Pie test 2

Beany goodness

Pie test

Testing out mobile blogging with this very fine sausage and baked bean pie (with chips and beans).

Our Pillars breakfasts

Following on from the previous post, here's what we had to eat in Pillars.
Me: Sausage, egg, beans, fried bread
Disappointment: Sausage, bacon, beans, fried bread
I'm sure that's not a hair in my egg...

Going underground

We spent our last night in Wales in Cardiff. We stayed at a nice hotel in the city centre, but because of some mix up, breakfast wasn't included in our room rate and it would have cost us an additional £17 each or something ludicrous, which is pretty steep for some sausages and beans. Instead, we popped around the corner and went to Pillars, a large basement café, and paid less than seven quid between us. For me, Pillars is something of a Cardiff institution. I've been going there since I was little, and it's not really changed very much. The photos at the top of this blog are taken from the display outside. Back in 2008, I ate this pie there.
You can see what we ate in the next post. Thanks to Disappointment for the extra photos.

Llanelli breakfast number #2

This rather neat breakfast (plus toast, not pictured) was eaten on our second morning at the Stradey Park Hotel. And with that, we said our farewells to SA14.

Pa rum pum pum pum

A chicken curry with half and half for my dining companion, a steak for me at the Ashburnham Hotel in Pembrey. Slightly disappointing this time, to be honest. And for the first hour and a half that we were there, they played Johnny Cash's version of Little Drummer Boy on a loop. When we pointed this out to them, they admitted it had probably been on all day and nobody else had noticed. So a bit of a weird evening. Still, at least the arrangement of the peas and fried tomato on my white plate looked a bit festive.

Llanelli breakfast number #1

At the Stradey Park Hotel, Llanelli. You know, what this breakfast's missing is an egg...

That's better! Aaah, look at his little face...

"You've probably had enough turkey over Christmas, so we've done you beef."

Beefy, delicious post-Christmas family dinner in Wales.

More Magor

Some more photographs of Magor. The carvery picture was taken on an earlier visit, a couple of years back. Notice how the decorative use of potatoes makes you want to eat a slice of pork pie, or some cold sausages in a tomato sauce.

Trying that bit harder

After a farewell bacon sandwich courtesy of Disappointment's gran, we left Nottingham and set off for Llanelli. It's a 220 mile trip and so we took a break at Magor Services, on the M4 near Newport. There we ate the ham rolls that we'd made for the journey and bought some chips and a pot of tea each. There's something very satisfying about chips and a roll. The services at Magor are run by First, an independent operator. It's a great service station, with a lovely cold carvery of meats and salads and a separate counter for hot food. Currently, they seem to be doing up their petrol station.

Megabuffet

An amazing - and extensive - Boxing Day buffet, made by Disappointment's gran and auntie in Nottingham. The most popular items with the youngsters were the duck wrap things, to the left of the glass of wine in the second photo.
In the fourth picture, you will notice that Disappointment has adapted a simple ham cob by adding some spicy tomato chutney, some cheese and a cube of pineapple. Kind of like a Hawaiian pizza.
The last picture is of some vegetarian cocktail sausages, which have no place in a Boxing Day buffet.

Christmas Dinner 2009

Living the high life with Disappointment's family in Nottingham. Really lovely dinner.

Monsieur, with these Brussels sprouts you are really spoiling us

The next few posts are going to be about what I ate over Christmas.