Nuts and Faggots

Last month I was in the UK for 3 weeks. Whenever I'm on holiday, I tend to have the space of mind to notice and try different food stuffs. This trip presented two such delights.

One day, I was roaming around Totnes village when I spied a curious box of what appeared to be green flower buds or strangely dwarfed ears of corn at a green grocer's. I wondered aloud what they might be and a passing customer replied, "Cob nuts, they're delicious." My sister-in-law, who is local to that area said she'd heard of recipes requiring a lengthy cooking process to which our informed neighbor insisted that they were delicious as is, in their raw state. Apparently, cob nuts are like a giant hazelnut. Curiosity peaked, I bought a bag and promptly peeled the outer husk, cracked the shell and popped the elongated hazelnut into my mouth. It had very much the flavor of a hazelnut albeit fresher, brighter and more mild. I thought about green walnuts and how different they are to their roasted version. The cob nuts were closer in similarity to hazelnuts as we know it in the U.S.

My second week was spent riding 4 days across Wales on the TransWales Trail. On our third night, we stayed at the Blue Bell Pub. I perused the dinner menu to find Welsh Faggots. Our trek leader proclaimed that he always ordered them when eating at the Blue Bell. Who am I to resist? Faggots are what we know to be the 5th quarter of beef, seasoned and ground into giant meatballs and simmered with gravy. Packet gravy aside, they were extremely tasty.

The owner/barman was easily the nicest Welshman I'd met to date and soon he and I were deep in discourse about locally raised and butchered meats. Unfortunately the laws have changed to necessitate purchasing only from meat distributors as it is for most of the U.S. Luckily, I live in a place where my neighbors still raise livestock on a very small scale and I am able to access organically raised hogs and beef. In fact, we're interested in raising our own chickens for slaughter, that is, if I can ever get around to building the coop....