Big British Food Map Wales - the north leg

Date Published:

30/05/2008

In the second leg of his Welsh tour Andrew heads north to sample the culinary delights surrounding Snowdon and eat with a man called Pete

Best of British

Spent the day catching up on news, emails, Doctor Who and eating some splendid Welsh black beef that I bought from A.J Bailey and Sons, the butchers in Llangadog. There really was a ' & sons' there. Well, a young work experience lad learning the trade - good on him.

Treated myself to a post planning slurp and read of the rag and food mag.

Spent the day in London planning the North Wales leg of the trip. It was tricky getting hold of anyone on the bank holiday to arrange a visit. But with a rough idea of where I was going and some accomodation booked I was ready.

These mist covered mountains, are home to me now.

Set off at the crack of dawn and hit the M1 and traffic. Eventually got to Wales in the afternoon, just in time for the end of the lunchshift at Pete's Eats.
After leaving Pete's I went for a little scenic drive roughly back towards where I was staying. Snowdon was covered in mist and the rain looked like something from the Lord of the Rings. It's breathtaking being surrounded by these massive mountains. Where as the feeling in Brecon was one of desolation, here it's one of majesty - just think of the power that pushed this lot up.

Mountains 1 - Technology 0

North Wales is very mountainous, while this is great for sheep, and throws up some cracking driving, it's lousy for mobile signal - which is part of the charm. All my technology was no match for the terrain of Wales, which is a good thing as I believe there should be some wild places left, not so good for telling you what I've been doing however. Had a proper hearty breakfast at Tyddyn Llan restaurant with rooms, including a blob of tasty laverbread to which I'm am now a convert. Wales is a fantastic place, I'd love to explore it more, perhaps I'll nip back over the border next week.

Are you gonna go my way?

Checked out of the hotel and, having no where booked, decided to go to my Mum's house as she's only an hour away in the North West, plus I needed some washing done, use of the internet and it's always nice to see your mum.
On the way there I picked up a hitch hiker. I vowed when I started this project that if I ever saw a hitcher I'd pick them up and make use of the spare front seat. I can't remember his name but he was hitching down to Gloucester from Bangor to see his mum. We had a chat about this and that, I explained what I was doing, we talked about issues of the day and he, being local, pointed out a few interesting places and facts on the way. You don't see hitchers much these days. I asked him who generally picked him up. He said it was mainly single guys in cars or blokes in white vans looking for someone to talk to, seasoned road users mainly. Truckers don't do it so much anymore due to a tightening of insurance conditions he says. He's also occasionally been picked up by lone women and given a lift which shows that the world isn't such a bad place as it often seems.

Parking up at my Mum's also gave me the opportunity to give the focus a spring clean. The foot well was a little muddy after the cows in Cornwall and the pigs in Wales so I decided to give it a little vac out. I've also been planning the next stage of the trip. So June 1st - 16th I'm in the Midlands and then back in the North West 16th - 30th of June. So if you're in any of those places and have any good recommendations, get 'em on the map!

Read about some of the places Andrew visited in Wales.

Know some where good for grub in Wales? Add it to the map.

Last week Andrew was in Wales.

Next he's off to to the West Mids.

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