Two Loaves

I bought a couple of sourdough loaves recently deserving of comment: one made in Bristol and one made in Dinas Powys.

Mark’s Bread is Bristol’s smallest independent bakery. They deliver around south Bristol by bike, but every Wednesday Mark drives a van across the Severn Bridge, and along to Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff (4-6pm). They sell a selection of their wild yeast breads (sourdoughs), bakers’ yeast breads, and spelt and rye loaves. Last week's Special at Chapter was a Fig and Black Pepper loaf.

The first picture is a small South Bristol Sourdough, a sort of signature bread for them. They make their loaves using sourdough cultures, without commercial yeast, and prove them slowly in linen-lined wicker baskets. They mainly use organic flour from Shipton Mill, Gloucestershire, and don’t use improvers or additives (this is definitely Real Bread, as defined by the Real Bread campaign). The ambient yeast and bacteria in sourdough cultures naturally differ from one area to another, bringing subtle differences to the finished bread. So ‘South Bristol Sourdough’ is distinct from sourdoughs made elsewhere.

Geraint Roberts, another Real Bread advocate, bakes all his bread using sourdough cultures, at the Hungry Planet (Hupla) Workers' Co-op in Adamsdown, Cardiff, and at his home in Dinas Powys.

Geraint sees Bread Subscription Schemes as a way forward for micro-bakeries. He is planning to start a subscription scheme for Hungry Planet, with people paying a month in advance for their bread. From his home in Dinas Powys, he teaches bread courses and does a smaller weekly bake to order. Bread subscription schemes give more security of market and reduce waste, because you only bake exactly what is required. More money also goes directly to the baker than if the bread was being sold wholesale through shop outlets.

Last week’s home-made sourdough loaf (second picture) was a Multigrain Wholemeal, made with Bacheldre organic stoneground flour (87% wholemeal, 13% white), polenta, buckwheat groats, wheat flakes, millet flakes, oatmeal, organic natural salt and water. This was moist, tangy and flavoursome.



Mark’s Bread, North Street, south Bristol:
http://www.marksbread.co.uk/

Geraint Robert’s website:
http://geraintbakesbread.webs.com/

The Real Bread Campaign:
http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/

A previous post on sourdough:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/search/label/Geraint%20Roberts

Castle Quarter Farmers’ Market, Cardiff

The Castle Quarter Farmers’ Market in Cardiff, on Thursdays between 11am and 3pm, is now mid-way through its 12-week trial period. It may become a permanent feature on the recently-pedestrianized High Street in central Cardiff. The council will make a decision in October or November. Stall-holders are keeping their fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

The farmers’ market is run by the Riverside Community Market Association (RCMA): the same organization that operates farmers’ markets in Riverside, Rhiwbina, Roath and Llandaff North. The Castle Quarter Farmers’ Market started on August 4, with 16 stalls. This number has apparently been relatively consistent, although this week the miserable weather meant that only 12 stalls were up and running. The market operates with the full support of the existing Cardiff Central Market and other adjacent businesses.

For me, a farmers’ market has to sell fresh fruit and vegetables to be worthy of the name. Blaencamel Farm bring plenty of their fresh organic produce to this market. Local artisan food products are another key area, and most of the stalls fit this bill. The stall selling artisan bread, buns, brioche and pizza was doing a brisk trade; although the rain was doing the Olive Bar and the cake stall no favours.

There was plenty of prepared food to eat or take-away today. Falafel Wales had a selection of Middle Eastern options; the Samosa Co were selling spicy Indian snacks; Seasons Farm Foods had a range of pies and other baked savouries; while Madgett’s Farm were cooking up duck burgers and hot dogs, and selling poultry products (I have a half-dozen duck eggs).

Collette Crewe of Elm Tree Foods, based near Newport, was selling pies and pasties, as well as honey from their farm. I had an Elm Tree Pasty (Cornish-style). Trealy Farm were selling smoked cured and air-dried meats, including salami. The other stalls today were Splott-based Inner City Pickles (“have a taste”), and a stall from the pet suppliers in the indoor market.

The Castle Quarter Farmers’ Market brings a range of food products to shoppers in the city centre, which supplement those available in other local eateries and shops. It also brings a vibrancy to the streets in this pedestrianized area. Long may it continue.


Riverside Community Market Association:
http://riversidemarket.org.uk/

Previous post on Cardiff's Riverside Farmers’ Market:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2011/01/riverside-farmers-market-cardiff.html

Copenhagen Food Diary

The most obvious thing to say about food in Copenhagen is how expensive it is: over twice as much as in the UK. The bill at an averagely-good restaurant can resemble a top-end establishment, such as The Crown Social here in Cardiff.

Therefore, an inclusive hotel buffet comes in handy, especially for putting away a large breakfast to set you up for the day. Luckily, our hotel (The Tivoli) had plenty to choose from each morning: a variety of breads, including the popular Danish rye bread; fresh and dried fruits and nuts; hams and cheeses; smoked salmon and herring; warm egg, bacon, sausage etc; and Danish pastries.

At the top-end of Copenhagen restaurants is Noma. We didn’t eat there, as it requires booking a year in advance and, in our case, would probably have involved re-mortgaging the house. Noma was recently voted “the best restaurant in the world” by British food writers (something the locals don’t let you forget). It’s Nordic Cuisine, with an emphasis on foraged (e.g., fungi, berries), fresh and seasonal ingredients prepared using traditional methods.

A stone’s throw from the affluent waterside development in Christianshavn, where Noma is located, is Christiania: an alternative society founded in 1971 when young squatters took over an abandoned military barracks. It says a lot about Danish society that this “free city” still exists and maintains a high level of autonomy. Eateries in Christiania centre on the Nemoland bar. We had Shwarma sandwiches and ta’ boulah salad in this busy al fresco location.

Meanwhile, in the Tivoli pleasure gardens in central Copenhagen we opted for pork and beef sandwiches. The good news is that, though nothing edible is cheap, the cheaper food is generally of a high quality in Copenhagen.

I ate a lot of salmon and herring (sild). A popular dish is smoked herring prepared in three ways (e.g., curried, pickled and in tomato sauce); my favourite method being curried. I also had some excellent poached salmon with dill and smoked salmon (for breakfast, open sandwiches at lunchtime and in starters for dinner), while the smoked halibut was also very good.

Our main extravagance was a meal in Restaurant Vingården (it was a special occasion) in the Indre By district. For starters, I had a salad that included smoked salmon, crab meat, prawns, a large mussel and rocket, followed by a fillet of sole with king prawns in a white wine sauce with risotto and vegetables. Good stuff (just don't think of the bill!).

The Nyhavn area is a popular outdoor eating area. The canal tourboats start from here. There was also a boat selling a wide range of apple varieties, as part of a Danish apple promotion. The Danes like eating outdoors, and it is customary for blankets to be put out on the seats for use when the sun goes down.

There is some great art to be seen in Copenhagen, at the Staten Museum (National Gallery) and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. The highlights for me were the French impressionists at both galleries, the Danish and Nordic art galleries in the former, and the Degas and Rodin sculpture in the latter. The Winter Garden in Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is a pleasant place to eat and they do fine salads and sandwiches.

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek was founded by Danish brewery magnate Carl Jacobsen, and named after his brewery. Carlsberg is still the dominant beer in Copenhagen, although microbreweries have sprung up in recent years to provide alternative styles of beer.

Finally, I attach a picture of the Rådhus, familiar to all fans (myself included) of the Danish thriller The Killing.

Noma:
http://www.noma.dk/
The Killing:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y4z22
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek:
http://www.glyptoteket.dk/

The British Fish Craft Championships

The Harbour Festival in Cardiff Bay takes place over August bank holiday weekend as part of the Cardiff Festival. It is becoming a more interesting foodie event than the actual Cardiff Food Festival that occurs in this location earlier in the summer. One reason for this is The British Fish Craft Championships that take place on the Sunday, in a marquee run by the National Federation of Fishmongers that is devoted to seafood-related events throughout the weekend (e.g., Monday sees the Welsh Oyster Opening Championship).

This is the third year that the Fish Craft Championships have been held at the Harbour (Fish’n’Ships) Festival. Here, Britain’s top fishmongers demonstrate their skills and compete in a variety of categories. The marquee was packed throughout Sunday, with video screens helping the audience to follow the action. The categories depicted here are for preparing salmon, halibut and arranging a fish display.

In the salmon filleting competition, three Scottish salmon had to be prepared in 12 minutes. This involved skinning and filleting one, preparing equal-sized steaks from another, and approaching the third freestyle. Scales and pin bones were removed, and a high level of presentation was required.

The halibut preparation time was ten minutes, in which the fish was filleted and arranged in equal and attractive portion sizes along with prawns, lemon and decorative seaweed.

The collage competition involved competitors getting a box of assorted fish and making an attractive display from them. Fish can be kept whole, although some were filleted, and displayed along with lemons and seaweed. The audience were asked to guess the number of fish species in the boxes (between 9 and 13, I believe).

In addition to fish, one category had the fishmongers using their skills on poultry. In the categories I saw, it was mainly Morrison’s and local fishmonger Ashton’s battling it out for glory. Afterwards, the prepared fish was either barbequed on The Fig Tree’s stand or sold outside the marquee. We went home with some bargain-priced salmon and halibut.

Harbour Festival

http://cardiff-festival.com/harbfest_e.htm

National Federation of Fishmongers:
http://www.fishmongersfederation.co.uk/welcome.htm

Festival Food: Goan Seafood Company

One of the most popular food stalls on the music festival circuit is run by the Goan Seafood Company, which specializes in Goan Fish Curries.

In 2009, the Goan Seafood Company won the coveted Nationwide Caterers Association Award as the best caterers at Glastonbury Festival. Their summer 2011 tour has taken in Wychwood, Glastonbury, Cornbury, Larmar Tree, Secret Garden Party, Womad, Wickham, Cropredy, Green Man, Greenbelt, and End of the Road festivals.

In previous years at the Green Man, I have sampled several of their first class curries. The curries available at Green Man this year were the Goan Fish Curry, the King Prawn Caldine, Goan Mackeral Masala Dahl (their most popular dish), and the Vegetarian Masala Dahl. Typically, there is queue and they close early because the food has all sold out. You often catch a wonderful aromatic smell as you walk past.

This year, I tried the Luxury Kedgeree (£6), which is served until midday. It is made from home-smoked salmon, free-range egg, peas, basmati rice, chopped parsley and spices, and served with a slice of lemon. There is optional Goan Hot Sauce, a pea-green paste you squeeze out of a plastic bottle that carries a v. hot warning. They are not kidding! The kedgeree was tasty, but I found it a little on the dry side.

The stall trades under the slogan: “Fresh Cornish Fish, Authentic Goan Recipes”. The Goan Seafood Company is based in the fishing village of Mevagissey in Cornwall. They obtain all their fish from local fishermen, from sustainable fish stocks caught using traditional methods. Their head chef, on his travels, became hooked on Goan cooking (a distinct Indian cuisine influenced by a long period of Portuguese rule, which makes excellent use of fresh fish). Goan fish dishes are characterized by “hot-sour” flavours.

Goan Seafood Company:
http://www.goanseafood.com/

Festival Food: Cymdu School

Each year at the Green Man Festival, Cwmdu Church in Wales School, located in the nearby village of Cwmdu just outside Crickhowell, sets up its café stall by the gate into the main arena. Volunteers run the stall, which is a fund-raising venture.

The stall is always popular and it's open all around the clock (the Green Man also has a 24 hour bar). This year, I had my usual bacon roll (generously stuffed with bacon) and tea from the stall for breakfast. They also cook a range of locally-produced sausages. Soup is usually available. Along with the teas, coffees and hot chocolate, there is a constant supply of home-made cakes. It’s one of the best-value places to eat at the festival, and the welcome is always very friendly.

When you see this type of stall at a festival, it is indicative of the festival organisers working closely with the local community.

Fiona Stewart, Managing Director of the Green Man Festival, told me in a recent interview: “The support we get from local people has always been brilliant. With so many people coming to the area there is a boost to the economy which is great. We suggest to local business to stock up on the kind of goods that people attending buy each year to optimise opportunities.” She adds: “We think it’s great that Green Man stimulates tourism and boosts the economy”.

Cwmdu School:
http://www.cwmdu.powys.sch.uk/

Festival Food: Hall’s Dorset Smokery

Like many of the food outlets that tour the UK’s festivals, Hall’s Dorset Smokery has gained something of a following among music fans.

Halls’ unique selling point is that for the past six years they have smoked food on-site, using a Hot Smoking technique that involves smoking food over smouldering wet oak chips. After Hot Smoking, the food is chilled. This prevents overcooking and enables the smoke residue to marinade into the meat.

They offer lightly smoked salmon, bacon, chicken and brie, in wraps and bagels. Their bacon, brie and cranberry bagel is especially well thought of (if social networking sites are anything to go by). At some festivals they also smoke mackerel.

At the Green Man Festival last weekend, I had the smoked salmon bagel with pepper and lemon juice (£5). The lightly smoked salmon tasted delicious and the bagel oozed cream cheese. It was very good.

Hall’s source their pork, cream and cheese from Dorset, their brie from Somerset, and their salmon from Scotland.

Owner Richard Hall is used to dealing with Environmental Health Officers and keeps a very high standard of food hygiene (he passes weekly checks at different sites with flying colours: see the interesting article on rising food standards at festivals below). Apparently, Glastonbury in 1970 was the first rock festival to be reported on by environmental health inspectors. Those inspectors would have been amazed by today’s festival food standards.

In addition to Green Man, Hall’s Dorset Smokery’s summer 2011 tour has taken in Glastonbury, Sonisphere, Download, The Big Chill, the Rhythm Festival and Womad.

With their expertise in freshly smoked food, Hall’s has the “boutique” festival circuit’s smoked meats needs well and truly covered.


Source for Hall’s Dorset Smokery and food hygiene info:
http://www.cieh.org/ehn/the_chilling_fields.html

Festival Food: Iechyd Da

I remember going to music festivals as a youngster where the only food available was beefburgers, hot dogs and greasy chips. Times have certainly changed for the better, and today’s best festivals offer appetizing cuisine from around the world. Catering operations have vans that specialize in festivals during the summer months – it appears to be a thriving sector of the catering industry.

This is the first of a series of posts on festival food, based in particular on the Green Man Festival, in the Brecon Beacons, from which I have recently returned.

It’s not all tempura, Thai fish curries, paella and Mexican, of course. Local food is always represented at a good festival. At the Green Man, for instance, you can sample a range of Welsh foods.

Swansea-based Iechyd Da is a family-run business that was one of the first to tour traditional Welsh recipes around Britain’s music festivals. At Green Man, Iechyd Da were serving Faggots and Pies, Beef Stew and Dumplings, Cauliflower and Broccoli Bake, Chicken and Leek Casserole, and the usual range of teas, coffees and cakes (including Welsh cakes, of course).

I went along one morning for the Full Welsh Breakfast (served until 2pm). For £5.50 this included free-range bacon; pork and leek sausage; free-range egg; baked beans; laver bread; buttered bread (white or brown) and coffee. The laver bread (seaweed) is optional, but having lived in south Wales for a few years now I am getting a taste for it. A vegetarian breakfast was also available, with homemade Glamorgan sausage and mushrooms.

Iechyd Da’s summer tour 2011 has also included gigs at Wychwood Music Festival, Glastonbury (stage crew and artist catering), Ely Folk Festival, Lamar Tree Festival, and Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

In Cardiff recently, it was revealed that takeaways often score 0 or 1 out of 5 in Food Hygiene Ratings (conducted by the Food Standards Agency). Out in the festival fields, Iechyd Da displays its rating: a perfect 5. In fact, most of the food vans that tour UK music festivals look like they keep to an altogether better standard of hygiene than you would encounter in chippies and kebab houses along the average high street.

Brian Murphy & Rebecca Jones
Iechyd da Catering
8, Sardis close,
Waunarlywdd,
Swansea,
SA5 4RZ

Website (includes their recipes for Glamorgan sausage, Welsh cakes and faggots):
http://iechyd-da-catering.co.uk/4.html

New Season at Cardiff City

Hear we go again: A new season, new manager (Malky Mackay) and a new set of players (about 8 home debuts), but the same old stadium food.

Juliet and I enjoyed Cardiff City’s first home game of the season this afternoon, in which they demolished Bristol City 3-1. Expectations are high. Cardiff had won their first three competitive games of the season. The first half today was like watching Brazil (soccer cliché alert!): fluid passing and movement, and 3-0 up in 36 minutes. It was a game of two halves though, and they took their foot off the accelerator after the break. Impressive performances all round.

Before the game we perused the stadium menu, although we know it already: chips, pies, hot dogs, burgers and pasty. Today Juliet decided against starters and opted for the portion of fried potatoes with a drizzle of tomato sauce. I had corned beef pasty done in the Cornish style (micro-waved). Juliet pronounced the chips to be as good as last season. I thought them thinner, crisper and better than the last portion of rather soggy fried potato I last sampled here, but I suspect they can vary week to week (or even hour to hour). Gordon Ramsey it isn’t. Pie of the day, for those interested, was the chicken and mushroom. Ketchup and mustard on tap, but I saw no brown sauce.

There are no prawn sandwiches at Cardiff City. In fact there are no sandwiches at all (although I suspect the hospitality boxes have a better selection of food). Mind you, I am not sure you would want to risk a prawn sandwich at most football grounds (I've seen much worse than at Cardiff). Unless, of course, it’s somewhere like Norwich, where Delia Smith personally makes the sandwiches and Stephen Fry is at hand to serve them.

A band (Tiger Please) played before the game. Social media suggested they would be playing at 2pm, but we arrived in the stadium a little after 2pm and they had already finished - the players were out warming up. Pre-match live music is a great idea, but may be difficult to pull off. It would probably need a bigger name act to boost the sparse crowd inside the ground over an hour before kick-off.

Previous post on Cardiff City Stadium food:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2011/01/football-and-chips.html

Cardiff’s Seagulls

Walking through the city centre recently I saw two gulls grab a Panini off a diner’s plate and pull it apart in the middle of the street. This is not an uncommon sight in Cardiff as more people attempt to eat outside during the warmer weather.

A recent attack in Cardiff Bay involved a seagull swooped down and carrying away a per-peri chicken from a man’s plate. The waiters showed little surprise and brought out a replacement meal.

These incidents are usually presented in a humorous light, but in Cardiff the joke is wearing thin. Soon only unwary visitors may be dining al fresco in parts of the city, with possible economic consequences.

Cardiff has one of Britain’s largest gull populations. The city has plenty of flat roofs, on which gulls can nest, and abundant food for the taking. In a recent press interview, seagull expert Peter Rock said his research showed that Cardiff’s seagull population had more than doubled since 2006 (up to 3,339 nesting pairs).

For many years, pigeons (“rats with wings”) were public enemy no.1. Urban gulls are, however, larger, more aggressive, noisier, messier, and create a bigger nuisance than feral pigeons. They potentially leave more dirt, do more damage to buildings, keep people awake at night, and peck open refuse sacks.

Gulls are rightly protected by law (The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) in their natural habitats on sea cliffs. However, urban gulls are another matter entirely. It may be time to consider better measures to reduce the nuisance they cause.

Researchers in Aberystwyth have tried the subtle approach, by installing speakers transmitting the sound of distressed seagulls to prevent gulls snatching food from outdoor diners (although what effect this noise had on the diners was not reported).

The video below is not by me and it was not filmed in Cardiff, but it looks almost identical to an incident I witnessed in St Mary Street when a gull swooped down and took a burger from a tourist who had just emerged from the McDonald's near Cardiff Castle.

Further reading:
http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2011/07/27/cardiffs-brazen-seagulls-targeting-diners/
http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2011/07/27/the-life-and-death-of-cardiffs-gulls/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14425779