When Sandra Phinney signed up for a tour of Wales, she didn’t realize she’d be eating her way across the country.
I learned some new phrases when I travelled to Wales this year, like “Iechyd da.” Pronounced icky da, it means “Cheers!” or “To your good health!” Another common toast is “Mwynhewch eich bwyd” meaning “Bon appetit” but I’m still trying to figure out the phonetics on that one.
I was there for the Travel Media Association of Canada’s annual convention and we had a choice of a five-day tour before our meetings. The one I selected was “Fine Food & Fresh Air.” It was originally set up as a hiking and food tour but as we proceeded to eat our way across the country it became evident that it was all about food.
Authentic Flavours of the Welsh
Picture this: as soon as we landed, we were whisked off to The Crown in Whitebrook in the Wye valley for a six-course lunch that included goat cheese with beetroot, basil, and fig puree — followed by a baked pumpkin dish with pine nuts, fresh parmesan, and truffle ice cream — followed by a pan fried sardine with baby tomato, polenta, olive oil, and black olive tapanade … and that’s only the first half of the meal.
In between feasting like that for five days, we travelled through rolling expanses of field and stream featuring ancient hedgerows in lieu of fences. (Do you know there are 12 million sheep in Wales?) We dropped in to visit small specialty producers like Black Mountains Smokery in Crickhowell and Caws Cenarth Cheese, prize–winning artisans in Lancych. Between food stops we waddled around abbeys and castles, trying to shed a few calories while soaking in some fascinating history.
Meeting a Culinary Expert and TV Host
We also met Nerys Howell, a culinary expert and chef who operates a food consultancy business and hosts a nationally televised cooking show. Nerys gave us a cooking class inside a huge glass dome at the Welsh Botanical Gardens.
Until recently, there has been little written about Welsh cooking. It seems that the Welsh way of cooking has been denied on the grounds that it lacks sufficient distinction from the rest of Britain and Ireland.
“There are also other reasons such as the effects of a self-denying Puritanical religion and much past hardship which understandably colour our attitudes to our native cookery,” Nerys says.
The good news is that Nerys has just published a book titled Wales on a Plate: Traditional and New Recipes for Welsh Produce. It’s a gem of a book. I’m working my way through it, one meal at a time. The recipes below are easy and oh-so-yummy. If you’d like more, just leave a comment and send me your email.
Now it’s time to try a taste of Wales. Won’t you raise a glass and join me? “Iechyd da!”
Welsh Cheese and Leek Soup
1.5 pound leeks, washed and chopped
1 onion chopped
8 oz Welsh cheese, cubed (you can use more than one kind)*
2 oz butter
2 tbsp flour
2.5 pints turkey or chicken stock
½ C thick cream
2 tsp Welsh wholegrain mustard
salt and ground pepper
* You can substitute your own top quality cheeses. Can be soft or hard, including cheddars, blue and brie.
Melt butter in a large saucepan and add onions. Cook until soft. Add the leeks and cook for 15 minutes (stir from time to time). Add flour, mix until smooth then add the stock. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cream and mustard. Add cheese in three or four batches, allowing it to melt. Season and serve.
Cockle (Clam) Cakes
Mix a cup or two of freshly cooked clams (canned if you must!) in a light pancake batter and fry spoonfuls in hot oil or butter. Great snacks or appetizers!
Photo Credits
Tintern Abbey © Sandra Phinney. All Rights Reserved.
Caws Cenarth Cheese © Sandra Phinney. All Rights Reserved.
Nerys Howell © Sandra Phinney. All Rights Reserved.
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Nice work on the Abbey photo Sandra…very nice.
Thanks Christopher. I was trying out some new skills related to HDR (and I can’t even remember what that stands for … something like High Definition/Density Resolution?) Anyway, you set ISO at 100; put on burst mode ; take three identical shots (up and down +/- one stop) at AE setting. Then, with a program called Photomatix, you meld the three shots together and mess around until you get the effect you want. Lucky for me on that day there was tons of clouds, light was sifting in and our of the Abbey so it was quite a dramatic scene to start with. The only problem is that for doing these kind of shots, I should have been using a tripod but we only had a few minutes at this location so I didn’t have time to set up and took the photos on the fly so it’s not as crisp as I’d like. Whew. A mouthful. I may do a post sometime on doing HDR stuff. I love it for the 3-D quality it brings to images.
Hi Sandra
Thanks for this piece! I love Wales .. though .. I have never been .. but I will one day .. it calls to me as I wrote about here. You may find this interesting or .. not LOL
http://lifeasahuman.com/2010/mind-spirit/spirituality-and-religion/a-personal-journey-part-1-my-past-life-regression/
Cheers
Gil
Wow. What an experience (and what a story!) I’m sure you’ll get to play your guitar at Cymer Castle Gil. The funny thing is that I have yet to write about another trip we took north in Wales AFTER the conference. That trip was focused on visiting castles and looking for ghosts. We didn’t seen any ghosts but we sure saw a lot of castles and heard some fascinating stories. I want to return and spend time in Gwydir Castle. The owner Judy Corbett and her husband fell in love with this caste and bought it on a whim. (They were looking for a cottage.) She wrote a book called “Castles In The Air” and I highly recommend it. Great story; great castle. Will write about my visit to Gwydir for LAAH when I find the right words to express my utter astonishment with both the caste and the owners.
Hi Sandra,
Thanks! Are you familiar with the site http://castlewales.com/ ?
Check this .. http://www.castlewales.com/gwydir.html
I have MUCH more to write about Wales sometime when, like you, I can frame it just the right way!
Cheers,
Gil
Thanks for those sites Gil. Can’t wait to see an addition to your story about Wales. We’d better put our muses to work to help us frame those stories and find the right words!
Congrats Sandra! I loved this peek into part of your Wales adventure and the photography… WOW!
Thanks for popping in Peg! I have a slide show about Wales that I love to give. Helps me revisit that journey every time I do a presentation. If you’d like to view a small selection of those slides and my trip, click here http://sandraphinney.photoshelter.com/gallery-list then click on Wales. Have you been to Wales before? I’d love to go back. Must get a story posted here about the castle tour. A real eye-opener!
Lechyd da back at you. I enjoyed your piece on Wales. And I love this site. Thanks for the “heads up”:)
Appreciate your comments Paulette. Glad you enjoyed the article!