a top-secret spot. Holiday-seekers from Great Britain know the joys of a visit to Wales. That’s because they are next-door neighbors, you might even say they are kissing cousins. Nearly every person we met was visiting from England. Few people from other countries, however, know of this summertime vacation paradise. Beach-seekers usually opt for scorching on the beach in Spain or Italy, never knowing that beaches, amusements, and nice weather are right here. What a pleasant surprise!
What’s next for us? We will spend a few days in London to see MJ the Musical. Then we take the train to Norwich for a visit with Jill and Gary, our like-minded friends who travel full-time. We met each other in Panama four years ago as we waited at a bus stop. We’ve been friends ever since.
Afterwards, Stan and I will fly to Cairo for a Nile cruise, then on to Morocco. Please come with us.
