Merry Christmas From Boo!

Bunny Beer

We went through quite an ordeal trying to find dog food for Boo that wouldn't make her allergies worse. At one point, it was rabbit and potato-based -- which we nicknamed "bunny chow" after a vegetarian dish we had seen in South Africa. That has nothing to do with anything except the title of this blog and the weak reference to the bunnies on the new beer I tried.


This selection was picked up in a case at the Majestic Wine Warehouse and is brewed by Bath Ales (Bath is a city not too far south from here known for its Roman bath -- and high-end shopping.) These beers were all very good and each distinctive. My favorite was the "Barnstormer" -- from their website, it is "Rich in fruit with hints of chocolate, this full-bodied dark ale is a complex but deeply satisfying beer.”

Cheers!

When Butter Doesn't Cut It

We did some more food adventuring this past week. The idea with this stuff is that you make toast, slap a thick layer of goo on top, then put it under the broiler until "bubbly". Kids, if you want to make this at home: Go buy two boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Get one small can of deviled ham. Mix the cheese packets from the Mac with a shot of water, stir. Add half the ham. Stir. Add a splash of Worcester (woostah!) sauce. Stir, stir, stir. Done.

I have another flavor of the same product line on deck. Til then!

Cheers!


Though we eat little flesh and drink no wine, Yet let's be merry; we'll have tea and toast; Custards for supper, and an endless host Of syllabubs and jellies and mince-pies, And other such ladylike luxuries - Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Poet, 1792-1822)

Waiter, There's The Hair of a Dog in My Coffee

Yet another selection from the holiday cream selection at the grocery. This time it is from Marks & Spencer -- not so much a grocery as it is a kind of gourmet food shop with lots of prepared foods. It's also a department store -- but the lower level in Hereford is the foodshop.

But about the cream. This one is pourable, sweetened cream flavoured with vanilla and Armagnac (a kind of brandy.) Unlike the tiny little zip that the previously mentioned cognac cream offered, this stuff is 11% booze.

We are flying out tomorrow so I tried using it up in my coffee this morning. I have a micro-buzz. Around lunch I will have a micro-hangover.

Cheers!

For Those Still Paid In Dollars

If you haven't been there, BootsnAll is a great site for travel information. When we were planning our Africa trip, I found most of my information via either Bootsnall or Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree.

Anyway -- Bootsnall has an interesting article for these economic times: "8 Countries That Have Suddenly Become Cheap for Americans". The one blurb that stuck out to me was Iceland. The recent collapse of the Icelandic banking system was big news over here for a couple of reasons. First, a large majority think that although the UK didn't cause the failure, they swung the death blow by freezing the assets of one of the big Icelandic banks. The UK did this by invoking an anti-terrorism law. Soon after, things got much worse in Iceland. A big reason the UK froze the assets of that bank was because of the other reason this was big news here: lots of people and businesses in the UK had their money in Iceland -- and now its all but vanished.


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But hey, when life gives you lemons, take a much cheaper trip to Iceland! Due to the crisis, there is currently no "official" exchange rate -- so the value of the dollar is a bit iffy but no doubt a lot better than it was a year ago.

Cheers!



“People are always asking me about eskimos, but there are no eskimos in Iceland” - Bjork

They Forgot The Vodka

Two new flavors of crisps! The parsnips were just ok. In general, I've found that if they put 'sweet chili' anything in something here, I don't like it that much. All sweet, no chili. Meh.

The Bloody Mary crisps weren't too bad. They were BBQ-flavor but with a pinch of extra heat and a whole lotta celery mojo. I guess powdered vodka is hard to come by -- my hopes for martini-flavored crisps are plummeting.

Cheers!

Castle #5

A few weeks ago on our way to London, we made a quick stop into Windsor Castle, one of the three royal homes of the Queen. We arrived at the end of the day and the castle would be closing before long -- we decided to take make the most of it and move quickly through. Unlike all the other castles we've seen, this one is still the home of royalty and is very well maintained as both an important place for diplomatic events and for protection of the royal family.

We actually were lucky in our timing -- the Semi-State rooms are only open during the winter months and we were able to tour them as well.

A big chunk of what we saw was actually rebuilt following a fire in 1992 -- the rebuilding cost around 37 million sterling. At today's exchange rates, that's around 55 million US dollars -- to rebuild just 9,000 square meters of royal space. Even more amazing is that the project was under-budget and didn't cost tax payers a pence. When walking through, you couldn't tell the difference between old and new -- money well spent?


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Most of the more interesting aspects of Windsor were inside and no pictures were allowed -- if you want to see the best part you'll have to come visit us. We have year-long passes just in case you decide it's worth the trip! This website here has some OK pictures of the inside but the website is sorta ugly and it really doesn't do the place justice. You should just come see it for yourselves!



Cheers!

Four From Two

Four good years, folks. Yesterday was the four year anniversary for the wife and I. Who would have thought then -- way back when it all started -- that we would end up living on a hedge-lined, country road in England, post code 123 BFE? Not me.

We took advantage of the occasion to find a new place for dinner. Whilst out driving about in the Volvo with the in-laws a few weeks back, we ambled past "The Bell at Skenfrith", a small inn and eatery with an upscale look to it. I checked the Michelin guide and found it had won the "Michelin 2007 Pub of the Year". That's an award not to be taken lightly.

Just across the border in Wales (yes, we went to another country for our anniversary dinner -- top that, Yankee), The Bell sits almost directly across the road from Skenfrith Castle -- one of The Three Castles mentioned in an early blog. The winding Monnow River flows along side the road here and a small one-lane (by my standards, not theirs!) bridge crosses the river at the Inn. The Bell maintains its own garden that is used extensively in the food -- they are currently working on obtaining organic status. The wine list was the best I have seen in a restaurant outside of London -- it was over 50 pages.


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Dinner was great from start to finish. They started by serving drinks and some amuse-bouche as soon as we arrived. The amuse-bouche were a small crostini with bit of liver pate, salt cod croquettes, and a shot glass of foamy mushroom soup. All good.

Appetizers were creative. The wife had a simple duck and duck liver terrine with onion brioche. I thought that was just ok -- the terrine was solid (strong wild flavor, though) but the brioche was very dry. Mine was the highlight of my meal. here is the full description: "Home cured lamb bresola, piquillo pepper stuffed with bulgur wheat salad, aubergine puree, green olive tapenade, rosemary oil." Yes, that's all one appetizer and it was fantastic how well each piece went with everything else. The bresola -- usually made with beef -- is a salted, air dried meat -- sorta like a prosciutto but not really. These pieces were maybe a 1/4" thick, silver-dollar size, and not overly dry. Very mild but distinct flavor. I could go on and on about the appetizer but anyway...

For mains, we shared a "talgarth beef sirloin steak with truffle scented dauphinoise potatoes, wilted kale, carrot puree, port wine sauce" and a "pan roasted loin of welsh breed pork, homemade pork scratchings, colcannon mash potato, seared black pudding, fine green beans, cider and smoked bacon cream sauce." Both were excellent. All the vegetables were just-picked fresh, and perfectly cooked. The black pudding was the best I have had here -- but it was more like a hash then a sausage. The meats were cooked just to medium-rare -- a welcome change from the well-done most restaurants serve here. The sauce on the pork was divine.

To finish, I had dessert and the wife had cheese. For cheese, you could pick three from a list. One of the picks (golden cenarth -- an organic semi-soft cow's milk cheese) was so incredibly stinky it almost ruined my dessert -- it attacked me from across the table. That was, until I tried a piece -- it tasted much better than it smelled!

My dessert pick was easy. They were offering a sampler of Christmas puddings: mini Christmas pudding, mini yule log, stollen parfait, brandy butter ice cream, and mulled wine jelly. I don't know what went into the stollen parfait: I think it was an ultra thick spiced mousse that was then wrapped like a little gift package in a thin wrapping of marzipan. Wow. The other items were good, too -- but that parfait really stood out.

Price-wise, The Bell is on the top end of prices we have seen here but worth it considering the quality of the experience. This place joins The Wellington Inn and The Stewing Pot as my three favorite restaurants in our area.

Cheers!



“To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.”
Helen Rowland (English-American writer, 1876-1950)

Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream

I've mentioned that the cream section of the grocery here is pretty impressive. They don't fool around and the fat levels in their creams start at about where those in the US top out. Now, I've discovered that they have holiday-themed creams, too. This one is a cognac-infused (over 5% cognac -- you could get a buzz off a tub of this) double cream (48%+ fat).

I bought it out of curiosity and last night I slathered some on a brownie. It was quite a bit better than I expected. The wife wasn't impressed when the first thing out of my mouth this morning was something about how she might come home and find me and dog passed out on the floor lying next to an empty tub of cognac cream.


Cheers!

I Got All My English History From Braveheart

Next castle on our tour was Warwick Castle. This place was oft as cheesy as Mars' Cheese Castle. They have turned it into an amusement park of sorts and the goal here is as much making cash as it is preservation of history. They have 'Kingmaker', a wax museum, that follows a snapshot of medieval times as workers prepare for war. In the upper levels of one section, they had rooms restored to royal grandeur with weapons and armor on display and more wax figures in various poses. Not surprisingly, Warwick Castle is part of the Merlin Entertainment group -- the same folks behind Madame Tussaud's famous wax museums (and also Legoland and the London Dungeon.) During the summer, they have falconry and also fire a newly-built trebuchet (giant medieval war engine -- claimed to be the largest in existence) a couple times each day.

Picasa 3 does some cool things with building collages. Click to enlarge this one:


The history of Warwick has its interesting points -- the Earls that ruled here meddled in all kinds of royal affairs. You may recall in the movie Braveheart when Edward I -- Longshanks, the bad-ass English king -- grabbed his son's (Edward II) apparent lover and threw him out the window. That was a bit of a dramatization. Longshanks didn't kill the guy -- his name was Piers Gaveston -- he was later rounded up during the reign of Edward II and brought to Warwick and executed after a trial for treason. The Warwick Castle website does a good job of summarizing the history of the place.

Again, click to enlarge. This is 20 photos stitched together using Autopano Pro:


Cheers!




Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands. - from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Nice Hooters!

This weekend, we went up yonder to just outside of Kington to the Small Breeds Farm and Owl Centre. We'd heard about the place before and finally decided to go see it. It was worth the trip -- owls are some fascinating birds to watch. The other animals were entertaining as well.


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They have lots of owls in enclosures and then a handful in an open area where you can touch them. Most of them were very friendly (at least, they were very indifferent) and didn't mind you touching them. One was a bit of a ham and clearly enjoyed the attention while another was quite terrified of me. I really can't blame it: it was strapped to a perch and I had a camera in its face.

Here are some pictures we took. Most were taken through fencing -- you will see the fuzzy out-of-focus fence in the foreground in many of the shots.

Cheers!





The crow wished everything was black, the owl, that every thing was white.
William Blake, English visionary Mystic, Poet, Painter and Engraver (1757-1827)

Size Does Matter

The third castle in our trip was Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire (pronounce that worr-ick-sher), about an hour north and east of the Lilacs. Kenilworth is the largest castle ruin in all of England. It also served as a model for castle design; its defenses allowed it to survive the longest castle siege in English history -- the castle held for nearly a year against attackers. At its prime, three sides of the castle were defended by a 100 acre man-made lake. The lake prevented siege engines from getting to an effective distance and also thwarted attempts to mine under walls to weaken them.


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Funny thing, though, King Henry III built the castle up to be one of the strongest in the land and then gave it over to Simon de Montfort who later turned against Henry and held the castle against him. At one point, Henry's son, Prince Edward, was imprisoned in the castle before escaping. The tides again turned and in 1265 De Montfort died in battle against Edward. Edward is also known as "Longshanks" or "The Hammer of the Scots" -- you might remember him as the bad guy from the movie Braveheart. Edward is also responsible for much of how the Tower of London -- the last castle in our tour -- stands today.

Eventually, Kenilworth ended up in the hands of Robert Dudley, "the favourite" dude of Queen Elizabeth I. He turned the place into various lodgings to fit all manner of royal tastes, especially the Queen. She visited several times and the last visit in 1575 was apparently such a party that it almost bankrupt Dudley and also might be the inspiration for Shakespear's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

There were two major strongholds in this region: Kenilworth Castle and Warwick Castle. During the English Civil War, Warwick was held by Parliamentarian forces and Kenilworth was held by the Crown. The Crown was on the losing end of things and Kenilworth was looted and slighted (the man-made lake was drained, too) in 1656 (10 years after Raglan Castle.) Kenilworth stands mostly in ruin, while Warwick is now a medieval theme park.



Next castle on the list is Warwick. Til then. Cheers!

Systematic Slighting

Castle numero doo-ey was Raglan Castle and it wasn't too far a drive from the first castle on our journey, White Castle. While White Castle was falling into ruins, Raglan was becoming the castle that now stands today -- around the middle of the 15th century the building that stands partly in ruins today was being built. The castle was built during the time when bows were being replaced with cannons -- in some pictures you will see cannon holes along side arrow slits.


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Raglan has some interesting history to it. The future King Henry VII (Henry Tudor) spent his boyhood there when he was moved for his safety during the War of the Roses. During the English Civil War, Raglan held out until 1646 when a siege by renewed Parliamentarian forces brought about the castle's final surrender. The castle was slighted and large portions were destroyed after the siege.

Check out the plan of the castle here.



And lastly, Raglan has shown up in a couple of movies, including the Led Zeppelin movie slash rock video slash trippy fantasy adventure with bad acting, "The Song Remains The Same". It took some digging but here is the YouTube clip featuring Robert Plant's sword fight in the Raglan Great Tower. There are many pieces of this movie on YouTube -- this was part 7 that I found. If you can't stand to watch more than necessary, fast forward five minutes into the clip.



Cheers!

The Other, Other White Castle

In this neck of the woods, White Castle actually means a castle and not a burger. Just across the Welsh border and only 15 minutes from our house, we wandered around this place last week. It is mostly in ruins and when we were there, no one was manning the gate. We had the place to ourselves except for a flock of rare blue-assed sheep.


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This is one of the "Three Castles" that were built in this area -- I haven't been to the other two yet. They were all built around the 12th century and fell into ruin around the 15th century. They never saw much military action but served as a line of defense for England against an unruly Welsh prince.

This was the first of six "castles" we saw last week, ranging from ruins to medieval tourist trap to the modern day home of the Queen. Til Then!

Cheers!



The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
Confucius, Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)