Local Dishes

1. cawl

   kowl

   Cawl (Welsh lamb and vegetable broth)

   Usage

   Wales's national dish: lamb or bacon simmered with potatoes, carrots, swede and leeks, thickened with oatmeal or flour. Most common in winter in the southwest

   Grammar Note

   Borrowed from Latin "caulis" (cabbage stalk); in the 13th century it still meant cabbage. In everyday use it also means soup in general, so menus sometimes write "cawl Cymreig" for the dish itself

2. cawl cennin

   kowl ken-in

   Leek soup

   Usage

   The leek is Wales's national emblem, worn on St David's Day (1 March); this soup turns up on menus around then

   Grammar Note

   "Cennin" is the collective plural; a single leek is "cenhinen" — a singulative noun, where the plural is the base form

3. lobsgows

   lob-skows

   Lobsgows (north Welsh meat and potato stew)

   Usage

   The north Welsh counterpart of cawl — a thick stew of meat, potatoes and vegetables. A meatless version is called "lobsgows troednoeth" (barefoot lobscouse)

   Grammar Note

   Borrowed from English "lobscouse"; also spelt "lapsgows". Figuratively it also means a jumble or mess

4. bara brith

   ba-ra breeth

   Bara brith (Welsh fruit loaf)

   Usage

   A moist loaf with currants, raisins, candied peel and sweet spice, served sliced with butter at afternoon tea. In the southeast valleys it is also called "teisen dorth"

   Grammar Note

   "Bara" is masculine, so the adjective keeps its masculine form "brith"; with a feminine noun it would be "braith"

5. bara lawr

   ba-ra lowr

   Bara lawr (laverbread)

   Usage

   Not a bread at all — purple laver seaweed boiled for hours into a green paste, rolled in oatmeal and fried, served at breakfast with bacon and cockles. A speciality of south Wales, especially Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire

   Grammar Note

   Also written "bara lafwr" or "bara llafan". Richard Burton famously called it "the Welshman's caviar"

6. bara ceirch

   ba-ra kayrkh

   Oatcakes

   Usage

   Thin unleavened oatmeal bread — the staple where wheat would not grow. Eaten crumbled into soup or with cheese on top

   Grammar Note

   Also recorded as "bara cyrch". Crumbled into buttermilk it becomes a separate dish called "siot" (or "picws mali")

7. pice ar y maen

   pee-keh ar uh mine

   Welsh cakes

   Usage

   Small round cakes a few inches across, cooked on both sides on a cast-iron griddle, dusted with caster sugar and eaten with tea. Often griddled to order on market stalls

   Grammar Note

   The name means "cakes on the stone". Regional names differ: "cacen gri" or "teisen gri" in the north, "picau ar y maen" or "pice bach" in the south, occasionally "teisen radell"

8. teisen lap

   tay-sen lap

   Teisen lap (moist Welsh fruit cake)

   Usage

   A flat, moist fruit cake made from a runny mixture baked on a plate or bakestone. It travelled well in a miner's lunch tin in the south Wales coalfield

   Grammar Note

   "Teisen" is feminine (plural "teisennau"). "Teisen lap" is a fruit cake made from a runny mixture and baked on a plate

9. teisen 'Berffro

   tay-sen Ber-fro

   Aberffraw biscuit (Welsh shortbread)

   Usage

   A crumbly biscuit of just butter, sugar and flour. By the Aberffraw custom on Anglesey the dough is pressed into a scallop shell, so the ridges of the shell are moulded into it

   Grammar Note

   The apostrophe marks the dropped initial "A-" of Aberffraw — it is aphaeresis, not a clitic contraction. Both "teisen Aberffraw" and "teisen Berffro" are used

10. crempog

    krem-pog

    Crempog (Welsh pancake)

    Usage

    A thin round pancake of egg, flour, butter and milk, fried in a pan. Traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday (Dydd Mawrth Ynyd), with lemon, jam or syrup

    Grammar Note

    "Ffroesen" (plural "ffroes") and "cramwyth" are regional words for the same thing. The gender is feminine or variable, so usage differs by area

11. llymru

    hlum-ree

    Llymru (Welsh flummery)

    Usage

    Oatmeal steeped in water and buttermilk until it sours, then boiled — an old everyday dish that now survives mainly at home rather than on menus

    Grammar Note

    English "flummery" is thought to be borrowed from this Welsh word. Also called "bwdran" or "sucran"

12. uwd

    ee-ood

    Porridge

    Usage

    Oatmeal boiled in water or milk, eaten at breakfast — the word to look for on a guesthouse breakfast menu

    Grammar Note

    "Uw" is a diphthong, roughly "ee-oo". Milk is "llefrith" in the north and "llaeth" in the south, so recipes word the ingredient differently by region

13. caws pob

    kowss pohb

    Welsh rarebit (cheese on toast)

    Usage

    Melted cheese, usually with beer, mustard, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce, poured hot over toast. English-language menus write it as "Welsh rarebit"

    Grammar Note

    "Pob" is the adjective from the verb "pobi" (to bake, toast), so the name means "toasted cheese". The English name "rarebit" dates from the 18th century and is not a translation of the Welsh

14. caws Caerffili

    kowss Kaer-fil-i

    Caerphilly cheese

    Usage

    A pale, salty hard cow's-milk cheese, said to have suited miners who lost salt in sweat. It is also the cheese used in Glamorgan sausages

    Grammar Note

    It was not originally made in the town itself — cheese made in the surrounding area was sold at Caerphilly market, and took its name from there

15. selsig Morgannwg

    sel-sig Mor-gan-oog

    Glamorgan sausage (meat-free cheese sausage)

    Usage

    A traditional Welsh sausage with no meat in it: Caerphilly cheese, leeks and breadcrumbs, shaped, crumbed and fried. A safe order for a vegetarian

    Grammar Note

    It originally used "caws Morgannwg", made from the milk of Glamorgan cattle. That breed died out, and Caerphilly cheese — which descends from the same recipe — is used instead

16. ffagots

    fa-gots

    Faggots (pork liver meatballs)

    Usage

    Chopped pig's liver mixed with breadcrumbs, shaped into balls and baked. Usually served with gravy and mushy peas

    Grammar Note

    Careful: the similar-looking "ffagod" means a bundle of firewood and is a different word. The dish is borrowed from English "faggots"; the plural is the base form and one of them is a "ffagotsen"

17. pys slwtsh

    pees slootsh

    Mushy peas

    Usage

    Dried marrowfat peas soaked overnight with bicarbonate of soda, simmered soft and finished with butter, vinegar and salt. The standard side with fish and chips

    Grammar Note

    Regional names include "pys potsh" (north Pembrokeshire), "pys gleision", "pys stwnsh", "pys stwmp" and "pys mwtrin"; the second word is also spelt "slwj" or "slwdj"

18. cocos

    ko-kos

    Cockles

    Usage

    Small shellfish gathered from sandy beaches; those from Penclawdd on the Gower are the famous ones, sold boiled at market with pepper and vinegar. Served at breakfast with laverbread and bacon

    Grammar Note

    The plural is the base form; one of them is a "cocsen" or "cocosen". Also spelt "cocas", "cocys" or "cocs"

19. cregyn gleision

    kre-gin glay-shon

    Mussels

    Usage

    The beds in the Conwy estuary have been known for centuries and are still fished from Conwy harbour. A common dish along the north Wales coast

    Grammar Note

    A single one is "cragen las", where "glas" soft-mutates to "las" after the feminine noun "cragen". In the plural there is no mutation, so it stays "gleision". "Misglen" is another word for it

20. sewin

    seh-win

    Sewin (sea trout)

    Usage

    A trout that spends most of its life at sea, caught in west Wales rivers and best in early summer. English menus keep the Welsh word "sewin"

    Grammar Note

    Also spelt "sewyn", "siwin" or "siwyn"; the English word "sewin" comes from the Welsh. It is also called "brithyll y môr" (trout of the sea)

21. cig oen

    keeg oyn

    Lamb

    Usage

    Wales's signature meat — roasted with mint sauce, or simmered in cawl. Sheep meat and wool are a mainstay of Welsh farming

    Grammar Note

    "Cig oen" is meat from a sheep under a year old. After a year it is "cig hesbin"/"cig hesbwrn", and once the sheep has cut its teeth it becomes "cig mollt" (mutton)

22. brecwast Cymreig

    brek-wast Kum-rayg

    Welsh breakfast

    Usage

    The Welsh version adds laverbread and cockles to eggs and bacon. Smoked trout sometimes replaces black pudding, and "bara saim" (fried bread) may come with it

    Grammar Note

    "Cymreig" is the adjective used of things Welsh; "Cymraeg" refers to the Welsh language itself

23. pysgod a sglodion

    pus-god a sglod-yon

    Fish and chips

    Usage

    Battered fried fish with thick-cut chips. A takeaway is a "siop pysgod a sglodion"; in speech it is shortened to "sgod a sglods"

    Grammar Note

    The conjunction "a" triggers aspirate mutation on c, p and t (e.g. "a thatws"), but s is unaffected, so "sglodion" stays as it is

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