Day 17 – Bath – Llandrillo
With L’s Jane Austen habit temporarily sated, it’s time to head into the wilds of Wales. With sat nav coordinates a little too much like lost (LL21 0ST or something like that) it was looking like an opportunity to disappear into the valleys, or a coal mine somewhere. It was awesome to cross the Severn bridge into Wales, as it isn’t everyday a West Aussie gets to drive across a national border (even if it is a toll bridge). We then found it quite funny when the satnav took us almost straight out of Wales, into Herefordshire. It’s interesting to see that there is in many places a marked geographical difference between Wales and England, the hills and valleys get bigger and steeper, the land seems a little harder and it doesn’t seem as green. But I could be wrong or just making it all up, but it’s kind of a similar thing with the Highlands, too, a feeling that this is somewhere other than England.
The good news was that the satnav lead us back into Wales, over another bridge (no toll). north Wales is obviously hardcore, as while th dual language signs in the south had the English first and then the Welsh, in the north the Welsh comes first. There’s a musicality to the way the Welsh speak, and sometimes i wish I could pronounce all the awazing words correctly. Not being able to, I guess the next bbest thing is envious satire, like pretending that Llyynnogogllwynnallannd is Welsh for hello. About all the Welsh I can remember is that araf is slow, as in araf down as you go around this hairpin bend in case there’s a mad driver, jogger or sheep on the road ahead.
In L’s capable hands the drive was quite uneventful, and the satnav took us straight to Tyddyn Llan, or lodgings for the next two nights, just on the edge of Llandrillo. TL describes itself as a “restaurant with rooms”, boasting a Michelin star for its food. The rooms are a little on the usually unusual side, up a couple of staircases and through some weird doors (one of which is a custom rectangle-without-a-corner job). The rooms are pokey in the usual British way, but here the floors slope a little, there are all sorts of weird angles, and true right angles are few and far between. It’s a little like Being John Malkovich as you wind your way through the building. But it’s warm, and keeps the rain out, so that’s a good start.
The restaurant is pretty good. Not the most impressive Michelin-starred food I’ve ever had, but still very nice. After an amuse-bouche of deep fried cheese and mini pies in the lounge, we were led into the dining room where a pea and ham soup was served, accompanied by some pretty amazing bread, a rosemary foccacia that was really really good. This was followed by a game terrine with brioche, lots of yummy rabbit and foie gras and stuff with a truffle cream sauce. The brioche was deep fried and sweet, made an interesting accompaniement.
Mains was monkfish on kale with dill and mustard sauce with creamy mashed potatoes. I’m not sure I really get monkfish, it tastes okay, and seems robust enough to handle some serious cooking, but as fish go it’s a little on the bland side. It’s almost fish for those who don’t really like fishy fish. The sauce was very nice, and it went well with the French white wine I ordered.
Dessert was a steamed ginger pudding in custard. The custard was very nice, smooth and full of vanilla, and the steamed pudding had a wonderful texture. I would have been happy with just these, but the pudding was topped by a layer of candied ginger. I appreciated this, and totally understand what it was doing there, but I guess my preference would have been just have the bloody good pud and custard. The ginger was lovely and warming, but didn’t really do huge amounts for me on a personal level.
The food was really really good, but I guess it lacked the (apologies for the cliche) wow factor. As a diner you knew you were eating fine food and excellent ingredients, but it lacked something that made it feel special. None of the dishes totally stopped me in my tracks enough to make me proclaim them to be the finest food in the world. Lots made me go yum, but nothing made me go wow.