Wales has a varied geography of land and sea which provided the country with great natural resources. These prime natural ingredients have shaped the culinary traditions of Wales as they learned how to cook good food from available resources. Welsh dish is also deeply influenced by immigrants who lived at the land that time. The wonderful mixture of tradition and diversity in Welsh food made Welsh food one of the greatest treasures that Wales has to offer.
One of the most popular dish in Wales is ‘cawl’ which means soup. Welsh cawl is a traditional stew which usually consist of lamb, leeks and root vegetables – the iconic food ingredients of Wales. There are different varieties of cawl that can contain any meat or vegetable, depending on the local region and recipe.
Apart from cawl, Welshcakes are also very famous. They are cute little cakes which look like scones. The cake is made from flour, butter, eggs and milk. It is usually flavoured with dried fruits, topped with sugar. Modern variations include bigger range of flavours such as chocolate, lemon or even Bailey’s.
Next on the list is Welsh rarebit. The name sounds like ‘rabbit’ but it does not contain any rabbit at all. Welsh rarebit is melted cheese, similar to cheese on toast, except with extra seasoning which can be mustard, beer or paprika. The dish is a must try because Welsh is famous for their cheese. It is best served with Laverbread.
Laverbread, or bara lawr, is also known as ‘Welshman’s caviar’. It is seaweed mixed with cockles, and usually spread on bread. Despite looking weird and slimy, the dish is actually very nutritious.
Finally, we have bara brith, translated to ‘speckled bread’. It has been a long debate whether bara brith is a bread or a cake. Traditional bara brith is made from yeast, but modern recipes substituted it with self raising flour. The yeast bread is filled with dried fruit and spice – which explains the ‘speckled’ part in its name. The dish tastes best when heated and served with salted Welsh butter.
All in all, Wales have a great variety of delicious and unique food. There are more famous Welsh dishes that have not been introduced in this article. If you are a food lover, be sure to explore and try out Welsh food because they can definitely provide gratification to your taste buds.
Welsh restaurant in London Primose Hill: Odette’s
*images taken from Pinterest*
European London 