Vegetarian cafe in Lampeter

Back to my Wales postings and continuing that popular subject of food.
On this particular trip I have to say that all the research I did beforehand actually paid off and every place I visited came over and above expectations which is rarely the case when I visit new places. 


The one place on my list which was purely a veggie cafe, as opposed to a cafe selling veggie options was the delightful Mulberry Bush in Lampeter.  It was above an organic wholefood shop (also run by the same people). 
The cafe was bright and airy, the walls covered in interesting art, good start!
The food list was simple but then I'm a great believer to offer less choice and do it well, than huge lists of stuff, most of which are unmemorable.
I had the Homity pie with a selection of salads, all were great and I particularly liked the orange coloured one on the right which was a couscous and almond salad.


It was a good sized portion and despite being comfortably full, I took the decision to have a pudding as I might not eat later that day and probably wouldn't be back in Lampeter for a while. What a good reason to indulge in the vegan chocolate slice! It was lovely, not too sweet, mellow and creamy in a chocolatey sort of way.


Do visit the Mulberry Bush if you go to Lampeter. The shop in the downstairs looked to have great produce.


Here is a link to a classic Cranks homity pie if anyone wants to try it.


http://www.cranks.co.uk/recipes/view/6

Hornsea pottery from Sledmere car boot

I'm not much of a one for car boot sales because round here they are usually a bit frantic and full of junky stuff. But I did make a last minute decision this morning to head off to the Sledmere Stately car boot sale. 


I have to say it is probably the best car boot I've every been to with stallholders from as far north as Northumbria & south to London. You know how usually you find one or two good stalls, well today I found stall after stall of interesting things. The stalls pretty much fell into the categories of antiques, vintage, retro and agricultural tools as opposed to junk out of someone's loft. I found the odd peculiar stall too, a stall with little wooden cabinets filled with antique pharmaceutical and dental tools. A lady with just irons you heat on the fire and vintage pot jug hot water bottles. I had to refrain from buying Snoopy things as I said to myself just useful fabric & Hornsea pots today.


There was plenty to whet my appetite on the pottery stalls. Poole pottery, 1960's groovy floral Carnaby but no prices and I was running out of cash when I saw those but I did find some nice Hornsea pieces. Lots of it about today and some very over priced but I got the best bargain of all with the blue Heirloom casserole dish for £4 and it's immaculate and I had no blue Heirloom. I got a single Cornrose espresso cup to go with one I already had and the other 2 pieces, vase & a mug, I need to research in my book.


There was plenty of vintage fabric knocking about and embroidered tray cloths, I also got a few vintage hankies and a couple of brooches, and the vintage flour bags.


It was all very nice and refined being at a stately home with no pushing or shuvving to grab bargains. Well worth the £3 to get in and had the weather held you could easily make a day of it with a picnic in the grounds as some people were doing.

Black Garlic Day - day 40

Well, I interrupt my Wales postings to announce that today is Black Garlic Day. Yes for 40 days and 40 nights the 3 bulbs of garlic have been sat undisturbed, maturing away in the aga. I know a couple of my blogging friends have been as eager as me to see the results and oh dear, are you sitting down,... as predicted half way through, it hasn't worked.


Damn and drat that old aga! It hasn't been hot enough to ferment the bulbs to blackness. The pictures show the sequence of me taking it out and seeing they were still pretty white on the outside, to cutting one open and seeing it was just caramel coloured.


It had obviously matured a bit just with the amount of time in there but I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. I guess that at the higher and correct temperature there is no risk of bacteria but when something is sat in a luke warm environment for 40 days then I think it is more likely a breeding ground for bacteria so I think it's destined for the recycle bin. I did cut a bit to try and rather than tasting garlicky it now tastes sort of more oniony, like a really strong pickled shallot. Oddly enough, after you swallow you don't really have much of an aftertaste like you would with raw garlic.


Oh well, you've got to try these things. I will only attempt it one more time if the temperature is suitable after I get the aga serviced.

Marvelous Monmouth

On previous trips to Wales I have only bypassed Monmouth before so when I finally made it over the River Monnow into the town I was pleasantly surprised. Always a good sign seeing a Waitrose and an M&S food shop, incase you need supplies!

The town itself has quite a nice buzz to it, lots of useful independent shops, I found a fabric & wool shop down a quirky pedestrian street with lovely floral bunting strung across. There's plenty of interesting architecture with an impressive town hall housing the museum.

Monmouth is also well served with eateries and pavement cafes. I had done my research before the trip and I read about a Mexican restaurant named Mocos. It turned out to be a good choice and it's always nice to find a good selection of veggie dishes and the option to choose mild, medium or hot spices. I had a huge platter with chimichangas and all the trimmings. Because this had been preceeded by a dish of nachos there was no way I could contemplate a pudding! It was certainly very nice.

Good coffee shop in S. Wales

Whenever on my travels I am always keen to champion local produce & good eateries etc. so there will be a few food and drink posts following my recent trip to South Wales.


I'll start with coffee because finding a good coffee shop is often like looking for a needle in a haystack. Unless you've had one recommended, and a good source of info for that is the Cosy Coffee Shops blog, the best way I've found is searching the net and seeking out reviews. 
I stayed just outside Monmouth and my research had pulled up Coffee#1 as the place to seek out.


First looked through the window when it was closed in the evening and the signs were good. There was no pre-ground coffee sat festering to be served up the next day. Tasteful and relaxing decor and nice menu of snacks.
Next morning visited about 9.30am and it was already doing a brisk trade, popular with locals and for take-outs. I tried a cappuccino and an espresso (nice touch with bottled Welsh water to help yourself to), both coffees were excellent tasting and not those over roasted dark beans a lot of places serve.
The cakes looked fabulous, I opted for the homemade Welsh cakes (as did most who came in), only 50p each and they were delic! some of the best I've had.


Coffee#1 is actually a small chain of cafes in the South West so I can only comment about the Monmouth one but having visited it a few times on my trip with consistently good coffee, they are cleary good at what they do and have well trained baristas.

That was a quick 4 days!

I'm just back from a 4 day trip to Wales, I think that was the quickest 4 days ever! Lots to sort out here before I process pictures from my trip and if I get time to nip out I believe today is when issue 3 of Mollie Makes is out. 
Also, just 3 days left to Black Garlic Day!!!

My latest fabric swatches

This week I've had a Spoonflower delivery with my latest fabric design swatches.
I have a revised version of the butterfly fabric as shown on the blog before and there are 2 fat quarters listed in my Folksy shop.


Brand new is my vintage ice cream van fabric, not yet available as this is just the swatch before I decide to order any more. Pleased with how the colours have come out.

Morrissey at Grimsby Auditorium

Yesterday was all rather frantic. We had the chance of some Morrissey tickets to go to that evening and I'm not usually good at short notice things but as Mozza is a hero of mine I went for it.

The gig was over in Grimsby which meant a trip over the Humber Bridge. This is where the photos stopped as I didn't have a good enough view to get what I suppose would've been blurry and rubbishy shots. 

The support group were not exactly to my liking, a bit too heavy thrash metal with what can only be described as a young lad screaming into the microphone and every song sounded pretty much the same. Normally I'd say, maybe it's a sign of my old age but I didn't see many of the Morrissey crowd looking like they were enjoying the group. A strange choice to go with Mozza.

So after the ear drums got a good battering I was rather looking forward to the tuneful songs of Morrissey. First track didn't sound brilliant but I figured they were settling in, as it went on I realised the sound quality of the Grimsby Auditorium was quite poor. When I saw Mozza a couple of years ago at Brid Spa the sound was much better in there. It was a bit disappointing in a way but then in other ways Morrissey is such a legend that I feel happy to have been in his presence for an hour and a half (almost). 

The most dramatic part was when they played Meat is Murder, they ran a most shocking video in the background and the music rose to a deafening crescendo to represent the suffering of poultry and cattle in the film footage. I have to say that even as a veggie I was very moved, shocked and disturbed by it. I only hope it had some effect on making the meat eaters question the animal welfare of the products they buy. It left a strange atmosphere after this track which was last but one, and the lack of clapping made me question if some people were disgusted he thrust this upon us, but then you go to a Morrissey concert and you go and listen to someone who's got something to say.

The last track was Irish Blood, English Heart which I love & lifted spirits a bit. They came back for just one encore which was much less than when I saw him in Brid, the encore was This Charming Man and that was it, over in a flash.

The venue and sound let it down for me, not sure I felt like I'd had my moneys worth this time. 

Last minute trip to see Morrissey

Wow, got some last min tickets for Morrissey.

Summer BBQ!

I seem to have gone a bit mad with the blogging today. I think it's because of the heatwave and not liking it too hot I decided to take cover and work inside on the Mac in the afternoon. 
This warm weekend could well be summer, all rolled into 48 hrs, so I finished off the day with a quickie BBQ and got the veggie burgers and sausages out.


I have a lovely little kettle BBQ somewhere, no doubt in a storage box and unlikely to rear its head until I move house again so I got one of those disposable ones. I was surprised how quickly it took hold and it all happened in less than half an hour, including the eating! Despite those burnt looking sausages! Finished off with jacket potatoes on the embers, after all, this little BBQ is hotter than the oven at the moment!