On Friday myself and my son were going to the Photomarathon exhibition at the old library in the Hayes in Cardiff as we were two of the numbers!

But on the way we decided to get some food and popped into the newly refurbished Duke of Wellington, not normally my cup of tea a posh new pub.. but we were hungry and I fancied a pint.

From Brains website : Situated in the Hayes, in Cardiff city centre the Duke of Wellington is an ideal location for a relaxing drink and bite to eat whilst taking a break from the hustle & bustle of the city. A combination of traditional British inn and contemporary style, the Duke of Wellington offers a great selection of food for quick lunches and light bites including sharing platters and tapas. We have a great range of cask ales as well as continental beers and a variety of wines, soft drinks and coffees.

They have spent a bit of money doing it up they have a the full range of Brains Beers and for the moment a Guest Ale the lovely Everards Sunchaser Blonde (which hopefully they will continue with some great regional beers)- the prices were not that cheap for drinks (over £2.50 a pint I think but not sure )

But they had a great snack menu with Six Items for £12 (from 5pm) which for two of us was just enough.

The selection from the menu we had was

Calamari (in thick batter) X 2
Blanche Bait (yes that’s white bait) very big and juicy
Prawns with a wonderful Garlic butter sauce to dip in X 2
Lamb Kofta with a great sauce

They have other more meaty items on the menu as well.

The staff were a bit over clinging, but suppose they want to make a good impression on a new pub , I forgot how many times I was asked “everything ok Guys” – yes it was thanks.

There were not that many people in the pub as most where making use of the “alfresco” area out the front – we are not the continent how ever much the marketing people try and tell us and I am sure the whiff from Caroline street which the pub is on the corner may affect the punters outside.

anyway I will be visiting again as the mini toad in the hole and mini pies look good as well.

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

Being that my day job is as the development powerhouse behind the Walesonline/YourCardiff team (yes It’s not just sheds with me and sarcasm, oh it is) then I had to go last night to PicaPica for the first Cardiff Blogger Meetup of the year, even if it was just to carry the projector.

It was well organised by @ed_walker86 and @hrwaldram and the free drink went down well.

Of course the real reason I had to go was to support my mate and some would say better looking and younger jedi padawan James “Cuffy” Cuff, who did a very good job (You were lucky Ed did not ask me cause I drone on and on ) even though the singing and dancing next door did drown out some of his buzzwords, Ed maybe a PA next time

But the main aim of the night was the meet up and I think that worked very well, alliances were started, online arguments were quelled and friendships made.

It was great to meet up with @CardiffBites finally and I think the Food/Drink bloggers should have a splinter FoodDrinkTweetup sometime, maybe at PicaPica as the Food was great… First time I had Polenta Chips and they were #nomnomnom.

I got talking to a few people and one thing that was an occurring theme a lot of them are after the same eyeballs – in terms of they want people to look at their Local news blogs/sites and a few see it as a step up to mainstream media companies, which is all good for the future of local journalism.

Unlike some of the bloggers networking last night I am quite happy to keep my passions in the shed, if I did slip out sometimes and bored a few people (Iam sorry) a quiet inside shed voice should tell me that people are not interested in sheds at these sort of events, I should bore them with WP template tips.

So I suppose I am lucky in a way as I can develop Web stuff in my day job (and get paid to to it) and do the same in my 5to9 work (and get my beer/curry/camera money) so I make both of them pay, both financially and developing my skills and still enjoying it after 15 years as a techy (or should that be tetchy if you know me)

Anyway here’s a photo of a few of us, via Dom from Welshicons, nice to meet him again after our previous Bloggers meeting at the Vulcan last year.

Brains are upping their marketing this year with this great promotional tool to get people to taste their cask ales, what you mean there are people in Kardiff not tasted a Brains Dark, shame on you.

I can’t see this going down well in all their houses (Vulcan, Cottage & City Arms) but in the posher pubs in their portfolio I think the Beerati may lap it up…

Anyway I want one of these for my shedpub…

Welsh brewer Brains is going continental. The company, famed for cask ale favourites such as Brains SA and Dark, will be launching ‘Beer Tapas’ ahead of National Cask Ale Week (29th March – 5th April) in a bid to encourage trial.

Featuring three third pint glasses in a branded wooden tray, Beer Tapas will be available throughout and beyond National Cask Ale Week in around 200 pubs, including over 100 Brains managed and tenanted houses.

Richard Davies, Sales and Marketing Director explains: “The beer tapas tray gives customers the opportunity to try three different cask ales but drink the equivalent of one pint. We think it’s a great way of encouraging customers to switch from other categories to try cask ale and also a good way of giving current cask drinkers greater variety of choice.”

The tray has been branded ‘Brains Beer’, and the glasses are etched with ‘Beer Tapas’. Richard Davies adds, “This is about growing the cask ale category, with an emphasis on trial and exploration. Naturally we want to encourage customers to try the full Brains range, but we also want to see them trying brands and styles they wouldn’t normally try.”

More on the Cardiff brewer here.

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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We went to the Wales V France Games Last night.

Had a couple of pints before the game

At the Goat Major great pint of Hydes Berry Good Ale

AT the Central Bar (a spoons pub) Rhymney Export but at 2.95 a pint

But the worse pint of the night was at the stadium £3.50 a pint of Brains Bitter in a plastic glass, Iam sure they had pored it before from their super fast poring system and left it for a while, it was cold but tasted of drip tray slops – Sorry Brains but you need to check the quality of the beer at the stadium.

The wonderful Oasis in Cardiff that is the Goat Major is having a mini beer festival this week, you would not know it as nothing on the Brains website I had a tip off from ArfurD

Beers on today include Brewseters Red Hop Lover, DangleBeery & Brains own Bread of Heaven.

Later in the Week (or when the have gone ) they have the Lovely Brew Dog Trashy Blonde

If you are in Cardiff this week it’s worth popping over the Goat (which is near the Castle) as it’s what Cardiff Pubs used to be like.

You can now Follow the Goat Major on Twitter thanks to GdnCardiff for the heads up.

On of my colleagues is taking part in the Kilimanjaro climb for cancer (you can sponsor her here).

But another good thing to come of this is a new beer has been brewed by Cardiff Brewer Brains

‘Up and Over’ ale has been specially created for the Brains SA Captains Climb. The 500ml bottle is being sold exclusively in all Welsh Tesco Extras and Superstores, and is available as part of Brains’ 3 for £4 offer. 15p from each bottle sold will be donated to the challenge.

The name ‘Up & Over’ was the inspiration of Stephen Katchi who won a MediaWales competition to name the beer.

I have been lucky to get a bottle and will let you know what is tastes like, but Brains have provided some tasting notes

‘Up & Over’ is a fruity, light amber coloured beer. Fuggles, Goldings, Styrian Goldings and Cascade hops coupled with the unique Brains yeast and balanced malt flavours creates a deliciously refreshing pint guaranteed to be a high point in our ale range.

Excitement this morning on the way to work – Was walking from the other side of Cardiff as had to get bus as car is still snowed in (we live on hills in the valleys)

Two (or three) Cardiff buses crashed into each other on Westgate street.

If my bus was not late I may not have seen it..

You can see my other not in focus mobile shots here, maybe an excuse to upgrade my HTC magic to a google nexus one

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