Welsh Cawl: the national dish of Wales

Not only did I get a haircut today but I have been introduced to the national dish of Wales: cawl.

What with accents and general unfamiliarity on my part, it took awhile for me to understand that my fellow customers or haircutters were discussing a food item.  This is another one of those situations where they were having a good time listening to my accent but not understanding the depth of my ignorance about something as basic to life as cawl.

Coming up at the end of October is the annual Cawl Crawl, in which various businesses or organizations offer cawl and people with tickets go around tasting it.  The money goes to charity. The tasters vote and someone wins.  Michelle's Salon is thinking of entering and offering cawl because they were quite successful raising money in the recent coffee and cake event which raised money for cancer care. A neighboring cafe produced the winning cawl last year with the winning ingredient being a bit of mint.

But I am back at the basics--a bit of mint in what?

Ohhh--it is like a soup or stew.

What else is in it?  Everyone has an opinion.

Traditionally, the basic broth was made with lamb shanks but my neighboring customer uses beef. Sara, cutting my hair, likes lamb but beef is fine.  Someone else sticks to lamb. No one mentions chicken or turkey.

Everyone adds vegetables--carrots, potatos, turnips (called Swedes here) as it is a winter dish. Some add tomatos. Onions--lots of onions.  Onions grow well here; must have onions. No idea of adding garlic.  Herbs--yes, one would use herbs.  Whatever you have growing (as if one would really ask about that.) Sara likes to add pearl barley and sometimes lentils. No one present added ham or bacon but agreed that some do this and it is tasty.

How is it served?
Not a simple question.  Some pour off the broth and serve it first maybe thickened a bit with oatmeal. Then the meat and veg as a plate of stew.  It is grand with a plate of bread and cheese.  (Sighs of satisfaction around the salon.)

Others weigh in on a soup with the broth, meat and veg in the same bowl but agree that the cheese and bread are brilliant.  There is general agreement that if they enter the Cawl Crawl, it will have to be this way.

The logistics of entering and serving out soup are daunting as they have such a small place.  How many crock-pots can they command? It will be too cold to serve outside by the end of October.  We all agree that it will be too bad that I will not be there for such a fun time.

There is some hope that I will get a taste of the soup as some restaurants serve it nowadays.  The cafe down the street makes it well--they won last year, remember.  But so far they have not had it this year even though the salon staff have been asking.  Not wintry enough.

Me--I trot down the street to the first cafe --the Farmer's Cafe.  Sounds right but no sign of soup.  A really good hamburger but not the Welsh National Dish.

Checking back with the salon--go a bit further to the Fisherman's Cafe.  I will try another day.

Here is a recipe from the Welsh government which I can try some time. Since I always make chicken or turkey soup, it will be an culinary adventure.

Later:
The haircut. Not that bad. The things that look like wings are the top posts of the wrought iron chairs where I am staying.