The warped minds over at tesco have come up with a follow up to their awful lasagne sandwich, with a quick jump across the med to Spain with their “Spanish Paella” sandwich.

It has Prawn, chicken & chorizo on sun dried tomatoe bread, and even has rice in the filling (for filling!), it’s not bad for a at the desk snack, but I dont feel like popping my feet into the Taff and opening a cold San Miguel.

They seem to have filled it with thin chorizo which is always welcome than their nasty chicken, but to be honest I wont be having it again, as its all wrong.

I wonder what their foodboffins will do next a Welsh Cawl sandwich, Moussaka or even Moules-frites (mmm belguim beer)

I managed to only get an hour down the Cardiff bay food & drink festival on the Saturday, but luckily went back with the mrs on the Sunday for the whole afternoon and got home in time for the Football.

Some great food and drink to be had, we managed a glass of one of the new Neath brewery ales – Green Bullet which was a 6% IPA that was very drinkable on a hot day.

Otley were there in force again this year & I really enjoyed their new O7 Weissen style beer, was lucky to have half on the saturday, as it had sold out by the my return on the Sunday..

The other beer I had from the Ponty brwer was the O5 which I have not had before, but seen it all over the shop and the O-garden went down well with my better half, hopefully they will have more of the Weissen at their Golden Ale festival this weekend.

I also had a taste of new brewers Untapped and their lovely Eclipse which I may get a few bottles in to add to my Dark collection.

Also had some tasters of the excellent Gwatkin Cider (and bought a bottle of Norman to take home) but not sure about their bar staff anyway ArfurD has a more in depth review of the beer and brewers that were in attendance.

of course the day was not just about Drinking (boo) but we had plenty of free samples of food and managed to spend a bomb on things such as a Wensleydale & cranberry Scotch Eggs

Cockles from penclawdd and other seafood

some great value Venison sausages and the best pastry on any pie I have had in a long time and two massive cakes.

The atmosphere was great and of course this was helped by the brilliant weather, some great music (which I can’t remember what they were called)

Myself and the Mrs went to the Maltsters in Llandaff last week.

It’s one of the Cardiff brewery Brains, modern pubs which they have changed a lot over the last year from the no nonsense pub I remember from my youth (ok 20s) to a open plan pub that serves good food, and for the better, maybe its a middle age thing, but sometimes you do want to have a good pint of ale and a good meal, They say they try and source a lot of the ingredients locally “Changing daily, our menu offers great, honest pub food where quality rules over fanciness!”

As it was an early tea, I had a couple of pints of the excellent Brains Up and Over which is well worth getting in bottles if you can not get to a Brains Pub to have it on tap.

anyway down to the food.

The Mrs had asparagus, chicken and date terrine to start, which was very moist and served on a bit of slate as the style is nowadays.

I did not have a starter as I was keeping room for the pudding.

For main course she has Poached salmon, rocket and dill salad, which was massive and the salmon was dressed with creme fraiche, it was very tasty.

I had a welsh rip eye steak and great homemade chips (looked overcooked but were not, not fat not thin but very moorish) served with a poncy little jar of bearnaise sauce.

It’s strange that I have tend to have steak when I go out as there were some great things on the every changing menu, Iam a good cook myself but rarely cook steak at home, maybe its my chef training in my youth that I like to see how good a place is, by the quality of the steak, and I was not disappointed its was a lovely cut and a big chunk and good to perfection (Medium rare).

For pudding we shared a Basil and raspberry creme brulee, that is another dish I tend to favour , it can from range from the wonderful to the stodgy, well not quite being the latter it was the only disappointed of the meal, it was just over powered by the basil taste, and even after a Greek lager later in the evening I was still getting basil aftertaste.

anyway if you are in Llandaff or in Cardiff then pop over it’s a great pub

Me and the misses went to one of my old school friends wedding in Coventry/Brum borders? last weekend, and a great time was had by all, but they only had Guinness or Keg Boddies or bottles in the hotel bars ; the dark peroni was ok but at hotel prices! but not to worry as its was their day not mine:)

We wish Rory & Liz a wonderful life together.

Not funny Joke from the Cov boys on our kardiff city table

On the way up on the Friday we decided to break the trip by staying in a pub for the night.. I wonder whose choice that was

Anyway the Pub in question was the The Blue Boar, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, the website does not really do it justice but it’s a great 1600 pub with nooks and crannies and a few years of addons.

Photo from www.theblueboar.co.uk website

We got there about 9pm and managed to get some food, a great platter of Indian Food that was a starter but was enough for us as a main, they also did a full selection of other pub grub and of course they had some great ales on as well..and they were well kept.

A great light Blonde ale, which I had not had before even when I was down Ringwood for the stagdo!

Another light beer I have not had before..

It’s a bit out of the way, the bedrooms were ok but maybe needed a spruce up and the staff were pleasant, there was a misunderstanding with breakfast but once sorted the mrs said best scrambled egg for a long time.

anyway if you are visiting Stratford upon Avon then its worth a trip out to this pub for a decent pint.

There is a great little Cafe ,Bistro One in Cardiff City centre I have been visiting for more years than I care to think, and it’s near the stadium and by City Arms , they do these great rolls with Omelettes in.

Today I had a Chicken/Ham & onion one.

I have never had them outside of this cafe.. let me know

They are massive and mighty, the cafe is expanding next door, so expect more of the same..

They also go great pancakes… and fry ups if you are up for one on a Sunday morning.

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I know I seem to be posting about the Goat Major a lot recently in fact more than actually going there for a pint!

anyway the Trumpet of Truth (South Wales Echo) reports that head chef Adam has won a pietastic award.

THE best pie in the country is to be found at a Cardiff pub, a competition run by British Pie Week has found.

Adam Pavey, head chef at the Goat Major on High Street in Cardiff, created the award-winning Wye Valley Pie, which was named the winner of the British Pie Week Challenge 2010.

His winning effort includes locally sourced chicken, leeks, asparagus and Tintern Abbey cheese.

Chef Adam, 22, said: “I was really taken aback that I’d won. We were in competition with about 60 other pubs nationwide.”

No brains ale in it? ReciPie here

British Pie Week starts next week more details here

I may be on a diet but how could I resist a Marks & Spencer pistachio and almond cookie, it would be too rude.