“Can we go to The New Conway while we’re in Cardiff for Huw‘s wedding?” asked my friend Jamie, before we returned to our ex-adopted hometown on the weekend. “My friend’s taken it over. The food’s really good – I think it’s the only place in the city in the Michelin Pub Guide.” I’m not entirely sure what part of that he’d expected me to refuse. Hell, he had me long before the word ‘Michelin’.
I am so glad we didn’t have to choose between the starters. Some decisions are just too tough to be made when in a slightly fragile state on a Sunday. Instead, we had a platter of pretty much all of them: houmous; olives; butternut squash arancini; fishcakes with onion and coriander salad; and roasted garlic, thyme, honey and kidney bean fritters. The latter were my favourite – light, crispy shells surrounding a soft middle, with whole kidney beans adding texture and a lovely, subtle undernote of sweetness.
My philosophy that almost every savoury food can be improved with the addition of generous amounts of chorizo apparently holds true when it comes to a roast, especially when said roast involves large, juicy pieces of chicken complete with crispy skin.
We had another platter to share for dessert: banana cake with apple compote and white chocolate icing; shortbread and toffee sauce; rhubarb panna cotta; and Jamaican ginger cake. I think it was somewhere around the panna cotta that we simultaneously realised our hangovers had lifted, and that we were sat giggling with joy over a fantastic board of pudding.
Somebody please remind me why I no longer live in Cardiff?
More Salt, Please 