Description: Wales – 21/03/10Wales is the closest country to Manchester, well within driving distance, and yet I was unable to find anywhere local to me that could be said to have traditional Welsh cuisine. In fact, searching of the internet I was having trouble finding any traditional Welsh restaurants in Wales itself. Like most non-ethnic eateries in Britain the food on sales is a cosmopolitan collection of the best bits from around the world, so you might find Italian pasta on a menu next to French onion soup, Greek mousska bracketted by Indian chicken tikka masala and pad Thai from Thailand. Still, with my self-imposed deadline of Easter looming ever closer I decided to cheat and take a short trip over the border into north Wales.
The historic market town of Ruthin appealed. Seated in the Vale of Clwyd, the peaks of the Clwyddian mountains rising up on all sides, Ruthin was an important powerbase of English marcher lords in the medieval periods. The Lords Grey were firm supporters of the Lancastrian kings, and it was a local feud that led to Owain Glyn Dŵr’s rebellion against Henry IV – Ruthin was his first target, and it was raided and razed in 1400. Nowadays the village is firmly Welsh, represented in Cardiff and Europe by Plaid Cymru politicians.
There are a couple of promising-looking restaurants in the town such as Manorhaus and the Picture House that have menus promising Conway Bay cockles, Welsh lamb and black beef, and selections of local cheeses. Rebecca and I wandered up to the grand red castle that overlooks the town (the name
Ruthin derives from the phrase ‘red fort’). Following its destruction (temporarily at the hands of Glyn Dŵr, more permanently after the Civil War) the current Ruthin castle is a Victorian confection that operates as a grand hotel. It is a venue for weddings and christenings, and hosts medieval banquets in an adjoining courtyard. We walked through the gatehouse with its Welsh dragon flag proudly flapping in the breeze, up the sweeping drive towards the main entrance, guarded by pink marble lions. Inside is baronial Victoriana at its finest – dark wood panelling and stags’ heads mounted on the walls. In fact, the castle was so popular with Queen Victoria’s son Edward, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), that the main restaurant is named ‘Bertie’s’ in his honour. Of course, his visits were back when the castle was back in private hands…
We were shown through to the octagonal
Library Bar. With its roaring log fire and big comfortable leather chairs this was just the place for a spot of afternoon tea.
For £10.95, the
afternoon tea we were served certainly harked back to the days of Anglo-Welsh aristocracy. And they were certainly filling enough for even the famously rotund Price of Wales. We were provided with a three-tiered cake stand each. The top tier held dainty sandwiches with their crusts cut off – cucumber, ham, and salmon. And proper butter, not mayonnaise! The second tea was a warm freshly-baked scone, served with little pots of butter, cream, and raspberry jam. In fact they were so warm mine crumbled in my hands as I tried to cut it. The bottom tier held cakes, and were much more Welsh in origin: carrot cake,
bara brith, and some
Welsh cakes. Welsh cakes, are not just cakes from Wales, but small griddle scones cooked on a hot bakestone about an inch and a half across, buttery with dried fruit.
Bara brith, literally ‘speckled bread’, was a slice of traditional Welsh fruit cake. A drink of your choice comes with the food – generally coffee or tea, though Rebecca asked for apple juice with hers. I had a pot – good for three cups – of Earl Grey tea (there is a wide choice of teas to try as well; I chose the Earl Grey as the castle had been the property in the middle ages of the de Grey family, earls of Ruthin – though they were of no relation to the 19th century British prime minister after whom the tea blend was named).
Make no mistake, you get plenty of food for your £10.95. In hindsight sharing one afternoon tea between the two of us would have been a safer bet. We did have to leave some of the cakes – though the bar maid suggested that we take them with us and provided a sheet of foil to wrap them in. It was a very relaxing way to pass a Sunday afternoon in Wales, and particularly to be recommended to any foreigners visiting this corner of north east Wales.
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