The faggots on the menu caught my eye at the Plough & Harrow in Monknash Wales. Written in chalk as a lunch special of this quaint cottage pub built in 1383, I knew they had to be fresh. I had no idea what to expect but threw caution to the wind. And the wind was blowing that day as it usually does on this isolated rural area of Wales near the ocean. A fire glowed warmly in the hearth as we sat in an old wooded booth awaiting the dishes to come from the tiny kitchen.
My faggots turned out to be two large steaming balls of offal atop a mash of bright green peas. They were delicious as was much of the food in Wales to my surprise. You and I when we think of Wales may conjure up images of coal mines, crooners like Tom Jones and manly hard drinking actors such as Richard Burton. The coal mines are now tourist attractions and no current Welsh actor has near the fame or notoriety of Burton. But Jones has cause to keep singing. Wales is on a roll.
Wales plays host to a cornucopia of food festivals. Local officials told me they have a food tourism action plan in place. In the first week in September, the Really Wild Food and Countryside Festival takes place in Britain’s smallest city – St. Davids in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. People can forage for their supper and celebrate countryside crafts in St. Davids which is on track to be the world’s first carbon neutral city. www.reallywildfestival.co.uk
At ffresh, the new contemporary restaurant in Cardiff’s much admired Wales Millennium Centre Chef Kurt Fleming is doing modern takes on traditional dishes. Seared pork belly with a ham hock croquette is braised for hours, pressed, roasted and seared, then served on a bed of cabbage, cauliflower puree and pigs cheek. “You still get meat and potato based diets around here but we can do much more with the local produce,” said Chef Fleming. “We try to educate people about forgotten dishes and bring them around.”
Faggots appear on his menu as oriental duck faggots with confit duck leg. In this version Chef uses duck offal with oriental spicing. “You can use offal from any animal for a faggot,” Chef explained. “A few years ago you’d never think of a Michelin star restaurant in Wales,” he added. “People are getting more adventurous now demanding better quality. But still we are not as pricy as London because of the demographics so we use second cuts like offal, cheeks and the like.”
Wales has four Michelin starred restaurants as of 2010 up from just one the year before. They are the Walnut Tree in Abergavenny/Llanddewi Skirrid (Monmouthshire), Tyddyn Llan in Llandrillo, Denbighshire and Ynyshir Hall in Machynlleth (Powys) which join The Crown at Whitebrook in Monmouthshire, which retains its star. Forget about pronouncing those names, just eat there and swoon.
The lovely town of The Abergavenny celebrates its 13th annual Food Festival in September of this year. When I was in that quaint town we ate at the Angel Hotel a former coaching inn, after a wild foraging experience with Raoul van den Broucke. His motto is, “Can I eat it? Is it nice? Can I sell it?” He picks wild foods for local restaurants and does a booming business. As we tramped about the Black Rock picnic area we nibbled sea asparagus, wild sea spinach, Jew’s ear fungus, velvet shank mushrooms, ramps, mallow and pennywort all which might appear on a local restaurant’s menu thanks to van den Broucke. The festival now attracts up to 40,000 people and is one of the best known food festivals in the United Kingdom. www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com
To my taste, it’s the Wales twists with food that makes it a great foodie destination. Great filet mignon can be found around the globe. But where else can you get lava bread that has the texture of mushy peas and tastes like sushi seaweed. Well maybe you don’t care about that dish. However simple but delicious Cornish pasty (once the lunch of miners – meat and potato in a handy pastry shell that protected it on its journey down the mine shaft) now comes with a multitude of different stuffings such as curry chicken, lamb and mint or pork and apple.
Then there’s Penderyn Distillery, founded in 2000, the first distillery in Wales in over 100 years. Using a single pot still they make a range of whiskies from peated to Madeira and sherry wood finished. To generalize their style is gentler and more caramel smooth than most scotch for example. There are even wineries in Wales – 14 of them at last count. When I visited Glyndwr Vineyards planted by Richard and Susan Norris in 1982, I snuck their llamas a sip of my sparkling wine made from seyval blanc grapes grown on their property. It seemed an appropriately crazy thing to do given the situation. After all Norris told me “We do some balmy things to make this work financially.” The llamas didn’t pay for their drinks but I did buy a bottle to take away.
Most of all it’s the intimate and unique inns and restaurants that dot the countryside which make this so special a destination. Welsh Rarebits a unique collection of 54 independent properties in Wales, have personality to spare and many award winning kitchens (such as the Crown at Whitebrook). And then there’s the special charm of tumbling upon a place like the Plough and Harrow. Along with in-house made traditional dishes it has a gripping history. The bar once had a partitioned chamber which stood at the far end. Legend has it this room was use to store bodies washed up on the beach after their ship’s captain was confused by the infamous “Wreckers of Wick”. These dudes would tie lanterns around sheep’s necks and then let the animals wander the cliff tops. Captains would think they were nearing the docks of Cardiff and not the jagged rocks of the coastline and be lured into a death trap. The wreckers would scavenge what washed ashore. Today it’s the aroma of great food cooking that lures travellers to Monknash. For that I’m thankful and raise a fork to Welsh faggots.