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from taste. blas magazine: Issue 7, Summer 2021

Cra Work

Chartists 1770,

Powys

The connection between Llanidloes and the Chartist movement is a fascinating one; Google it, or, better yet, peruse the information available in the Trewythen Hotel’s stylishly understated and inviting restaurant, Chartists 1770, because then, after edifying yourself, you can eat like the king that sent the soldiers in to stamp on such uppity ideas as universal suffrage (except for women; they had to wait until 1919 for the right to vote).

Llanidloes has been needing a restaurant like this for quite some time; its curries and chips and kebabs are all well and good but this place, as befits its quality, should be welcomed and feted with a fanfare and a flourish. The wine list hovers around the twentypound mark, the menu is innovative, the service is attentive without being obtrusive, and the food is wonderful. To start, a knot of smoked salmon sits amid a galaxy of tart capers in a milky way of creme fraiche, a beautifully balanced combination; a little wheel of Welsh goat’s cheese lightens the crunch of herb toast and roasted walnut, the citric grassiness of it undercut by the sweetness of grape. These flavours sound big and brash but the pairing of them is done with great care and cleverness; nuances are attended to so that contrasts complement rather than clash. On to mains. Crispy sea bass skin curls like a fern away from the mother-of-pearl flesh; buttery spinach oozes from some enticing depth. A mushroom, halloumi and asparagus strudel is like a spring roll on steroids, lifted by a tomato and basil puree which, again, skips out from some hidden pocket of loveliness. The filo gives with a crunch and the asparagus follows on the yield of the cheese and how nice it is to see halloumi treated this way, rather than simply griddled. This is considered and bold cooking with mostly familiar ingredients, done with great skill.

And the puds; oh, the puds. Not burdened with a big sweet tooth, dessert must be something truly special to get my lyricism to wax. I will one day write an epic poem about the egg custard tart with raspberry sorbet and Garibaldi biscuit; more like a flat Welsh cake, perfectly caught at that moment between caramelisation and carbonisation, this is a thing of true beauty. I was lamenting its loss even as I ate it. The coffee brûlée with vanilla ice cream and shortbread achieved that magical state of almost umami-ness in ostensible sweetness; this is a nirvana-like condition that few dishes seek, let alone reach. Bitterness and sweetness and crunch and cream all in one mouthful. Startling, perfect. Yet more reasons to visit Llani.

Niall Griffiths

Chartists 1770, Great Oak Street, Llanidloes, Powys, SY18 6BW tel: 01686 411333 www.trewythenhotel.wales

Welsh Soul Food

It’s just three months since Bridge Studios opened in Ely. An offshoot of Canton’s Bone Yard, this container village beside the A48 roundabout in Ely is home to craft brewer Flowerhorn and the wine delivery VinVan Caerdydd.

Tempting us out on a hot Friday evening was the pop-up Taste of Turner, promising home-cooked Caribbean food with a unique Welsh taste. We were not disappointed. The hard-working, friendly team offered permutations of goat curry, peas and rice, slaw and croquettes, all served with a side-order of laughter.

The goat was cut into tender mouthfuls of delight with just the right amount of heat - enough to set your taste buds dancing while still revealing the flavourful sauce. The rice and peas were rich with colour and texture, the kidney beans like soft garnets and the rice dark with the chilli. A robust slaw held it all together in a luscious creaminess. Croquettes helped us shovel it in.

We wolfed it down, sitting on our pallet seats in the early dusk. All the tables and chairs are upcycled, with a wild array of heights and widths. In this new era, wine and beer are ordered using an app, accessed via the QR code with your table number. I fumbled at it till the lovely server from VinVan helped me out. Taste of Turner, being new, was more old style, with an actual queue. Such a spot brings a real sense of community into the area.

Simon Turner set up this unique offer during lockdown. He was in isolation last Friday, running operations over the phone, but he talked to me afterwards. His grandpa, who merits a documentary too, left a book of recipes from his St Lucia roots. Si found it in his mother’s attic a while back. Now the takeaway menu includes such staples as Welsh cakes with ginger and rum, Welsh whelks with extra lime and spice and lamb curry made with finest marsh-fed lamb. Si is proud to use Welsh produce in all his food, partnering with local suppliers. This is true Welsh fusion food, just like Si’s family itself.

Taste of Turner can be found on Facebook and Instagram, delivering across Cardiff and the Vale alongside occasional pop-ups. Keep an eye on the changing offers; I can’t wait to try the brown down chicken myself. Order a take-out, put your beer in the fridge and enjoy soul food with people you love.

Sarah Tanburn

Taste of Turner: like and follow online for news and orders.

www.instagram.com/taste_of_turner/ www.facebook.com/TasteOfTurner

Indiana Cuisine,

Fairbourne, Gwynedd

Fairbourne’s central hub is a few takeaways and a mini-mart and an outwardly unassuming Indian. Raj, the dashing and charismatic ex-Bollywood owner of said Indian, was told that establishing a high-quality Punjabi eatery in Fairbourne was guaranteed to fail (‘the most unthinkable part of Wales’, as he writes in one of his fascinating autobiographical scrapbooks); and that appealed to the part of him that thrives on challenge. His restaurant is now in its 14th year of service.

And the food is, truly, spectacularly good. Seriously; it’s on a par with the Michelin-starred Indians of London and the Midlands and, even, of certain places of reputation and renown in Mumbai’s Colaba district, and the fact that Raj’s equally charming wife, Noori, is the sole chef is miraculous. Spinach pakoras are little bites of addictive umami shatter; there is a dish of bread and mashed potato, rolled and spiced and deep-fried, that is every bit as good and moreish as it sounds. It is food I want to shout and sing about; food as a suitable subject for an epic poem. Veg kebabs are deeply green cobbles in which crispness surrenders to chew and the flavours just keep rolling in like the waves of Cardigan Bay outside. And those flavours; like a cocktail in which the constituent parts fuse to create a taste entirely new, you chase cumin and find fenugreek, which introduces you to tamarind, and then you just give up and succumb to the intense loveliness of it all. There is a besan-battered fish wrapped around a secret sauce that gives up mustard and ginger and maybe asafoetida and finally an unnameable operatic crescendo of glorious zing and burst. And oh, the coconut lamb; it takes true culinary intredipity to tease out coconut’s savouriness in this way. Same with the okra; I’ve never been a fan of the Slimy Lady’s finger, and indeed never yearned for more of a dish of which it was a part, but Noori chars it and dries it and spices it (with masala made on the premises) and makes of it something wondrous. Chilli heat is a seductive background whisper, always imparting things that are nice to hear.

Prawn bhuna has a roast-plum sourness that is thrilling to explore; the daal is utterly perfect in both taste and consistency, as is the woodfire smoke of aubergine. Naans are crisp from the tandoor and ghee-slathered; I’ve always thought peshwari should come with custard, but here’s Noori’s skill with the savoury-from-sweet thing again. It’s hugely impressive. It’s hugely good.

Should climate change continue at its current rate, Fairbourne may have only a decade left above the brine. Another reason, if it were needed, to hie yourselves to this superb restaurant as soon as you can. Raj has brought the gift of Bollywood glitz and splendour to this part of Wales and I thank the mountains for it.