Sunday 9 June 2013

Food and Drink around Hay

The first thing my Young Man said, when he told me he had some time off to come up to Hay, was: "Can we go to the Yakmobile again?"
So on Tuesday evening we went down to the layby on the edge of town with two friends who hadn't yet tried the Nepali curries. This time we had the Kathmandu curry with rice and vegetables. I think I preferred the Mountain Lamb curry I had last time, but it was a close thing.
"We could go down to Crickhowell tomorrow," Tudor suggested, taking note of where the van would be on Wednesdays, "and - where's Much Birch? We could go there on Friday."
I'd also promised to take the Young Man back to Tomatitos. We decided five dishes between us would fill us up, especially if one of them was the Potatos Bravos - the calamari rings, and chicken in garlic sauce and meatballs (I'm not sure now what the final dish was) fitted the bill nicely. By the time we'd noticed the Dolces (Sweets) board on the wall near the bar, we were too full to take advantage of it, so had to make do with coffee.
Snacks at Shepherds were on the agenda when my sister and her family came to stay. Little James liked the strawberry milkshake, which I think was somewhat experimental in the absence of strawberry ice cream to make it with. Later in the week we were back there for ice creams and green tea with another friend while we discussed esoteric literature (and discovered that Phil Rickman's next Merrily Watkins book will be about Hay!) (Mmmm, peach and champagne ice cream!).
Lunch with my sister and her family on another day took us to the Lichfield Vaults in Hereford, and their mini mezze and Greek platter washed down with Adnams Broadside (and juice for James).
We were also topping up with snacks - the black pudding sausage rolls from the Wholefood shop went down very well, and my sister declared the focaccia from Alex Gooch's market stall to be "heavenly"! Usually, on a Thursday, I pass by about 9am before things are properly set up, and come back through town around half past one for lunch, when everything is winding down, so I very rarely see the stall piled high with bread, and brioche and chocolate buns and things.
There was beer, of course, as well. The fifteen hand pumps in Kilvert's have gone back down to five for the moment, but they are still going round the Welsh breweries - this week it's been Waen, and very fine pints of Wicker Man (fairly strong, but tasty, at 5%) and TWA (Traditional Welsh Ale) which is a refreshing 3.7%.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the other dish was the tortilla

Eigon said...

That was it! Thanks