I don’t think that many people stay at Blanco’s Port Talbot
for the view. Carpark on both sides and on the perimeter of the town’s by-pass roads.
But I just stuck my camera out of the window and Mynydd Dinas in the background
makes it a lot better than I’d imagined.
But as I said it’s not the view you want to come here for:
it’s the food. I’ve only had two breakfasts and one dinner so far and my
'impressed' monitor just keeps climbing. This morning I had Eggs Benedict, with
Welsh bacon.
Yesterday, I had two perfect fried eggs on wholemeal toast.
Last night, for dinner, I had the Celtic Pride Welsh Beef fillet steak… ahhhh!!!
Opened like butter to the slight pressure of a knife and was cooked with
culinary precision to medium rare. I’m in my own little food heaven this week.
I bumped into Rachel Howells at the library this morning.
Rachel’s a journalist with Port Talbot Magnet, an online news site that will,
fingers crossed, go to paper in the near future. Port Talbot doesn’t have its
own newspaper anymore: it lost its Guardian in 2009, a victim of the economic
climate and the shift in how news is disseminated now that we have the instantaneousness
of the internet. Rachel balances The Magnet with a family and children and her
PhD research into the effects of a town having no newspaper: the loss of voice,
of identity, of communication. The disappearance of a newspaper has taken on much greater significance than I'd previously thought.
Today she shares with me a piece of news that might not make
tabloid headlines but it’s made my blog headline this week: strawberry grapes.
What? Do they look like grapes or strawberries? They’re grapes that taste like
strawberries. And her friends have been coming from Swansea to Port Talbot to
buy them. At The Fruit Box, Riverside Walk, Port Talbot.
They. Are. Amazing. Sweet little explosions of grape flesh
with the distinct taste of strawberries. And they have mango grapes too.
I promise. It’s true. I have them here, in my room, with a chunk of Spanish
Manchego cheese and a stick of bread from Tesco. They’re like honey but crisp.
And to complete the picture I also have a bottle of Cabernet-Shiraz that, to be honest, is letting the whole feast down a little. Not too much though.
Go there. Tomorrow. Buy them. This is unbridled deliciousness we’re talking
about. Go.
Hungry Writing
Prompts
Write about a view that you still remember.
Write about a nickname.
Write about heat.
Write about losing your voice.
Write about what you balance in your life.