@Adams

It was coincidental a very special marriage took place while we were in Wales: Lucy, beloved daughter of dear friends Mags and Keith Jones of Aberystwyth, was wed in Swansea Rick Davies. We were honored to be invited to the families’ wedding- dinner the evening following the ceremony.

The dinner was held in Y Mwmblws—The Mumbles. Growing up this was one of Dylan Thomas’s favorite places, and I had never been there. The town fronts The Mumbles Road, and across it a park runs the length of the town, between it and Swansea Bay. It’s a novel and pleasant town, and despite the constant flow of automobiles it is a quiet place.

The dinner was at a restaurant called @ Adam’s, a lovely and newly refurbished space midway through town—because of the layout I’d guess it might have been the ground floor of a hotel at one time. The night we were there the place was all but given over to parties—two wedding celebrations and a Seventy-fifth Birthday! Our tables were in a front room, the late angle of the sun still lit the expanse of water towards the never-ending activity of the Swansea Docks.

A two- and three- course meal were offered, and provided some interesting choices: I steered toward salad and lamb’s liver. I though that was a good match of lightness and genuine Welsh celebration.

The salad was a goat’s cheese and beetroot with a citrus dressing—rich, sweet, tart…did exactly what a salad should do, prepare the palate.

(I’ve never understood the practice of some to end the meal with a salad…what, as a digestive aid?)

And my palate had a good experience in the offing. The lamb’s liver was in thick strips and done to a moist and flavorful well…. What is it about lamb?... particularly in these northern and frontier reaches it is closest to the earth and fullest of any meat.

The liver was served on mash with black pudding—which, if you’re not familiar with it, is a British blood sausage: Very good sliced cold—good bread and mustard & you’ve got a genuine sandwich in your hands—and a revelation as the result of preparing it with the liver; the sausage took on characteristics of a bleu cheese, crumbly and almost-creamy at once.

On the plate, the trio—black, white, grey—seemed somehow revolutionary: Under the jus of smoked bacon and baby onion the meat was served with, it was!!!