Wednesday 21 December 2011

Food Bloggers Unplugged

There’s a challenge called Food Bloggers Unplugged doing the rounds (via Twitter). I was invited to do this by Rebecca who blogs as Fasting Foodie (The Tales of a Penarth/Cardiff-based Foodie on a Diet). Here’s her post:
http://fastingfoodie.blogspot.com/2011/12/food-bloggers-unplugged.html
Therefore, I’ll wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and finish my first year’s food blogging with this post. I shall then proceed to unplug.

What, or who inspired you to start a blog?
The original idea behind the blog was that it would be a type of diary, which I would keep for one year. I have always kept a diary, which has taken various forms. In 2010, for example, it was a photo-a-day project. Being a Welsh learner, it was in Welsh for a while (though with my limited vocabulary this soon became very repetitive: Dechreuais i fy mlog bwyd. Wedyn, es i i Gaerdydd. Wedyn…). A food diary has an appealing Proustian ring; recalling a taste can lead to associated memories unfurling in the mind. However, as I’m mainly slaving in the kitchen fueling the kids with pasta, pizza, chicken and chips etc such poetic ideas didn’t last long. The food blog took on a life of its own. It’s no longer a diary, but a chronicle of the exciting food scene in the Cardiff area, where good restaurants seem to be opening on a weekly basis, and the dynamic local food movement in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. I can’t see myself tiring of food blogging any time soon.

Who is your foodie inspiration?
I have followed Heston Blumenthal’s progress with great interest for many years. I find his willingness to experiment very inspiring, although I don’t aspire to cook like him at home.

Your greasiest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?
I’ll be honest; it’s an old edition of Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course. Over the years it has been the most used book in the kitchen (and looks it). Other frequently referenced tomes are by Rick Stein, Jane Grigson, Sophie Grigson, Nigel Slater, Gary Rhodes and Madhur Jaffrey; while the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book (1978) is constantly referenced for cakes, chutneys, marmalade etc.

Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?
This is a difficult one. Food always tastes better when you’re relaxing on holiday and the sun is shining. I can’t remember the names of restaurants but most memorable meals include extremely fresh seafood in a waterside shack in South Carolina (holes in the middle of the round tables to chuck the shells), gumbo in New Orleans, a richly-sauced chicken in a small restaurant near Aix en Provence, grilled fish on a beach in Greece, my first pizza from a proper pizza oven in Italy, and a Portuguese stew in a mountain village in the Algarve.

Another food blogger’s table you’d like to eat at is?
I would be happy to eat at any Cardiff food blogger’s table, although having just read Rebecca’s Food Blogger Unplugged post I would certainly be up for Drunken Lamb or Thai Roast Duck!

What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?
I nearly asked Santa for this, but instead picked one up in Kitchen earlier this week: a digital timer. Compact, it sticks magnetically to the fridge or clips to clothing if you leave the kitchen, and it sounds just like my alarm-clock. I no longer have any excuse for burning the cakes! If money no object, then I would like to have some serious Sous Vide gadgetry to play around with.

Who taught you how to cook?
Watching my mother cook taught me a great deal, especially during the time when part of our family house was used as student accommodation. The students used to join our large family for evening meals, and it was always at least two courses of fabulous food. At University myself, I learned a lot through trial and error (actually, more error than trial - this was a time when the congealed lard in the chip pan, used daily in the communal kitchen, was only changed at the start of each term).

I’m coming to you for dinner. What’s your signature dish?
When I cook for larger gatherings, I tend to make my chili con carne (it’s almost expected). I like cooking risotto (e.g., butternut squash, mushroom) and I cook it often; it'll be served with a tomato salad. Braised red cabbage (from my mum’s recipe) was one of the first recipes I posted online (my first website had a recipe section), and it’s the recipe I recently contributed to the Murch Munchies Recipe Book (a PTA Christmas fundraiser), so that’s definitely a signature dish. For pudding, it’ll probably be an apple or rhubarb crumble with ice cream.

What is your guilty food pleasure?
It has to be doughnuts; Krispy Kreme, of course, but also old-fashioned bakery doughnuts oozing jam.

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?
I worked as a research entomologist for a year at the University of Georgia and conducted experiments that helped to identify the chemical in sweet potato tubers that induce the female sweet potato weevil to lay eggs (oviposition stimulant). It was here that I got a taste for sweet potato (that most underrated of vegetables), but it was eating the ripe peaches straight off the trees that was the real revelation at the UGA farm.

My five nominees to further the Food Blogging Unplugged chain:

1. Nicki @UrLastMouthful: http://yourlastmouthful-blog.com/

2. @Gourmetgorro: http://gourmetgorro.blogspot.com/

3. @FoodFilm. Janneke Berkelbach (Memorable Food Scenes Combined with Recipes): http://www.filmfood.nl/

4. @wanttobakefree. David’s blog about opening a teahouse in Cardiff: http://iwanttobakefree.blogspot.com/

5. @gomezadams, blogging as Corpulent Capers: http://www.corpulentcapers.com/


Nicki @cardiffbites has already done her Food Blogger Unplugged post: http://cardiffbites.blogspot.com/

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Greenwood & Brown, Cardiff

Brains are diversifying. The Cardiff-based brewery recently bought the Coffee #1 chain and is now branching out into restaurants. Greenwood & Brown on Quay Street is a bold statement of intent.

At this week’s Greenwood & Brown bar grill preview tasting evenings they’re serving up seafood platters followed by two different steak cuts.

The seafood sampler comprised large meaty shrimp (crevettes), prawn cocktail, peppered mackerel pate, oak smoked salmon and a horseradish and dill sauce. The smoked salmon and the shrimp, in particular, impressed. I like horseradish with my oily fish, so the sauce was a little milder than I would make it. On the full menu, you’ll also find calamari, a kilo of Welsh mussels (with a choice of two sauces, £12), seafood chowder, sea bass and other fish specials at market prices. A fish platter appetiser will cost £16. If you really want to sail the boat out, the Fruits de Mer (for two people) is £58.00 (pre-order 12 hours notice required).

The steaks, served with green beans and steak chips, were tender and tasted like they had come from animals that had been well looked after. I thought the sirloin was really good, but the comparison showed why the ribeye costs that little more, as it was even better. The green beans and thick steak chips were very moreish, partly because there’s a fair bit of salt on them. On the full menu there’s a choice of rump, sirloin and ribeye (£12, £15 and £19, respectively, which includes one side dish), while there will be steak cut specials. If you’re a couple and want to go for it, the Chateaubriand steak with Béarnaise sauce might be for you (£48 for two people). Our preview steaks definitely left us wanting more.

The menu is limited in extent. However, it includes dishes such as the chowder and steak cuts that mark it out as unique. The philosophy is: simple cooking done well. Don’t expect fancy plating or extraneous ingredients. It’s not necessarily cheap, though lunches come in at a competitive fixed price of £7, but if you want steak or seafood off the grill then it should certainly hit the spot.

Greenwood and Brown will probably appeal to a fairly select clientele. The nature of the menu and the high tables will exclude children and families. There is little for vegetarians (apart from the risotto of the day and a falafel burger). My partner thought the atmosphere (meaty menu options, masculine décor etc) would make it a good place to entertain male business clients. It will certainly attract the discerning rugby fan (being only a penalty kick away from the Millennium Stadium).

The desserts are suitably grown up and there’s Costa coffee. The wine list features nine reds and nine whites, with a few roses, with additional choices on a wine specials board. Bottled beers, spirits, champagne and classic cocktails are featured.

It’s good to see an emphasis on Welsh products and local food sourcing. Welsh beef comes from Celtic Pride, free range eggs from Birchgrove Eggs, seafood from Swansea Fish in Swansea Marina, cheeses from Caws Cenarth, Abergavenny Fine Foods and Carmarthenshire Creameries, deli products from Capital Cuisine Caerphilly, and ice cream from Mario Dallavalle of Carmarthenshire.

Greenwood & Brown is located on the site of The Model Inn, one of Cardiff’s oldest pubs (On a 1600 map it’s called The Ship on Launch; it may have been renamed The Model Inn after a visit by Cromwell’s New Model Army). It was purchased by Brains in 1956 and renamed after the wine merchants who they bought it off. The major internal and external refurbishment means there is little evidence of the building’s history to be seen (though some of the metal columns look old). The modern décor centres on high chairs and marble counters/tables (a bit of communal dining maybe), bare brick and butcher’s tiles, with some chandeliers that don’t look quite right. The kitchen area is fashionably visible.

Music can complement the dining experience. In Cardiff, for example, the classical music in Wally’s Kaffeehaus and the classic rock in the New York Deli perfectly chime with the décor and food. At Greenwood & Brown, the overloud early-evening dance music did nothing to enhance my dining experience.

I had a pint of the Rev in the City Arms beforehand, a pub owned by Brains and one of the best traditional-style drinking venues in the city centre. The City Arms is practically next door to Greenwood & Brown (Casanova’s Italian Restaurant is sandwiched between them) and this was a key factor in the decision to convert the Model Inn into a restaurant rather than another pub. I suspect there will be a fair amount of traffic between the two Brain’s establishments.

Other Brains pubs in Cardiff city centre: Goat Major, Dempsey’s, Old Arcade, Cardiff Cottage, Barocco, Yard Bar and Kitchen, Kitty Flynn’s, Duke of Wellington, Westgate, Cardiff Arts Institute, 33 Windsor Place.

Greenwood & Brown:
http://www.greenwoodandbrowncardiff.co.uk/

Pub conversion reference:
http://beerbrewer.blogspot.com/2011/12/model-inn-reopens-as-restaurant.html

Brains Brewery:
http://www.sabrain.com/index

Sunday 18 December 2011

Arth Wines, Penarth

Stocking up on drink for the festive season? Don’t forget your independent off-licences and wine merchants.

Arth Wine Store in Penarth is one such place. This independent wine merchant, owned by Richard Silk, moved to its present location near Penarth Station in March 2010. You are sure to get a warm welcome. Richard is very knowledgeable, and happy to chat with customers: the sort of personal service you don’t get in a major retail chain.

The shop is situated in the Old Masonic Buildings (the more-recent Masonic Hall on Stanwell Road is now a restaurant and party venue). The modern restoration is sympathetic to the old building and provides a dramatic backdrop for the displays of wine, beer, ciders and soft drinks. The theatricality is completed by having a glass-fronted room within the room: a cooler space where much of the white wine and beer is kept.

Richard imports wine directly from smaller independent vineyards, which helps keep prices down and enables him to offer a different selection to other wine-selling outlets. The shop, in particular, is known for its selection of organic wines. It’s also the place to go for bio-dynamic wine, wine for vegans, and other alternative wine options.

Independent shops like Arth Wines are good when you’re looking for something a little different to serve guests, especially guests who look at wines and tell you what supermarkets they came from (do you know people like this?). Keep them guessing this Christmas. Good to see Arth wines stock Cock Hill, for instance, our local white wine made from grapes grown on a hillside in Leckwith, between Cardiff and Dinas Powys.

However, I went to Arth Wines last week to stock up on some local microbrewery beers.

I selected three Celt beers, from the Celtic Experience brewery in Caerphilly (est. 2007). The Bronze (4.5%), named after Bronze Age Celts, although it’s also a bronze colour; the Golden (4.2%), named after the Golden Age of the Celtic People, although it’s also a golden colour; and Bleddyn 1075 (5.6%), named after a Celtic ruler who died in 1075. Celt beers are made using organic ingredients. The Head Brewer is Tom Newman who, according to their website, is Caerphilly-born and West Country-raised, and likes drinking, rugby, learning Welsh and prawn racing.

My other selections were from Cardiff’s Untapped Brewery and the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in Barry. They also stock beers from the Rhymney Brewery of Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil. The Otley Brewery in Pontypridd is having temporary bottling difficulties (Richard has a letter explaining the situation displayed by the beer section) and so their bottled brews are currently out of stock.

I’ll post some more on our local beers next year.

Arth Wines, Old Masonic Buildings, Station Approach, Penarth CF64 3EE

A previous post on Cock Hill wine:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2011/01/winde-from-dinas-powys-cock-hill.html


Celtic beers:
http://www.theceltexperience.co.uk/

Untapped Brewing Co:
http://www.untappedbrew.com/

Vale of Glamorgan Brewery:
http://www.vogbrewery.co.uk/

Rhymney Brewery:
http://www.rhymneybreweryltd.com/

Monday 12 December 2011

Siop y Bobl, Cardiff

Siop y Bobl (The People’s Supermarket) held their latest meeting at the Festive Food Fair in Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, on Saturday (10 Dec 2011). The members of the Core Team introduced themselves and unveiled their plans for the coming year.

A People’s Supermarket has been operating successfully in London for a couple of years, but Siop y Bobl will be a unique venture in Cardiff. It will run as a local co-operative and open for business toward the end of 2012.

The key stages that need to be achieved in the coming months are, firstly, the completion of the Business Plan, and then the opening of a business bank account. Grants and funding will then be applied for. Suitable premises will be sought, while publicity and marketing will be taken up a gear. People with the necessary skills will be bought on board, while existing members will undergo training in appropriate areas (e.g., through Welsh Government and co-operative movement training schemes). Finally, potential suppliers will be assessed, using the ethical, environmental and local community values that are at the heart of the business.

Gwion acted as spokesperson and outlined the plans, values, and the necessary steps needed to achieve their goal. The other Core Team members - Kate, Andrew, Becca, Richard and Graham – noted their particular interests within the project. These included environmental issues and the benefits of local food production, keeping profits within the community, the value of involving local people as members, and enhancing food security and reducing food wastage. All agreed that Siop y Bobl will provide an ethical and sustainable convenience shopping alternative for Cardiff.

Public Relations and publicity will be increasing important next year. A website is under construction (on-line shopping is under discussion). James from BBC Radio Wales was recording proceedings on Saturday and, as an observer, will be following Siop y Bobl until its opening. His reports will use Siop y Bobl as an example of an ongoing community project. Needless to say, I’ll also be following progress on this blog.

After the meeting itself, Richard organized the Cook Up competition. Two teams of three were chosen from the audience and asked to cook items selected from a “supermarket shelf” within 30 minutes. The items were not labeled by price, however, but by carbon ratings (an estimate of how food production adversely contributes to climate change). Such are the ethical decisions that will be made when it comes to stock Siop y Bobl.

Team B (there was no team A) cooked Chestnut, mushroom and tomato rigatoni, while Team C made a Butternut squash, spinach and lentil curry. I was honoured to be on the judging panel. It was a close call, but we awarded the prize to the rigatoni (the meaty chesnuts being an inspired touch that really worked).

This will be the website (it’s still early days):
http://siopybobl.co.uk/

The People’s Supermarket in London (Siop y Bobl hopes to emulate its success):
http://www.thepeoplessupermarket.org/

Saturday 10 December 2011

Festive Food Fair, Chapter, Cardiff

Today’s Festive Food Fair at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff was a great success. There was a sizeable crowd and most of the stallholders were generally doing very good business.

I Want to Bake Free was selling, among other things, Victorian sponge cakes, gingerbread houses, loose tea and peppermint creams. The stall raised around £100 for the LATCH charity. The traditional tearoom will be opening, somewhere in Cardiff, next year. If David's stall at Chapter is anything to go by, it will be an interesting prospect.

Mark’s Bread had an eye-catching display. Although Bristol-based, Mark Newman sets up a stall every Wednesday afternoon at Chapter. Today we came home with Pan au Chocolate and a Malthouse loaf. Artisan slow-fermented sourdough bread was also available from Cardiff’s Hungry Planet and Bridgend-based Tortoise Bakery.

I always enjoy looking at The Parsnipship for their creative Vegetarian dishes, which today included a seasonal Roast Chestnut and Jerusalem Artichoke Dauphinoise. We went for the Lapsang-Souchong Smoked Butternut Lasagne, the Glamorgan Crumble, and a Stilton and Spinach Cake, which we heated up and had for dinner tonight.

Box vegetable schemes were being promoted by Riverside Market Garden (Cardiff) and Riverford Organic Veg (Devon). The other stallholders included Gwatkin Cider and Gwynt y Draig Cider, Llanfaes Dairy Ice Cream, The Nut Hut, Welsh Brew Tea, and Hipo Hyfryd.

There was also a range of workshops (gingerbread decoration, pottery, mosaics and more) and a raffle (I won a bottle of perry). Carols were performed under the Christmas tree by jazz singer Brigida Melly. The jazz arrangements fooled my daughter for a while, until she heard the words.

Outside the arts centre, there was a demonstration of a rocket jet-stove. This sealed unit can be used to cook potatoes (or chestnuts, as it did today). It is a very efficient way of burning wood, as it burns to a combustible gas that does the cooking. Biochar is producing as a by-product, which can be mixed with manure to make a great fertilizer.

A key part of proceedings was a meeting of Siop y Pobl (The People’s Supermarket), with the Core Group of this initiative updating us on progress, followed by a cooking competition. Siop y Pobl will be the subject of a longer blog post next week.

The Festive Fair was one of those events that exceeded expectations. Well done Chapter, Green City and Hedfan Arts for making it happen.

http://iwanttobakefree.blogspot.com/

http://www.marksbread.co.uk/

http://www.theparsnipship.co.uk/

Friday 9 December 2011

Steve Garrett on Local Food in Cardiff

Earlier this week, Steve Garrett (Founding Director and Special Projects Manager for Riverside Community Market Association [RCMA] Social Enterprise Ltd) gave a public lecture in the ornate Glamorgan Building Committee Rooms of Cardiff University’s School of City and Regional Planning. He talked about his experiences with local food and Farmers’ Markets, lessons from which could help Cardiff achieve its 'Sustainable City' planning vision. A key challenge is to develop a more sustainable food system with increased consumption of locally-produced food.

Steve established the Riverside Farmers’ Market in 1998, based on markets he had seen in Canada. Riverside was to become the first of a new wave of street markets in the UK where local farmers and artisan producers sold directly to the public.

However, it soon became apparent that most of the people shopping at the Riverside Farmers’ Market were not from the local area; they were coming from more affluent areas, such as Pontcanna. RCMA subsequently established Farmers’ Markets in Roath, Rhiwbina and Llandaff North. These attracted more people from their immediate localities. Nevertheless, overall, there remains a sense that Farmers’ Markets are catering for a certain type of person (like the stereotypical affluent, middle-class “foodie”).

People who regard themselves as “non-Farmers’ Market people” have said that they do not necessarily feel comfortable shopping at them. Steve contrasted this with the situation in France, where everyone shops at markets regardless of their class. High footfall therefore does not necessarily equate with successful markets. The Farmers’ Market in Newport’s John Frost Square, for example, closed after three years. This is also the case when markets are located where people are not expecting to buy food (IKEA and The Red Dragon Centre being recent examples); although cakes always sell well, apparently.

There is also a perception that Farmers’ Markets are more expensive than supermarkets. Although this is true for some value-added or artisan products, it is not necessarily the case for fruit and vegetables. Value for money and quality also need to be taken into account. An artificially pumped-up frozen supermarket chicken may be cheaper, but an equivalently-sized organic Farmers’ Market chicken is likely to taste better and go further when feeding a family.

To broaden the customer base for local food, therefore, perceptions and attitudes must be changed. New approaches include greater community involvement, changing people’s views on quality and cost, and to establish a greater range of appropriate outlets to make locally-produced food more accessible.

Food systems are more than just about retail: they are also about culture and community. The mainstream supermarket sector will always have a bigger retail advertising budget, but local food schemes are more community-oriented. RCMA Social Enterprise Ltd found that a good place to start is schools. Children are taken on farm-trips, where they get to eat fresh vegetables (a novelty for many kids). Meanwhile, role models, such as Olympic-medal winning athletes from south Wales, visit schools to promote Real Food (with an emphasis on fresh local produce) and its importance to health. This provides an important alternative to the mainstream message, epitomized for Steve by the insanity of having McDonalds as a lead sponsor of the Olympics.

There is a potential problem with supply. If local food markets become more successful, then more food needs to be grown locally. To this end RCMA has established the Riverside Community Garden in Cardiff, and the 10-acre Riverside Market Garden close to Cardiff that will supply Farmers’ Markets stalls and their Vegetable Box scheme.

Much more food could be grown within Cardiff. Steve cites the WW2 Dig for Victory campaign, when Roath Park was ploughed and turned into productive allotments that enhanced the city’s food security. For a modern response to food production in the coming post-oil age, Cuba is the place to look. After Russia turned off its oil supply, the country turned to intensive, urban, organic agriculture with great success. Around 80% of Havana’s vegetables and salads, for example, are grown in organic urban agricultural redevelopment schemes.

In Britain, communities like Todmorden in West Yorkshire are leading the way. They are planning to become self-sufficient in food by 2018. Community Gardens have proliferated (along with “help yourself” signs). The community has been drawn together, so everyone feels part of this local food scheme. It has been made possible through the political will of the local Council. Steve contrasted this with the current situation in Cardiff, where there is a long waiting lists for allotments.

Steve believes Community Food Security should incorporate the concept of Food Sovereignty, whereby food is produced locally and the means of producing that food are put into the hands of the people themselves. Community Gardens also provide education and training opportunities, so local food-producing expertise grows. The Riverside Market Garden is a community-owned social enterprise.

To make local food more accessible, a range of means can be employed to move the food closer to people’s homes. Vegetable Box schemes are proving popular, while RCMA will soon be selling from a mobile shop that can take local food into new areas of the city. A People’s Supermarket (Siop y Bobl) is planning to open in late 2012 in Cardiff, which instead of being owned by a multinational corporation will be owned by its local community. This will stock local food, along with a full range of convenience food and also non-food items. Projects like these should show people that high-quality locally-produced food is not more expensive and it is for everyone.


Riverside Market Garden:
http://www.riversidemarketgarden.co.uk/
Future Cardiff University City and Regional Planning events:
http://www.cplan.cf.ac.uk/events/

Wednesday 7 December 2011

The Corner House, Cardiff

A pyramid of thickly-sliced lamb rump, cooked to order, on a base of roasted baby potatoes mingled with pancetta and shallots, with a dollop of soubise (béchamel-based onion sauce) and topped by two asparagus spears. Juicy and flavoursome, everything on this plate was working for the greater good. It was accompanied by a seasonal (optional) redcurrant jelly with nutmeg.

This was my main course yesterday lunchtime at The Corner House Bar & Dining Rooms, which opens for business this Friday. It’s on the sharp corner of Caroline Street (the postal address) and Mill Lane (the front door) in Cardiff city centre’s self-styled Café Quarter. Operating under the Mitchell and Butler umbrella, The Corner House is the start of a new venture. It’s the first, and therefore flagship, Maybury Pub (“Maybury at The Corner House”): a planned new chain of gastropubs.

My partner decided to go for something a little different for her main course, and ordered the Salmon and Caper Fishcakes. Two thick fishcakes, each topped with a poached egg and chive hollandaise sauce, stood sentinel over a small mound of spinach. Intriguingly-spiced, they were pronounced a little salty in their cumulative effect. The saltiness was nicely counterbalanced by the poached egg, although the balance would have been better with smaller fishcakes. So (for a change): best menu choice to me! Prices for main courses range from the £10.95 Classic Burger to the £16.95 Lamb Rump.

We had gone for Scallops and Lamb Koftas, respectively, for starters. My trio of large scallops, griddled for the bare-minimum time, were mouth-meltingly light and succulent; the best scallops I’ve tasted for years. Between them lay a mound of very thin noodles, where intense ginger and soy flavours lurked. This was offset by cubes of refreshing watermelon. I liked the way these three components were arranged and could be tasted individually, but I was less sure about the handful of cress on top (maybe a case of less is more).


The Moroccan-style lamb koftas were served with a fattoush salad (crispy grilled pieces of pita bread, feta cheese, radish, cucumber, salad leaves, mint, olive oil and lemon juice) and a tzatziki dip. This was a very pleasing mixture of textures and flavours, which could also have been made into a good main course.


The wine menu offered plenty of choice, even for wine ordered by the glass. I had a glass of Rioja, while my partner ordered an Aspall’s cider (dwarfed in an oversized glass). Our friendly waiter Adam seemed representative of the experienced and enthusiastic staff at The Corner House.

The key material in the upstairs dining room is wood: wooden benches, chairs, tables and floor. Quirky touches are thankfully kept to a minimum. The animal skins slung over the chairs are, in fact, reindeer (you can buy one for yourself in the nearby Cardiff Christmas Market!). Sitting on a reindeer is a nice seasonal touch.

The redevelopment of The Corner House was not without controversy. This pub has had a colourful 137-year old history. Previously, as the Kings Cross, it was for many years one of Wales’ best-known gay bars and a focus for the capital’s gay community. A petition signed by more than 2,000 people, demanding the venue keep its gay identity, was presented to M&B’s directors. There was a sense that something important was being lost. The company said the decision was inevitable for economic reasons, as this prime site could no longer support a late-night drinking venue, and needed to become a pub and restaurant catering for customers throughout the daytime and evening (The Corner House indeed covers all the bases: doing breakfast, lunch, after-school pizza deals and so on, through to evening meals in the restaurant).

The Corner House happily describes itself as a Gastropub, but what does that mean? The term “gastropub” was first coined in the early 1990s in London, when pubs started to move away from traditional “pub grub” to offer a wider range of classier food (a novelty at the time). I have an outdated and overly-romantic picture of a Free House pub in an old building, with a traditional bar full of regulars and a dining room next door, where a renowned chef serves up high-quality food that is more affordable and less pretentious than in a typical top-end restaurant.

However, the recent Oxford English Dictionary definition of “gastropub” is: A public house which specializes in serving high-quality food. What constitutes high-quality food is a matter of debate and most dining pubs in the UK could therefore claim to be gastropubs, if they so wished. The Corner House certainly qualifies. However, the other essential feature is that you can go in and feel comfortable just ordering a drink from the bar. The downstairs area at The Corner House looks the part, but a pub needs people. Only time will tell whether this pub becomes merely a pre-dining waiting area or whether it will again attract a loyal customer-base and become an important meeting place for this community of regulars.

The Corner House
Caroline Street, Cardiff CF10 1FF
http://cornerhousecardiff.co.uk/

Previous posts on Mill Lane and Caroline Street:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2011/09/mill-lane-cardiff.html



Mitchells & Butlers (who also own O’Neill’s, Browns and the new Harvester in Cardiff city centre):
http://www.mbplc.com/
Reference for the Save the Kings Cross Campaign:

Sunday 4 December 2011

Oriental Diner, Barry

The Oriental Diner in Barry laid on an impressive spread for the Dinas Powys Wolves Football Club last night. Actually, the footballers were with “babysitters” and hopefully heading for early nights, because this was the coaches and parents’ Christmas gathering.

After a few drinks in The Sir Samuel Romilly (Wetherspoons), we took the hundred yard walk along Broad Street to the Oriental Diner. Here, we were shown to the party room (upstairs at the back) and settled down around three large tables. The food bought out, onto the large Lazy Susans on each table, featured Peking, Cantonese and Thai dishes.

Following the obligatory prawn crackers (thick ones), the Hor’s d’Oeuvre included Satay Chicken, Sesame Prawn Toast and Spring Rolls. The Crispy Fried Seaweed was popular (I didn’t have the heart to tell anyone it was actually deep-fried cabbage).

There followed a duck course: Crispy Aromatic Duck Served with Spring Onion, Cucumber, Hoi Sin Sauce and Pancakes. There was also some chicken, as an alternative to duck. Assembling the crispy duck pancakes is always fun. The cooking at the Oriental Diner has an authenticity lacking in too many Chinese restaurants, and the duck in particular reminded me of a restaurant in China (that served nothing else but crispy duck pancakes).

There were vegetarian options throughout the meal, as we had a vegetarian on the table. Actually, I would suggest, if you’re in a big group, someone is designated as vegetarian (even if they are not), because these dishes were very good (e.g., tofu with cashew nuts in yellow bean sauce) and added to the variety of food doing the rounds.

The main courses, served with rice, included Chow Mein, Thai-style Chicken Curry, Sweet and Sour Pork, Spare Ribs, Beef in Black Bean Sauce, Spicy King Prawns, and more besides. The beef and prawn, along with a rice and cashew vegetarian dish were my pick of the excellent food.

I drank draft Sun Lik Beer. It is brewed in the San Miguel brewery in Hong Kong, and is imported into the UK by Shepherd Neame. My problem with lager is usually that it is too fizzy, tastes too ‘tinny’, and is served over-cold. Draft Sun Lik is none of these, and has some subtle fruity and floral notes. I recommend it to accompany Chinese food.

The service was spot on, and the staff at Oriental Diner are clearly used to dealing with parties. The karaoke started as soon as the last of the food was cleared. As this is a food blog, I will refrain from describing the scenes that followed.

Oriental Diner
10 Broad Street Barry CF62 7AA
http://www.orientaldiner.co.uk/index.htm

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Saturday 3 December 2011

Dickensian Fayre, Dinas Powys

Last night (2 Dec), the Twyn (village square) in Dinas Powys was the setting for the annual Dickensian Fayre, organized by The Rotary Club of Dinas Powis to raise money for local charities.

After the freeze and torrential downpours of previous years, the constant rain and above-freezing temperature almost felt like decent weather. However, The Vale of Glamorgan Brass Band were rained off, and so didn’t perform their annual selection of carols. This diminished the Fayre’s pre-Christmas atmosphere considerably, although there was still a reasonable queue of small children and their parents outside Santa’s Grotto.

Plaid Cymru’s soup offering this year was Tomato and Vegetable (with the weather and economic climate there was something of the soup kitchen about their stall). Meanwhile, the Conservatives were doing their usual mulled wine. I have never tasted their mulled wine (as a matter of principle), but fortunately the Rotary Club were also serving it and this was strong, fruity and warming. They were also selling stollen cake and large gingerbread men, while Rotary Club members were busy on the nearby BBQs cooking hot dogs and burgers.

Anne’s owls4u were raising money for rescued owls and other birds by selling cakes and other items. The beautiful owls being walked around were taking everything in. The coconut shy opposite was a popular attraction.

Dinas Powys Infants School were raising money selling drinks, crisps and sweets. Dinas Powys and Llandough Guides were selling their usual chocolate brownies, while the Scouts had Welsh cakes and snacks for sale. We won a Billie Holiday CD box set on the Scouts’ tombola, but had less success on the Cricket Club’s drinks tombola. The W.I., as you would expect, had an attractive range of cakes for sale.

Geraint Roberts set up his bread stall at the Fayre for the first time. Geraint has started a bread subscription scheme in the village, where artisan sourdough loaves can be ordered on a weekly basis. Panettone, the sweet Milanese Christmas bread, was the seasonal special on offer.

There was the odd Top Hat, but little dressing up this year. I believe this event started in the 1980s [correct me if I’m wrong] and, while the connection with Dickens is a bit tenuous (he wrote Christmas stories), it has become an important date in the calendar for Dinas Powys residents.

The event ended before 8.30pm, by which time the wet crowd was either drying out at home or in one of the village’s remaining pubs (The Star, The Three Horseshoes or The Cross Keys), which are all clustered around The Twyn.

Incidentally, the two spellings in the opening sentence are both correct (‘Powis’ is the now less-frequently used English version of the original 'Powys').