Once we arrived at the Beudy Bach B&B, I had to ask how the name is pronounced. Helen Pour, the owner/wife, explained it’s BYE-dee bahk. It’s Welsh for little cow shed. Their house, in an earlier incarnation, was a cow shed and barn, but was converted to a home. They have three B&B rooms. One double upstairs with an en suite bathroom (en suite is French for a private bathroom  . . you’ll see that word used throughout hotel, B&B and inn descriptions). The other two twin-bed rooms downstairs share a bathroom. Sharing a bathroom is not one of my favored travel experiences, but we only had to share one of our two nights there.

Helen and Steve are delightful hosts. They worked overtime on our behalf, actually. Not only did they make dinner recommendations and reservations for us at the Grey Hound Pub down the road, but they also made phone calls for us to find someone who would engrave us a house number plaque made from Welsh slate. Sure enough, the local undertaker was happy to oblige, even making it for us in a little over 24 hours. He wrapped it in bubble wrap and Dave fit it into his suitcase. When Dave and I visited the Lake District many, many years ago, we had a plaque made of slate with our last name and another with our (then) house number on it When we sold that house, of course the number plaque stayed with it. At our new house, there was no logical place to put the name sign. Now that we have a new number plaque, we’ll have to find the name plaque. I don’t think, though, that the two slates are the same color; that may pose a decor issue for me. Can’t mix the slate colors. The name plate has white letters. This number plaque has silver numbers.

Helen also bought a small bottle of cream (single) for me because I asked if she had any for coffee. She didn’t but she bought one just for me. That’s hospitality! She also showed me her ipad, the new hand-held Apple computer which was very fun. Loved that! We spent several hours (while it was raining outside) sitting in their light and bright kitchen – me plugged into their wi-fi, with numerous cups of tea along the way. The Pours are horse people – they don’t ride anymore, but they have several horses that are like pets.

Anyway, we enjoyed our 2-day stay at Beudy Bach, taking a long drive on the in-between day to visit the seashore near Cardiff. Dave visibly relaxes when he can smell the sea. So, if you ever find yourself in South (West) Wales and need a very gracious B&B, this one should be in your itinerary. The rooms are small, but you don’t spend that much time in them anyway. The house is very nice, modern and light. Tell Helen and Steve we said hello.

Beudy Bach B&B
Bethania Rd, Upper Tumble, Llannelli, Carmarthenshire
West Wales, SA 14 6EB
+44 (0) 1269842702

Tweet

When I began planning the trip to Britain, I spent countless hours researching online – not just places to stay, sites to see, but also restaurants. Some locations didn’t have much. More and more I seem to rely on Trip Advisor. That compendium of updated information provided only by users. About places ‘round the world. Its amazing, really, when you think about it, that one can do so much travel planning online now.

Many hotels we visited had Trip Advisor decals in their windows (a good sign). Or they had photocopied write-ups from Trip Advisor. And many of the hotel sites I visited had a mention of Trip Advisor within. I must go online and submit new additions to the sites where we really enjoyed our stay. There was only one hotel (in the Lake District) that I probably won’t write up somehow. And there was really nothing wrong with it – the owners were nice. But our room was damp. Towels didn’t dry overnight, and the little bit of hand washing I did took 2 full days to dry. Not problems the owners can do much about, I don’t suppose. So, it’s better to just not mention that one.

Anyway, back to restaurants . . . I did make dinner reservations in several places we visited. The tourist season was busy, and I thought it might be difficult to get reservations, particularly if we selected a popular place. Such was the case with our last night in Britain. We turned in our rental car at Heathrow, got checked into our Marriott hotel there, and then we took the tube into London. We’ve sight-seen in London countless times and had decided not to stay there on this trip.

So when researching what we’d do our last night, I went online (of course) and checked-out London restaurants. We’ve been to many of the better restaurants (although not the River Cafe) in London. We didn’t take dressy clothes on this trip. Dave absolutely refused to take a sport coat, so I didn’t want to embarrass us or others by going to a fine dining establishment in inappropriate clothes. I read about Fifteen London, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in downtown London. Where he (and the professionals on staff) train (for free but paid for by Oliver’s foundation set up for this purpose) about 20 underprivileged young people (adults, though) how to be chefs. Not just cooks, but real chefs. They train for 11 months, when they graduate and go on to get their own jobs, hopefully. They’d just graduated the class of 2010 a few weeks ago – August is the only month of the year when the meals are created and cooked by the pros/teachers.

Whether I didn’t notice, or I made the decision to go there anyway, I don’t know, but I didn’t remember how expensive it would be. Fifteen has two restaurants – a more casual trattoria and a downstairs dining room. The latter, a set menu for 60 pounds per person is where I’d made the reservation. The kind of meal you should remember for a lifetime. I hope I do! I took photos with my small point and shoot camera, so I apologize for them not being as clear or precise (or focused) as usual.

We arrived a bit early. Too early to eat, yet not enough time to go do something else. We didn’t know how long it would take to get ourselves into London from the airport, so we allowed ample time.

So, once we got there we sat in the small bar area where people kept streaming in – some in quite dressy clothes – others in very casual clothes. We sat watching the chefs (the professionals were wearing little tight bandana head coverings (black); other kitchen staff were sans head coverings. Multiple languages were punctuating the air. Sous chefs kept going out the door (behind the glasses in photo) and disappearing down below somewhere (the dungeons) to retrieve big huge deep trays of food things (we spotted olives for sure). The walk-in storage refrigerator must be somewhere in the basement.

My drink was a cocktail type – with prosecco, Aperol, soda and an orange slice. Altogether perfect for relaxing on a warm afternoon. Dave had a glass of red wine.

This course may not have been my favorite of the night, but it was certainly right “up there.” Some delicious house made salami with to-die-for focaccia bread with red onion. The bread was just filled with the onion – it was warm, tender, and SO flavorful. The olives were home cured, we’re sure. I didn’t have any of them, but Dave said the large green ones were the best. We also had a small bowl of Spanish olive oil to dip the bread into.

Then they brought us a little amuse-bouche of fresh scallop with pomegranate (and juice) with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and the juice of Japanese limes (top photo left). All in a small Chinese ceramic soup spoon. Altogether amazing flavors.

I didn’t take notes about the wines we had – all unusual and chosen by the wine steward to go with each course. He and Dave had an animated conversation about each and every wine and why the wine was particularly appropriate for the different foods.

Next, I had burratta (second photo down). With a little bit of dark greens, a delish sauce too. You can barely see the cheese on the bottom of the plate. It was, by far, the best burratta I’ve ever had. It had great flavor and oozed just like it’s supposed to. I think they drizzled some balsamic on the plate too, or maybe it was a basil swath – I can’t remember. The greens were dressed and they also perfectly matched to go with the cheese.

Then I ordered a risotto course (third photo down). This was a tasting menu, so portions were small. Otherwise we’ve have never been able to waddle up the steps and out of there.

The risotto was full of red cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil. It was absolutely to die for. Best risotto of that type I’ve ever had. I may try to re-create it here at home. It was that good. And risotto is not hard to make, but I’m not sure exactly what made this one taste so significantly better than others. Probably just the ripest of tomatoes (sweet, ripe) and whole milk mozzie. Anyway, it was superb.

Trying not to make a spectacle of myself taking photos, I didn’t use flash, so I apologize if you have a hard time seeing them. I tried to lighten them up as best I could. This last is the duck breast I ordered. It was served on a bed of very soft polenta, then drizzled with some kind of fig jam or sauce, and buried underneath the duck was a fresh fig. This dish was so good, I couldn’t believe it. And yet, nothing about it was that unusual – the duck was rare, tasty and tender, the fig sauce light and sweet, and the fresh fig was just ripe perfection.

Then they brought dessert. I took a photo of it, but am not including it because I was very disappointed in it. I ordered baked Alaska. They used a small cake round on the bottom, a nice (small) knob of vanilla ice cream, then covered it with sweet meringue. Then they’d browned it with a hand torch, I think. But the meringue was still sticky and overly sweet. After two bites I scraped off the meringue and just ate the ice cream and cake. It was okay. Nothing to remark about, really. But to have had all the other courses (5 if you include the amuse-bouche) be off the charts, I’m fine if the dessert was a “miss.”

Would I go again? Yes I would. To the dining room? Probably not – I’d try the trattoria part just because I’d like to.

Fifteen London

15 Westland Place (about 4 blocks walk from Old Street tube station on the Northern Line)
London N1 7LP, United Kingdom
0871 330 1515 (reservations available online)

Tweet

We arrived back home to California last night, after 2 grueling flights (one nearly 10 hours and another nearly 3). This was the pack-em-like-sardines portions. We had 4 very small children around us, all about 14 months to age 3. I often say a little prayer when we fly, hoping we won’t be seated next to or near children on any flight actually, but especially on a long, transatlantic one. All the parents involved did their best, and for the most part the children were good. But the screaming-meemies were difficult – you know that stage of childhood when the child realizes that if she/he screams as loud as possible for a long, but piercing burst, they get attention? Yup. We had 2 of those, one in the seat just ahead of us. The other 2 rows behind us (she was not part of the 4 children in our immediate vicinity, but her piercing screams felt like she was too close! Anyway, we survived the flights and got home about 7:00 pm last night. It was over 100° here in Southern California yesterday, and our house, where the A/C had been left off, of course, was hotter than blazes. It was 90 on our upstairs floor. I could hardly stay awake until 9:00 pm and promptly went to sleep. I woke up at 4, and finally got up at 4:30. I’ll be doing this for some nights, readjusting my system to California time.

We piled up laundry (nearly emptied both of our suitcases doing that), took showers and toddled off to bed. But not before I put my iPhone on to charge – it was completely dead. And not before I put my iPod on to charge – it too was completely dead. My Kindle is charging, although it still had a whiff of juice left. My mini-laptop actually had some charge left, but not much. I wrote a couple of blog posts on it while we were en route.

So, as we were flying I wrote down some things I thought you, my readers, would enjoy. If you’ve never traveled to England, you might enjoy this the most. Those of you who already have may not find the list all that interesting. Observations of traveling (for Americans) in general and a few about the Brits:

• Habits run deep . . . it’s hard remembering what side to get into a right-hand drive car . . . on the right side! We were both still making that mistake after two weeks of driving.
• When you travel by car, you live in a near state of dehydration . . . because bathrooms are hard to find. There are fewer gas [petrol] stations in Britain than in the States and many of them don’t have toilets.
• Nearly all hotels and B&Bs use duvets, and I find them stiflingly hot in summer. Nearly every night of our trip I found myself awaking to throw off the duvet, then being cold in a matter of minutes. It took some time to start  your night’s sleep with the duvet just hovering over you, not draped over both sides of you. At least I guess that’s the way the locals adjust
• Brits love old American TV shows. Hotels offer a very limited selection of basic TV (not so different from U.S. travel, just less) and after you’ve listened to the BBC and CNN for 30 minutes you usually switch to something else and what was on mostly was The Golden Girls. Yes, really.
• Speed cameras are everywhere. The difference is that they signpost them, telling you there [probably] is one at the beginning of every village where the speed limit slows to 30-40 mph.
• The cost of getting from the airport [Heathrow] into London is dear. And time consuming. Took us about two hours to get there. We were staying at the Marriott at Heathrow, so needed to take the “park hoppa” bus (about $6.00 each for a 20 minute ride) from the hotel to one of the main terminals at Heathrow. Had to walk a goodly distance to get to the underground (tube) to take a train into downtown. Cost about $4.50 each, one way. I’d think twice about doing that again, yet we wanted to stay at the airport for our early-morning flight departure (that part worked very well) but didn’t want to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. Reminder to self: just get used to it – stay at the airport and eat at the hotel next time.
• Roundabouts – you know what they are? Instead of traffic lights the Brits use an ingenious system of round circles to keep the flow moving. If you’ve never driven in Britain they do take a bit of getting used to, but they’re wonderful. Only twice did I miss the correct road out of the roundabout, but what’s so great about it is that if you miss, you just go around again.
• Finding a place to pull off the road are rare (like to check a map, get a drink of water, stretch your legs). On the motorways (freeways) they have “services” areas every 30 miles or so (for petrol, food, bathrooms, etc.) but they’re so far and few between. And those work great when you’re on the motorways. Otherwise, lots of luck trying to find a place. I drove slower than the general traffic did and on narrow, 2-lane roads (of which there are tens of thousands all over Britain) there are no places to pull over, hardly, to let someone pass. Often fences go right up to the side of the road – there’s no shoulder or anything. We always prefer the more scenic routes and forgo the motorways when time permits. Bear that in mind if you decide to drive yourself!
• Brits like cold toast. It’s just a matter of a cultural difference. We always like hot toast, but the Brits put them into the cutest little racks and you eat toast stone cold (freshly toasted, but still cold).
• If you’re a coffee and cream drinker, take Coffee-Mate packets if you can. The Brits don’t use cream in their coffee – only milk. And usually it’s low-fat milk. That’s one of my idiosyncrasies . . . I like half and half in my coffee. At one of the B&Bs the owner actually went out and bought cream for me – bless her! Otherwise I had to get used to it.
• Having read the book The World Is Flat 3.0, I see more and more of it. . . I heard so many different languages in England (more in London and at the airport, of course) than any place I’ve ever been. Most service people in Britain are foreigners – they speak British English – but they’re very hard to understand. England has more people from India and Pakistan (at least that’s my observation).
• If you’re a techie, you may need more than one converter and British plug adapter. And yet, most hotels will have just one available plug (if you can find it) – you’ll be lucky if you have two in any one room. This was a source of frustration for me as a traveler.
• Sunday Lunch is an institution in England. Meaning it’s the main meal, and they like nothing better than a big roast with all the trimmings. We had one of those meals with friends, which I’ll write up later.
• Soft drinks are very pricey. They do have sugar-free drinks, fortunately, but canned soft drinks cost dearly – at least 2 pounds each (about $3.00) and that’s for one glass. No refills. And you may have to ask to get ice.
• The double bed is still alive and well in Britain. Queen sized beds are becoming more well known but king beds are a rarity. When a hotel says they have 10 doubles, 2 twins, that means they have 10 rooms with double beds only and 2 with 2 twin beds. Just so you know . . .
• Pay the premium for a sat/nav or GPS with your rental car – it can be a lifesaver when you’re driving internationally. I cannot advise you enough – pay the price – it’s worth every penny.
• Dress codes are almost a thing of the past – we found casual dress the norm everywhere. Even in a pricey London restaurant it was casual. I’m sure there are still holdouts and we did see some people dressed to the nines, but casual was also acceptable everywhere we went.
• Brits are really fond of their stick shift cars. I grew up driving a stick shift, so it’s not a problem for me, but I decided this time to pay the premium (yes, it’s a premium to rent an automatic). When you’re concentrating on driving on the other side of the road and making right turns across incoming traffic can be stressful, it’s nice to know you don’t have to fret about shifting gears all the time.
• And the best one – if you rent a GPS or a sat/nav with your rental car, what you need to get you anywhere in the country is the 6-digit postal code. It’s an ingenious system – that postal code takes you TO the exact address. Nothing like ZIP codes here which may cover 10-20 square miles. Although I think with the U.S. 4-digit addition at the end, it takes you pretty close.
• Green salads are relatively rare. They do serve a little bit of greenery with meals sometimes, but they’re not dressed as we expect they might be. The Brits like giving a salad a little squirt of concentrated balsamic (thick, sweet) and that’s it (inexpensive and efficient, not necessarily tasty). And most green salads are made with more unusual lettuces like frisee or rocket. You’ll likely not see much head lettuce or Romaine anywhere. Salads I did miss – my first dinner here at home is going to be a big green salad with chicken.
• The Brits have perfected the mechanics of an instant-heat hot water kettle. I showed one in one picture in a previous post (on the tea tray in most hotel rooms). We just can’t believe how fast they heat water. But then, my DH says it’s because it’s heating with 220 vs.. 110. That does make a difference.
• French Fries – oh my goodness. Do the Brits love their chips! I was offered chips with nearly every meal I ate there. Not that I don’t enjoy a few now and then, but the Brits adore them. And they like to sprinkle them with malt vinegar, not ketchup.
• An English cooked breakfast includes: fruit juice, a fried egg, some bacon (more like salty Canadian bacon than our streaky bacon, it’s called), a pork sausage (usually big, fat and unless purchased from a local butcher it has lots of filler in it. . . not to my taste), some grilled tomatoes, some sautéed mushrooms, hot canned baked beans (the Brits are crazy about old-fashioned canned baked beans – they have them on toast for a light lunch or dinner too), perhaps some Black pudding (a blood sausage product – you don’t want to know what’s in it), toast (white, brown or sometimes a grain or seedy bread), coffee or tea. It’s enough food to get you through the whole day if you fill up on it. B&Bs and hotels will serve you all of that, along with some yogurt maybe, fresh fruit, and cold cereal. We missed our favorite Fage yogurt – apparently it’s available at the markets, but they didn’t serve it at any of the hotels or B&Bs – it’s a premium yogurt, so I guess that’s understandable.

Stay tuned for more stories about our travels. It will take me a few days to get back into the cooking groove, although I DO have two posts about food that I did before we left on this trip. So I rewarded you with one of those today too. So, Dave is off to the grocery store to buy all varieties of fresh produce and fruit, yogurt and fresh bread. And my favorite cream for my coffee.

Tweet

Laughing at yourself is one of the humbling and fun things in life, isn’t it? This picture doesn’t show you the laughing part. First, the coffee tray. What’s there not to love about staying in a charming B&B and having the owner deliver a fresh pot of coffee at 8:00 in the morning? Indeed Nicky brought this cute little tray for us and it just barely lodged on the edge of the bedside table. We savored every drop.

Now the other part – we had just one electrical outlet in this room above (in Wales). If you’ve never traveled in England before . . . well, for us with U.S. 110 volt plugs, we must first use a British plug. On the back are the holes for both European and American plugs. But first you have to insert a power converter so you don’t  blow up the electrical device. It converts their 220 volts to 110. But, the plugs don’t hold very well. They’re loose. They fall out. Either the converter falls out, or the American plug/cord falls out. So I’ve had to resort to all kinds of makeshift things to prop it up.

As I write this (it’s Sunday here in Cheltenham), up in the room I’m charging my ipod. But in order to do that I had to unplug the television, which meant my DH couldn’t watch morning TV while he waited for me to finish showering and dressing. So he went down to the “lounge,” (the living room type place where small hotels offer drinks or lounging) to read. When I first got up this morning I began charging my iphone. It was completely dead. Because, you see, when we drove yesterday we needed to leave the GPS plugged into the cigarette lighter. Dave thinks that the GPS must be plugged in when it’s in use (I think it has some reserve juice to run awhile; he thinks it doesn’t). So I couldn’t charge my iphone in the car yesterday.

So, I should have charged it last night, but Dave was watching TV when I decided to go to sleep. My ipod, that I listen to almost every night before I drift off to sleep, was nearly dead too. It had just enough juice for me to listen for about 15 minutes. So therefore, nothing got charged. Ah, the dilemma of a techie. Of course, I have to have my ipod, and my iphone, and my mini-laptop. Then, you throw in the fact that Dave’s razor (his only battery type device with him) must be charged too. He told me this morning that his razor is just about dead. So we need to leave it charging while we’re out and about today. With the British plug, the converter and then the curlicue cord for charging. But it falls out too, so we have to find something in the room that’s not flammable (like plastic or something similar) to prop up under the contraptions – to keep them supplying juice.

So here I am, sitting in the lounge myself, running the laptop on battery power because the British plug and converter are upstairs in the room. I hope I have enough juice left to upload this post. You readers are just lucky I even have a post with all this electronics mess!

Tweet

We’ve been staying the last couple of nights at a B&B in a little village called Upper Tumble. I’ll write up a separate post about that, with pictures. The owners sent us off to a local pub, a very unassuming little place, but they have marvelous food. Our first night here we went there and both enjoyed lamb for dinner. Mine was especially good (lamb shank in a delish sauce) with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Anyway, the chef said he would cook us a traditional Welsh dinner if we’d come back the next night. We did, and what an interesting meal it was.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet

Several years ago I started reading another blogger – that’s listed down at the bottom of my webpage – one of my favorites – A Year From Oak Cottage. Marie writes two blogs now – that one  that’s a little bit of everything about Marie’s life and some recipes – and the other one called The English Kitchen – where Marie shares recipes mostly about the good old-fashioned kind of home cooking she does. Marie used to work as a chef/cook at a big manor house and had interesting stories to tell about some of the food she cooked for the family, and about the cottage they lived in (obviously, called Oak Cottage) with their collie dog Jess. Marie and I emailed a bit and when we knew we were coming to visit England we happened to be driving right through Chester, where they live now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet

Yesterday (Monday) we checked out of our B&B in the outskirts of Windermere and drove down to the yacht basin and took a lovely cruise around Lake Windermere on a touristy kind of double decker boat. It was a glorious day. Perfectly sunny and warm. My DH so loves the water – not quite like the ocean which is his favorite – but a big lake is certainly a good substitute.

Another view from a different area of the lake. After our cruise we drove on south to Chester, and I’ll write up something about that part in another post.

Tweet

Distant view of Lake Windermere from atop the pass just east of it. A bit of haze in the air, but a lovely, sunny day.

A view from one of the narrow windy roads near Ullswater.

A lake near Ullswater. I risked life and limb to get across the busy road to take this picture.

A lovely, paved walkway near Rydall Water.

In California we don’t see much moss, so I’m always enchanted to find it alive and well all over England, tucked into the edges or rock walls.

The lovely garden at our B&B in Windermere. We’re off tomorrow to Chester.

Tweet

As I write this it’s Saturday morning and we’re in the Lake District, where we’ll be for three days. Yesterday we drove from Harrogate across the Yorkshire moors. What ruggedly gorgeous, green land. The pastures, the crooked rock wall fences, the grazing sheep and cattle. And the narrow, narrow roads. Our GPS routes us the most direct, not necessarily the highways, so often the voice will tell us to turn right onto a tiny little lane barely wide enough for one car, let along two cars passing. And we bumble along for 5 curvy miles hoping we don’t encounter a car. Most often we do. But the locals are kind and climb their own outside wheels up an embankment to allow us to pass. And they wave. And smile.

Yesterday (Friday) it rained nearly all day as we drove. Fortunately it was a light, but steady rain, otherwise I’d have been white-knuckling the steering wheel. When we drive back roads in England I’m a relatively slow driver (so we can ogle the scenery); on the more main highways the cars and trucks whiz along at high speed. The locals know every turning and bend so they line up behind me. I try to pull over to let them pass, but it’s difficult to find places to pull over. Once I turned left into a small farm lane, only to find that the big honking BMW that had been dogging my back bumper for miles turned down the same lane. Then I had to find another place to pull over. Finally did, while the BMW driver glared at me. I took only the one photo of the moors as it was steady rain nearly all day. That’ll be it for the Yorkshire Dales. I love the town and village names. Pately Bridge at Nidderdale. Shipton. Middle Hareham, That first one  was a charming town full of tourists walking the narrow road, but it was raining so we decided not to stop. Rain doesn’t discourage the locals.

We did stop at Fountains Abbey along the way yesterday. It’s an ancient set of large ruins. Brilliant green with fresh grass and moss. Steeped in history. Here’s a collage of photos I took there. It was raining most of the time so the photos are a bit dark. It was a beautiful place, though.

The Lake District is a very popular tourist destination. Dave and I have been here before, nearly 20 years ago, but we stayed in a very lackluster B&B in an out-of-the-way village; too far from everything. That’s why it was cheaper, you know! This time I booked us into a place in Windermere. No lake view, but it’s a lovely place with a pleasant back garden. Today the weather is bright and shiny. But cold. I’m layering clothing because I didn’t bring a long-sleeved shirt. I have a light weight polyester jacket and a raincoat. Maybe I’ll have to go shopping for a warmer sweatshirt type jacket.Likely I’ll just make do.

Tweet

Some of you may recognize this – from Brideshead Revisited, the BBC program (and a 2008 movie). What a gorgeous place. One of England’s stately homes, this one not owned by the National Trust, but still owned and used by the Howard family. Half the home is open to the public for a fee (as seniors our tab was about 10 pounds each – $15). We visited some of the public rooms (reception rooms), saw plenty of beautiful historic art, sculpture, exquisite furniture. See photos below. The gardens are stunning.

My favorite room in the house was the library. Or maybe it was the room above with the little writing desk. Wish I could be invited to tea there one day.

Castle Howard is about 10-15 miles NE of the city of York. We had a beautiful day to drive, all back roads, some so narrow we had to climb the left wheels up the side in order to let cars pass. We love those kinds of English country lanes. The North Yorkshire moors are stunning.

Tweet