Wales Re-Visited.

Following our successful visit to Wales, this month’s meeting saw us sharing Welsh recipes.

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We started with Cawl cennin, a beautiful, creamy, flavourful leek soup with breads and Welsh  butter. This was followed by a delicious leek and cheese pie, which had a lovely colour and texture. Welsh oggies followed. These can be made with Welsh lamb or beef, onions, potato and leeks. Tradition says they should be D shaped and have a thick crust for miners to hold. The Welsh believe that their oggie was first eaten by the builders of St David’s Cathedral in 1181 therefore made long before the Cornish pastie.

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Today was the first regular solo ride of the Pedal Pushers cycling group now we have obtained “our wings” from Ross Adams (CTC /Active Sefton). All the group now have their own cycles so we are free to roam as we please!

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What a find day out we had in Chester made all the better by the glorious weather.  There were 20 of us made up of Liverpool CAMRA members and U3A.  Having arrived at Chester at 12 noon we made our way to the Harkers Arms which is situated in the canal.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Peerless Oatmeal Stout on offer and decided on a pint. From here we visited the Mill Hotel which has a seating area overlooking the canal and five real ales on offer.  We then walked on to the main high street and up on to part of the Roman walls, descending 5 minutes later to our next pub the Brewery Tap.  This former banqueting hall is a real gem with stone floors and tapestries on many walls.  Good menu too and many had their lunch here.  From here we wandered over the road to the Cross Keys.  This is a lovely traditional style pub with stained glass windows, ornate mirrors and panelling.  Practically straight over the road from here is the Bear and Billet a 17th Century former town house.  From here we doubled back on ourselves and managed to find The Church which was recently converted and has ecclesiastical remnants including old pews, an organ and stained glass.  After leaving here we walked a further 5 minutes up the road to the Pied Bull which in historic times was a coaching Inn and also has its own microbrewery in the cellar.

Time was now moving on and we had to think of catching the train home but not before visiting Ye Olde Cottage Inn which has been awarded CAMRA Chester Pub of the Year 2016.  This is a wonderful old style community pub with a good selection of excellent beers.

We caught the 7pm train back to Liverpool and reminisced about how many good pubs we had managed to get to and the amount of beer we had consumed!

In an effort to find what we need to look at for this group to be what you want and successful,  a small questionnaire was given out. 37 handed out and 30 completed

l. Set Venue   30 said no   2. Name your favourites Quite a few named their favourites unfortunately some of them are not big enough but will try to accommodate some of them  3. Thoughts on our first meal 25 rated it from “Fine to Excellent”  3 thought portions too big and 2 thought Poor  4. Day Trip with lunch 29 voted yes One voted No  5. Wiling to help with organising Three voted to help  6.Like a traditional Sunday Lunch – varied from yes to occasionally, happy with anything  to no. 7. Would like a wider choice 26 said yes and four said don’t mind

Several members also asked for help with transport.  If you need a lift or can provide a lift please see Marj or Sylvia.  Suggested pick up/drop off would be Central Square, Maghull See Sunday Lunch webpage for full details

Next foodie group meeting is on Thursday 16th June,10:30-12md at the Red House,  Foxhouse lane. The theme of the meeting is Welsh fare, and there will be an opportunity to taste Welsh treats prepared by group members, as well as discussing the recipes.

New members are welcome to attend. Equally other U3A members can join us for lunch at 12md even if you cannot attend the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there.

We chose the hottest day of the year so far but all 37 of us attended the Running Horses for a 2 course Sunday Lunch.  The Management had offered us the use of the Marquee as it would be cooler than inside the Pub itself – it was marginally!!  The meal went off well and on  the whole the meal was good – there was certainly plenty of it.  A questionnaire handed out for ideas/suggestions showed that members would like a variety of venues and a wider choice of food as opposed to “Sunday Roast”. A Sunday Day Trip to include lunch also came out high. Also one or two members helpfully volunteered to be involved in identifying venues. This is good as we need to know what everyone wants and the way forward.  Our next lunch is at the Hare and Hounds Maghull at 2pm (arrive l.30pm) where there will be a wider choice of meal.