Woods Brasserie, Cardiff Bay

I've promised this post for a week now and only now am I finally getting round to it, busy week! I've never done a restaurant review before but it was that brilliant I just had to. As I posted lasted week we spent last weekend in Barry Island for my mum's birthday. I'd been putting out the Twitter feelers out for nice places to eat in Cardiff. We knew literally nothing about the city so I was so grateful when Susie @ Fold in the Flour gave me some great tips on shopping and eating.

One place in particular stood out, Woods Brasserie in Cardiff Bay. I really wanted somewhere special without being too formal, but still - you know, amazing! This restaurant really did look brilliant when I looked online but you never know what somewhere is really like until you go so I was slightly apprehensive on how it would all turn out in the end. All of this was pointless of course because it was, in a word, AMAZING! No more than 7 minutes wander from the railway station, right on the bay it was simply stunning. As soon as we turned up I couldn't believe how contemporary it was, bright vivid walls, brick and huge windows looking out towards the bay. We were half an hour early but we were still able to be seated straight away, the staff were very attentive and friendly always seemed calm, considering it was prime time on a Saturday in a busy city restaurant. (Sorry random people in my pictures!)

 

We'd had a look at the menu online but there was even more to choose from when we got there. It was actually quite difficult to choose as I wanted at least three different dishes of each course, in the end I decided to be brave and go for dishes I hadn't tried before.

I have to say I've emailed them so much and they've so helpful I can't thank them enough. I also then emailed to find a bit more out about what we ate so I could do it justice and the head chef wrote back with lots of detail which was absolutely brilliant and I was so pleased to hear how the restaurant uses a lot of local and British ingredients.

What we ate:
First we shared some sourdough with dipping oil and aged balsamic vinegar £1, sounds simple and standard but it was lovely and also had lots of pink peppercorns in the bottom which was subtle but really nice. This wasn't the stated by the way, just a little extra before.
"Our sourdough is baked by a 4th generation french baker, his name is Fabrice and he is based in Herefordshire and produces artisinal organic sour dough breads and other specialist breads. The are ab fab! I have been in Cardiff for eight years" - Wes Hammond, Head Chef.

For starter we both had the baked potato and onion soup, garlic, almond and parsley pesto £4.
I loved the idea of baked potato soup, I have to be honest and say I'm not a huge fan of almond...but the rest of it sounded so good I decided to be brave. We both absolutely loved it, creamy like velvet and while you cannot see it in the picture, just below the surface was a pool of parsley pesto which really completed it - I also never usually choose soup and I'm so glad I did.
"...a baked potato and onion soup with picada (type of paste from Catalonia with almonds, garlic and parsley) the potatoes we use are a Maris Piper variety, English onions and salty welsh butter to make the soup."

For mains we had:Whole char-grilled spring chicken, thyme and honey glaze, chorizo, bacon and potato salad, chicken jus £14.
This was my mum's dish, the chicken looked beautiful, their presentation was brilliant in all of their dishes. She mentioned was that the potato salad wasn't really a potato salad like she expected but apart from that she really enjoyed her meal. We also shared a mixed leaf salad which actually was surprisingly impressive, tossed in olive oil and rock salt really made all the difference and we could easily have eaten plates of it alone!
"The spring chicken come from Cornwall, they are marinated with garlic, white wine and thyme and salt, after which they are individually sous vide (vacuum packed) and cooked in a water bath at 75 deg Celsius for 90mins (sous vide is a method of long and slow cooking at precise temperatures in a water bath for set time ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide ) it is finished on a char grill for that classic roast flavour and glazed with thyme infused honey from Cowbridge. It sits on a very simple potato salad of spicy chorizo and panchetta bacon (from Trealy farm, Monmouthshire  http://trealyfarm.com/) new potatoes, olive oil  and a little chicken jus." - Wes Hammond, Head Chef.

What I had:
Wild garlic gnocchi, marinated buffalo mozzarella, lemon thyme and pine nut butter sauce £11.
I've never had gnocchi but have always wanted to try it. And I'm not sure if it was the Gavin and Stacey connection but I just felt that this was the time to choose something different. And I'm so glad I did, I've literally never eaten anything nicer. All of the flavours worked beautifully together and again, given a chance I think I could have eaten several plates of it. Even now I'm actually wishing I lived closer just so I could have it again.
"The wild garlic was foraged by myself from around St Fagens outside of Cardiff and combined into a classic gnocchi recipe, the Buffalo mozzarella is from premier cheese, and is beautiful moist and subtle chesse artisianal cheese from Italy (http://www.cheese.biz/), paired with a lemon thyme and pine nut brown butter sauce to finish the dish."

They've got some really gorgeous looking desserts at Woods and while I really wanted to try one of their cocktail desserts I did actually have a special surprise lined up. I hate that I haven't been able to make my mum a cake this year so I arranged for a special cake, carrot cake which is her absolute favourite so I knew it would be a winner. Again I didn't really know what to expect but it was great, out came two pieces of slate with individual cakes and a ball of ice cream on the side and caramel sauce. There was also a good sprinkling of popping candy, it really does many any dessert better, brilliant! Mum's even came out with candles which I thought was a lovely touch, we left pleasantly full, without feeling sick - which is an achievement considering all of the beautiful food we ate! While I'm not sure when we'll be returning to Cardiff next but I seriously recommend Woods Brasserie for those that are able to go, you won't regret it.

 

They couldn't have done more for me with all of my secret emails arranging it all as a surprise for my mum and even checked in with me afterwards to see if it all went well and was enjoyed, particular thanks to Wes and Serge for all of the replies! I really don't think I've ever had better service, or food!!

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One Direction Cake - Sweet Sixteen

Today is my cousins 16th birthday, we've had it all planned for weeks! They're visiting us at the moment for Easter/her birthday (there will be a post up with maaaaany pictures of the trip!), and as you should all know by now, I LOVE birthdays! I'm sure I end up more excited than the person who's actually birthday it is. I love shopping for presents, wrapping the presents and best of all giving them. And in true tradition...everyone gets a cake!

To say she is a One Direction superfan would be an understatement...I don't think I can put it into words so I wont try, I will however tell you that I will be attending one of their concerts with her next March in Nottingham and some of her excitement must have rubbed off on me as I would be lying if I said I wasn't the slightest bit excited myself.

We've been teasing her all week about her presents, which to be honest we were lucky even arrived as all the post gets delayed around Easter but we got lucky - thank God! For her presents it had to be a One Direction hoody, this is the ultimate must-have memorabilia for any fan - you also don't get a lot of this stuff in Norway so we knew it would go down well I just had to casually steer her away from all of the shops we went to this week that might sell it. I also know that she loved Elf cosmetics (Eyes, Lips, Face) as you can only order it from the UK online they do a couple of special orders a year so I logged on and ordered a nice selection of bits for a gift box. I did see a few bits that I wanted to get when we were out so had to sneakily buy them, like the the gift box, big red bow and wrapping paper. Claire's had a huge stand of One Direction goodies where I saw the paper and as it's a small shop I can tell you trying to buy the paper on the sly wasn't easy but I got away with it!

And of course I have to mention the cake! Again making this in secret wasn't easy and she must have known I was up to something cakey but she was banished from the kitchen until this morning. Liam Payne is by far her favourite in the group, so it had to be all about him. I found a picture of him with another fan, shamelessly cut her out and placed my cousin in -gotta love Photoshop. I got this printed on rice paper through an order of eBay and it came out really well :D. Sticking it down on the top of the cake I used royal icing to help glue down the sided without making it soggy, I also seal it down with piping royal icing pearls which also looked really cute. As this cake was all about love I used a heart to display the big old 16. To tie in the One Direction colours I placed strips of red fondant down the sides and even finished it off with some One Direction ribbon - again which I bought on eBay.

I also have to mention the Easter egg my mum found for her (eBay!!), there used to be loads of great Easter eggs like this in shops didn't there? Last couple of years have bee rubbish, so my mum found a shop on eBay that sold a One Direction cup with personalised name on the back topped with a Cadbury's egg , which in my opinion in the best kind of egg you can buy - it just tasted better in egg form doesn't it. Finishing it offf with some cellophane and ribbon to make it more special, you don't get eggs like this in Norway normally it's pretty cardboard ones filled with sweets which actually I do love too.

It's safe to say her birthday surprises went down brilliantly and all of the sneakiness was completely worth it!! Happy sweet sixteen Tina! xxxx

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Barry Island!

This weekend was my mum's birthday and we wanted to do something special. We're both complete obsessives when it comes to the TV show Gavin & Stacey, we've been wanting to visit the place since it was made - Barry Island - for about two years so we thought this was the perfect excuse.

I'm going to say sorry in advance, again this is going to contain an obscene amount of photos so I'm just going to put them on in mass, a lot of if you probably won't get it if you don't know the show but they're still lovely photos! We love all of the typical English seaside tourist towns so this hit the spot perfectly, not to be mention how beautiful the whole place was.

We arrived on friday night and went straight down to Barry Island for a look around and for dinner at a local pub, scoping out the shops we wanted to check out the next day. A lot of the show was filmed along the beach front so we were stupidly excited walking around all the bits we recognised. Bless the hotel, first they didn't have our booking, then our internet was messed up so got another lot for free and then out TV wasn't working and got the whole of the hotel that were sitting in the bar to watch Benidorm as that's what we were trying to see and a free drink - cringe.

 

Saturday was my mum's birthday, I woke her with her present and card like a 5 year old jumping on her bed. After stuffing ourselves with croissants for breakfast we went back to Barry Island to stock up on tacky aprons/tea towels/keyrings from the show. I may be 24 but I still love wasting some money on the penny falls at amusement arcades, especially by the seaside! I feel bad for not having time to make my mum a proper birthday cake so I bought her a giant cupcake at the ice cream parlour (such a cute place). We then headed to the train station to get on the tour - yes there is a tour with the original Dave's Coaches, we had on shame and loved every obsessive tourist moment. We went everywhere, the caravan park, the church of Nessa and Dave's near-wedding, their pubs, bingo hall, Stacey's house (which was like a live-in museum of the show with so many photos and memorabilia you couldn't even imagine) which looked across to Uncle Bryn's, then the pleasure park, Marco's Cafe and of course the amusement arcade that Nessa worked in. I have to say going on the actual bus that featured so much on the show was the best bit, we did actually wonder if we were going to make it up the insanely steep hills after a hand-break start at one point! But it all added to the experience so it was great.

In the evening we went into Cardiff Bay for mum's birthday dinner. After a recommendation from Susie @ Fold in the Flour I booked a table at Woods Brasserie, I will be doing a special blog review for this evening which I don't normally do. But it was so AMAZING that I can't not - so I won't spoil it too much now, tune in tomorrow! I absolutely fell in love with Cardiff, the bay was gorgeous and wish we had more time there. We did want to check out the Norwegian Church too that was on the other side but we just didn't have enough time, next time!!

Today we spent the morning/afternoon shopping in Cardiff (by the way be careful where you park....£18!!!), the city is gorgeous and was very restrained in my purchases. The one shop I really wanted to go to 'Kitchens' is shut on sundays, but it's just as well, I would have spent a fortune! I have to say it's the best weekend we've had away in a long time and we completely fell in love with Wales, I've never been before and would go back in a heartbeat. The scenery driving in was stunning particularly around Monmouth, Wales now holds a special place in my heart and hope it won't be too long before I visit again...lush!

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