AIR UPDATE
Ever expanding low-cost carrier Wizz Air has opened a base in Cardiff. It’s the Hungarian airline’s fourth UK centre and it’s initially offering routes to sunshine hotspots Alicante, Faro, Heraklion, Palma, Larnaca, Lanzarote and Tenerife, with Corfu planned to start in June and Sharm El Sheikh to be added in November.
Passengers will travel on fuel efficient Airbus A320 family aircraft, with one-way fares starting at an eye-catching
£12.99. wizzair.com
Emirates is resuming flights to Dubai from Stansted on August 1, as it ramps up post-lockdown operations. The route was suspended in March 2020. By October, the airline will be serving the UK with 110 weekly flights, covering Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow. emirates.com
Virgin Atlantic is serving up a new spring/summer menu in all cabins, combining British home comforts, cheese platters and destination-inspired dishes. The airline’s Mile High Tea is also getting a makeover.
virginatlantic.com
Vueling’s new onboard menu features more plant-based and gluten-free options and introduces a programme to encourage customers to reduce their use of single-use plastics. The Spanish carrier estimates new eco-friendly packaging saved 800 tonnes of plastic in 2021. vueling.es of the morning, Sasha showed me samphire (great in pasta); sea purslane (best pickled then served on top of cream cheese); mayweed (makes the perfect chamomile-like tea) and the aforementioned sea beet.
It had been what she called a “foraging treasure hunt” in an area she refers to as her larder, though she is quick to point out she sees foraging not as survival.
“It’s about introducing wild flavours into your existing diet,” she explained.
It was wonderful to find “treasure” in plain sight when others walked past without realising its potential. That theme continued as I explored further.
I began with a food tour called Welsh Tapas and Tasting – an idea born out of local Sian Roberts’ love for traditional Welsh dishes.
We started with a brunch at the Forage Farm Shop, the latest venture of the Penllyn Estate on the outskirts of Cowbridge, that launched amid the throes of the first lockdown.
“The farm’s been in my family for the past 200 years,” said owner Tom Humphrey as we tucked into eggs, sausages, tomatoes and all the trimmings, sourced from the farm or locally.
“My grandfather was a cow obsessive with a focus on high numbers, but we’ve changed that. We’ve diversified our stock, moved to low-density cattle and free-range chickens, as well as turning over 500 acres for wildlife and habitat.”
From there we went to visit Nick Craddock who, along with his son Joseph, makes Vale Cider using their own orchard a couple of fields away. They even hand wash the apples individually themselves.
The result was several varieties of the most delicious apply drink.
Then came Welsh tapas, courtesy of Chloe Francis-oakley at Cobbles, a place that sources ingredients from local producers and has seen custom thrive over the past two years.
“People have really focused on eating local and supporting independents, which is what we’ve always been about,” she explained as she put down dishes of lava bread (essentially seaweed); Glamorgan sausage (traditionally never made with meat – they use cheese, potato, leek and breadcrumbs instead) and Welsh rarebit (a cheese on toast with mustard – the name is said to come from it being a snack that’s cooked for a short time).
She calls this menu “Bwyta bach” aka “small eats”, inspired by her love of Spanish food.
Putting a Welsh twist on something classic was another theme that continued that evening, when I arrived at my accommodation in the Goodsheds in Barry.
Formerly a railway storage area, over lockdown it was transformed into a
Foraging is about introducing wild flavours into your existing diet
Shoreditch-style hub with serviced apartments to overnight in, independent Welsh streetfood stalls, a coffee shop, rooftop bar (try the Barry Island Iced Tea), a Michelin-starred restaurant and a tap room and bar.
It was the latter where I ended my day, sampling owner Claire and Tim Whalley’s Barry Island Gin – an “accidental lockdown creation” – made here in the Vale with help from master distiller Dai Wakely. It even features botanics from Claire and Tim’s garden.
Since its launch in 2020 it’s won a Taste Award and is now shipped all over Britain.
Inspired by the local producers who value low food miles and sustainability, the next day I set myself a challenge: to create two classic Welsh dishes (rarebit and tatws pum munud – aka five-minute potatoes – which, in keeping with the
Welsh sense of humour when it comes to naming recipes, actually take 20 minutes to prep and over an hour to cook). I wanted to use only locally sourced ingredients so I began at the Cowbridge Farmers’ Market, where I hunted down most of the fresh produce required as well as cheese, bread and a cake. For seasoning I headed to Awesome Wales – a zero-waste store in the town that sells vegetable stock by weight.
With more condiments (mustard and butter) needed, I went to the Forage Farm Shop, picked up the ale for the rarebit from Tomos & Lilford Brewery – the only microbrewery in the Vale – and Welsh flour and meat from Slade Organic Farm shop.
After much searching, I admitted defeat and resorted to a supermarket for the Worcestershire sauce.
My trip ended with a glass of wine on a visit to the oldest vineyard in Wales – the Glyndwr Vineyard in Cowbridge. There, owner Richard Norris had welcomed local volunteers to help harvest this year’s grapes.
Among them was a nurse who’d
come for the first time to enjoy the fresh air, a man called Richard who’d been volunteering for 26 years for the social aspect, and Lesley Parker, who runs a horticulture therapy group called Growing Places, who was there for the fourth time with some clients.
It just shows that, much like the foraging at the start of my Welsh adventure, the Vale of Glamorgan is hiding many treasures in plain sight.