This week, I head to the Annual Fancy Food Show, where thousands of food producers show their wares to buyers, chefs, journalists, and gourmands who can’t get enough. Next week, I”ll have a couple of interviews with NEW discoveries from the show, but this week, I catch up with people I’ve interviewed in the past, and see what’s new and how they’ve grown their business since the last time we spoke.

www.chocolatekekua.com
www.collierscheese.com
www.tamayagourmet.com

Here’s the video from last year’s show where I interviewed Isela Hernandez of Kekua: Chef Mark’s Quick Bites

ReMARKable Palate #152: A Powerful Taste of Wales

Buy Carica online: Tamaya Gourmet

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Chef Mark takes one last look at Wales through the grounds of the Cardiff Castle, a gem at the center of the old town of Cardiff.

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It’s back to Cardiff for an unexpected extra day of exploration. Chef Mark runs around the town discovering the covered 19th Century arcades, then stops in for a bite at the Victorian-era Central Market.

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ReMARKable Palate #214: The Foods of Wales

This week, I take you back to Wales, which I visited earlier this summer, for a taste of the traditional foods of this distinct country in the United Kingdom. First, I speak with Carol Watts, whose family has been selling cockles and laverbread in the Swansea Market for generations, and then Jennifer Iannolo and I speak with Angela Grey, one of the foremost experts in Welsh cookery, whose BBC program takes her all around Wales to show Welsh chefs cooking traditional foods

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

We stop in at the Vin Sullivan Food Company in the Brecon Beacons in Wales, and get a special cookery demo from Angela Grey, one of the experts in Welsh cuisine. You’ll see the recipes we cooked later on CMN, but for now we chat with Angela about some of the special local products made in Wales, like Carmarthenshire Ham, Cockles, and Laverbread.

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Video of our visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire. We glimpse the Welsh Black cattle, and tour the unique double walled garden.

www.gardenofwales.org.uk

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ReMARKable Palate #211: National Botanic Garden of Wales

While in Wales last month, we got a chance to learn about the great ranching and gardening programs going on at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales in Carmarthenshire. First we speak with Tim Bevan, Estate Manager, about the program he leads raising the Welsh Black breed of cattle, and then we speak with Malcolm Berry, the head gardener, about the unique double walled garden, which produces a number of heritage plants and trees, including a children’s allotment.

www.gardenofwales.org.uk

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

We stop in at The Codfather, an authentic chip shop in Abergavenny, Wales, and we have some fish n’ chips, as well as a taste of Welsh Faggots, Wales’ answer to haggis, served with chips, gravy and mushy peas! Paul Harris from www.seewales.com explains this unique regional dish.

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We stop in at the Penderyn Distillery, the only working distillery in Wales, which is working to revive the Welsh Whisky tradition. Keith Tench gives Jennifer a taste of a VERY special brew, and we head on down the road having a good time after the tasting.

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We pay a visit to Rhosilli Harbor, home of one of Wales’ most unusual natural features, The Worm’s Head, a rock outcropping off the coast. Our tour guide, Paul Harris from www.seewales.com, gives us the lowdown on the site, and then we enjoy a local brew with a great view!

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We pay a visit to a Welsh Country Fair in the Gower Peninsula, the first area of the UK to be designated an “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”. The fair celebrates local foods, animal husbandry, and equestrian events.

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We begin our discovery of Wales in the Capital city of Cardiff, and happen to be there on a Saturday night in summer, when the Hen parties and Stag parties are in full swing! We stop in for some fish n chips and the next morning visit the Riverside Farmer’s Market.

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Our short jaunt in Scotland ends and we make our wayto Wales via train. We stop in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and discover a cute little hotel right next to the train station.

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We end our first night in Scotland with a dinner at Coul House Hotel, which, as their motto says, is “deliciously relaxing”. Stuart & Susannah Macpherson are great hosts, and we enjoyed ourselves there. This dinner is distinctive because Chef Mark got his first taste of haggis!

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The first time I traveled to Scotland with my mother was in 2004, when the Culinary Media Network was a mere blog-type thing called “Gastronomic Meditations,” and my newsletter had about 4 subscribers. It was my first time there, and we were able to visit the house in which she was born — many, many moons ago. Don’t tell her I said that.

I wrote a few things about my discoveries then, so I thought I’d recap my first impressions (listed at the end of this post).

Next week Chef Mark and I are taking Mom back for a little retracing of the roots — this time on video. Incidentally, since she has thoroughly become an American despite the lingering Scottish lilt in her voice, I don’t call her Mum. She’d probably box my ears. Given the scare we had with her very serious heart attack last year, this trip is nothing short of a miracle, so I’m beyond grateful that we have the opportunity to do it at all.

2009 is a very special year for those of Scottish heritage, who have been invited to take part in Homecoming Scotland. For the entire year, the country has thrown open its doors to everyone of Scottish descent, so if there’s a trace of Bonnie Scotland in your blood, get your kilt over there lest you miss all the fun. Alas, we will arrive just after the largest clan gathering in history in Edinburgh; I would have been enraptured by big hulking men in kilts throwing telephone poles around, so it may be just as well.

Our journey will begin in Inverness, where my mother was born, and where our clan made its greatest impression (my ancestor, Duncan Forbes, built the monument at the Culloden battlefield). Then we will wind our way along the Whisky Coast, where we’ll visit some distilleries and sample a nip or two of Scotch. After that it’s down toward Glasgow for a visit with our pal Chef Tom Lewis of Monachyle Mhor — this part excites me terribly, because we’re going to make a clootie dumpling. That damnable recipe has eluded me for nearly a decade, and I *will* get it right. Though I am waiting for Mom to get after him while we’re in the kitchen if he doesn’t do something the way she remembers. This is going to be a hoot.

I’ll also be spending some time with my cousins in dear old Glaesgae, where they will speak to me in sing-songy tones I’ll barely understand, but we’ll laugh and drink and play music until the wee hours.

I’m hoping we have good internet access while we’re away so I can bring you along, but one never knows. “Access” is a relative term, I find. After our stint in Scotland we’ll be traveling on to Wales and the Costwolds, so this should be quite a fascinating trip. Lots more to come!

Ancient posts (2004):

Off to the Land of Haggis
A Trip to the Chippy
For the Love of Archibald

This week, I take a trip to the west of the UK and get a taste of Wales! I wish it were really so, but actually I spoke with a bunch of Welsh food producers at the Fancy Food Show here in New York. From cheddar cheese, to beer, sea salt and flavored pates, the foods of Wales reflect the Gaelic roots of these warm people, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the ones I met are a fun lot.

Collier’s Cheese
Cwrw Haf
Halen Mon Seasalt
Patchwork Foods

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com