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The Holiday Season in Wales

Welsh Culinary Favorites

Cardiff_Welsh_food_1.jpgBy Kate Carrigan

The Holiday season is the time of year when most people permit themselves some sweet indulgences. Wales offers a host of traditional and regional favorite foods, from unique cheeses, wines and whiskey, famous Welsh beef and lamb to fresh fish and seafood. The country's very landscape reflects the same freshness, quality and variety found in its cuisine.

 Last September, the first Great British Cheese Festival was staged at Cardiff Castle . The event featured more than 500 cheeses from across the British Isles and allowed visitors the opportunity to sample the best of Welsh food and drink. There are farmers markets, food festivals, samplings, food road shows and cooking classes available throughout the country, throughout the year all highlighting the quality and diversity of Welsh Food.

During the winter months, traditional Christmas markets are to be found in Cardiff_Winter_Wonderland3_1_1.jpgalmost every nook and crook across Wales . Caerphilly, Swansea and Cardiff hold the largest and most notable Holiday markets where specialized arts and crafts items and unique gift ideas feature as well as seasonal food and drink favorites. A fine selection of mouth watering locally grown and home-made items such as Welsh cakes, regional produce, pickles and preserves, fruit and cream liqueurs, wines, whiskey, cheeses, fresh hot pancakes, Welsh fudge, honey roasted nuts and traditionally cooked meats are all here to enjoy and get you in the Holiday spirit.

Want to re-live an old Welsh Holiday tradition? Why not have a go at old fashioned taffy-making!

On Christmas Eve, the children would while away the dark hours leading up to the Plygain service (a church caroling tradition which still thrives today in parts of Mid-Wales) by making cyflaith (‘taffy/toffee’.) The toffee was boiled over opened fires and then dropped into ice cold water; the sweet mass twisted into all sorts of shapes and, as the legend goes, if you were lucky, the toffee strands would form letters, the initials of your future love, the one you would marry.

Mrs. Beeton, the Victorian leading domestic goddess provides us with that era’s recipe for Welsh taffy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/christmas/sites/content/pages/taffy.shtml

Another more modern version for Welsh cyflaith is available from the book Welsh Fare by S. Minwel Tibbott:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Welsh-Toffee-Cyflaith-194861

Please accept our best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy New Year. We do hope that you come and meet some new friends in Wales soon!

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! (Happy New Year!)

Special Group Tours looks forward to assisting you with your next vacation to Wales , please get in touch!

Further information about all aspects of a vacation to Wales is available from the Wales Tourist Board: www.visitwales.com ; Toll Free:  1-800-959-2537  or e-mail: walesinfo@visitbritain.org .

For further information about celebrating the food of Wales and a traditional Welsh Christmas Holiday, please visit: www.foodwales.com and www.bbc.co.uk/wales/christmas/

We thank them for providing some of the information for this article.

Kate Carrigan is the Owner/Director of Special Group Tours;

www.specialgrouptours.com , Toll Free:  1 866 725 5250 

259 Magnolia Drive , Millsboro DE 19966

Caerphilly Castle has a Medieval Christmas Market (photo courtesy of the Wales Tourist Board, Wales on View)

Holiday events are aplenty in Cardiff : enjoy open air ice skating as part of bmibaby Cardiff Winter Wonderland, shows, choirs, pantomimes, craft markets, Cardiff Bay lights, Santa and the Unusual Food Company Fair at Mermaid Quay. (photos courtesy of Visit Cardiff)

 
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