Humpbacked Wales

This weekend we decided to get up and see some of the countryside. We knew we wanted to make a stop at Frasers of Turnastone to get, maybe, a Pig in a Box. They didn't have fresh pork available -- but they will for next weekend so I am on the list to get a box o' pork delivered directly to the Lilacs next Saturday. Surely, that experience will be bloggable.

On the approach to Frasers, we could see a large, green "hill" in the distance. After negotiations for the Pig in a Box concluded, I asked the lady at Frasers how far away that hill was and if we could go up it. Fifteen minutes later we had a map on the back of a paper bag, and wife, dog, and I were on our way to Wales.


First stop on the map was supposed to be Hay-On-Wye, a small town on the border between England and Wales but it I was easily distracted by sign-postings for Arthur's Stone -- an ancient tomb that has more recent connections to the legends of King Arthur. The stone wasn't too exciting unless you try to fathom how folks 5,000 years ago perched the big 25 ton rock on top of the little rocks.


After the Rock, we made our way into Hay-On-Wye, a very quaint little town just barely inside of Wales in the county of Powys. Hay-On-Wye is known nationwide -- some would argue internationally -- as a mecca for book-lovers of all kinds. The town has a population of less than 2000 and over 30 bookshops, many very specialized or dealing in rare books (Sci-fi Cookery?) The tourist appeal was immediately obvious: the car park in town was one of the largest I have seen in the UK.



The true highlight of our day was everything after we left Hay-On-Wye and headed into the hills of Brecon Beacons National Park. We spent the next 5 hours winding up and down a single-lane track (paved, for the most part) across a ridge of the Brecon Beacons, a mountain range so-named for the old practice of lighting signal fires ('beacons') on the top of hills to warn of things such as those nasty English attacking again. I marked our route on the Tatties map below.


View Larger Map

Near the end of the overland route, we arrived at Llanthony Priory. The Priory dates from around the year 1100 and has a colorful history. It was thought to have its beginnings from when William de Lacy, a Norman nobleman, found a ruined chapel of St. David at the Priory's current location. Now it conveniently hosts a trekking center for hiking and horseback riding and also a quaint pub serving up a pint and some pub food (fish and chips, of course.)



This was also the virgin outing for my new GPS camera gadget. Now, when I take photos, they get tagged with their location using GPS satellites. If you click on the slideshow, it will take you to my public album. On the right-hand side you will see a map of where the photos were taken. Never again will I have to wonder where I took that photo...

We soon hope to make our way back up the hills when we are more equipped for hiking to the top. Til then. Cheers!

“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” - Chinese Proverb

The Fish Is In The Chips

Walkers -- a crisp/chip brand that looks a lot likes Frito Lay because it is -- released six new flavors of crisps that consumers (even me!) can vote on to pick a favorite. I only saw four out of six flavors at the rest stop we were at so here are the prelims.

Crispy Duck and Hoisin: The wife says it was ok but wouldn't buy it. I was impressed at how closely it really did taste like duck from a cheap Chinese restaurant. Or maybe it just tasted that crap sauce in the little packets.


Next, the oddly named Cajun Squirrel. Pez and I made Squirrel Stew once from squirrels he terminated. We put a few too many chillies in it and it burned me twice. The crisps were like a mild BBQ with a bit of clove or something. Just ok.


They did a good job of making this next one taste like its name. And that's a bad thing. If you have ever had fries that were cooked in the oil used to cook a few dozen orders of frozen fish dinners, sprinkle on some vinegar and you have a good idea of what these mistakes taste like.


My favorite, by far. A bit of spice, a nice robust cocoa overtone -- well balanced and unique. Like a good molé.


Now I need to hunt down Onion Bajhi (sp?) and Builder's Breakfast -- the two flavors I somehow missed. Until then...

Cheers!


“Experts in ancient Greek culture say that people back then didn’t see their thoughts as belonging to them. When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love.Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy, but now they call this free will.At least the ancient Greeks were being honest.” - Chuck Palahniuk (American freelance journalist)

Winter Bewilderland

The blog has been a bit slow lately -- I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the weather. We had 4 days of snow in Hereford last week. It was a beautiful disaster. Most of the schools were closed, roads were impassible, and they ran out of salt. I heard on the telly that they were bringing in salt from France and Tunisia. I think there may have been five or six inches of snow.


We made a trip to London right in the middle of it and ended up backtracking a 100 miles or so because the only two bridges between south Wales and England were shut down (we found out later it was because of ice falling off the bridge towers.) The navigation system kept telling us to re-route but we always ignore it -- this time it had a pretty good reason to keep chirping at us. Live and learn.


Cheers!


“So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise

On our trip to Prague, you might be surprised to find out that the highlight of our eating wasn't the giant pig knuckle. It was the meal we had at a restaurant called La Degustation. This place offers three tasting menus: a high-end meal that uses luxury items like truffles and foie gras, a menu featuring relatively lighter fare, and finally, a menu based on a Czech cookbook that is a couple of centuries old.

The wife had the lighter menu and I had last option, the Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise (we share every course anyway!) And both were amazing. Every course (there were 7 on each menu) was preceeded with one or two small tastes of something: the amuse-bouche. We also super-sized the meal by getting the 7-course wine pairing to go with it.

We got a copy of the menu to take home so I could actually remember what I was eating. Here is the detail on my menu:

• entrée: poached Prague ham, mailner foam, apple sorbet, egg bread
• soupe: wild poultry soup, poached quail egg, poultry loaf
• poché: organic beef ouster blade, creamy sauce with fresh dill, barley dumpling
• fumé maison: freshly smoked beef tongue, chickpea purée, pickled shallot, roasted onion with marjoram
• braisé: rabbit livers, onion sauce, carrot purée, red beet, home made lard
• grillé: coated veal entrecôte, cucumber granité, braised potato
• sucré: apple gingerbread, vanilla foam with rum

The wife's menu, Dégustation Terre et Eau:

• entrée: organic parsnip ravioli, saffron velouté, aceto balsamico extra aged
• soupe: soup of jerusalem artichoke, orange jelly, bell pepper preserve, olive oil la crianza
• poché: fiji egg, cauliflower velouté, caviar ossetra
• fumé maison: lightly smoked turbot, orange glacé, beluga lentils
• braisé: salsify, alba velouté, lamb lettuce
• homard: butter poached canadian lobster, creamy leek, cashew nuts, red beet essence
• sucré: macaroon of pistachios and black currant, caramel ganache, lime ice cream
  

If you feel overwhelmed, imagine this with basically another course between each course. One of the servers -- bless her soul -- made a mistake and delivered the best amuse-bouche (the best taste all night?) to our table an unintentional second time. It's the first picture below: sweetbreads with foie gras sauce. If you are a foodie, this should mean something special to you. In my world, sweetbreads are rich man's bacon!

Top to bottom, we really enjoyed this meal. There were a few courses where unless you tried every flavor on your plate together all at once, it was good but not great -- but once you combined the flavors as they were intended: taste bud fireworks. My favorite main dish (not a bouche) was probably the smoked beef tongue. Now there's a meat that just doesn't get enough respect in the USA.

Service was great -- most everyone spoke English very well, especially both of the sommeliers and the environment was classy but you would have felt comfortable wearing jeans (of course, that's how I think most of Europe works.) They even allowed dogs -- the entertainment for the night was a table near us with a dog sitting at the table, on a chair. No, I'm not kidding.

Alright, I'm gonna go eat some homemade pizza.

Cheers!



“"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was.” - Winnie the Pooh