The characteristic products

While some specialities and culinary practices have been imported from its British neighbours, Welsh cuisine is still largely the product of the skills of Welsh workers, largely due to their isolation from outside culinary influences and the need to obtain food according to the limited ingredients they could produce. The Welsh Celts and their more recent descendants originally practised transhumance, moving their cattle to higher altitudes in summer and then back down to the plains in winter. Sheep farming is widely practised in Wales, lamb and mutton being the most commonly associated meats in the country. Moreover, do not leave the small Celtic nation without having tasted Welshlamb

, with its delicate tenderness and the very particular taste appreciated by connoisseurs. The PGI (Protected Geographical Identification) label was granted to Welsh lamb in July 2003. Beef has long been rarer and cows were primarily bred for their milk. Fishing is common and seafood is widely used in Welsh cuisine.

Vegetables, apart from cabbage and leeks, were historically rare and leeks have become an important component of many dishes. It has been a national symbol of Wales for at least 400 years and Shakespeare even refers to the Welsh custom of wearing a leek in the play Henry V

. The astonishing popularity of this particular vegetable is a tribute to St David who evangelised the country and who, during a 6th century battle in the middle of a leek field, is said to have asked soldiers to hang some on their helmets before fighting in order to differentiate themselves from the Anglo-Saxons. It is not known whether the Welsh victory that day was due to the leek, but the vegetable became an emblem of the country. Otherwise potatoes, carrots, squash, turnips and rutabagas are also used.

Although, due to its size, Wales does not have great regional variations, there are a few specificities specific to certain localities. Ingredients were historically limited by what could be grown: the wetter climate of mountainous areas meant that crops were limited to oats, while the more fertile lowland areas allowed the growth of barley or wheat. Coastal dwellers - especially those living on the Gower Peninsula, which was cut off from the rest of Wales until the 20th century - were more likely to include seafood or seaweed, while those living inland supplemented their meals with berries, game and wild herbs.

Wales has an important dairy industry with some interesting cheese specialities. The best known is Caerphilly, a hard, white cheese that originated in the Caerphilly area of Wales. Almost white and crumbly, it is made from cow's milk and is usually 48% fat. It has a mild taste but its most distinctive feature is its high salt content. It is said that this cheese was intended to enable local coal miners to replenish their salt reserves lost during the ten hours of hard work they spent at the bottom of the mine. Other varieties include tintern, produced in the village of the same name, a cheddar cheese flavoured with shallots and chives. Pantysgawn, an unripened goat's cheese, is native to the town of Blaenavon. Finally, y fenni is a cow's milk cheese similar to a cheddar flavoured withale

(brown beer) and mustard seeds. In terms of eating habits, the Welsh generally start their day with a hearty breakfast (which today strongly resembles the English breakfast) often offered in hotels and B&Bs. It consists of a bowl of cereal followed by a plate of bacon, eggs, sausages andbaked beans in tomato sauce. This is an easy way to make it through lunch. Lunch is often a lighter meal: sandwich, salad or soup. The main meal is served early in the evening. Many establishments, especially outside the big cities, no longer serve after 9:30 pm. Since the 1970s, the number of restaurants and gourmet pubs in Wales has increased considerably and there are now five Michelin-starred restaurants in the country.

The classics of Welsh cuisine

One of Wales' most famous dishes is Welsh rarebit, a hearty snack consisting of a slice of bread spread with mustard and then topped with a cheese fondue (cheddar or chester) and beer. It is baked au gratin and sometimes topped with a fried egg. Cawl, is also one of the best known dishes of Welsh gastronomy, often considered as the national dish. This speciality, halfway between a soup and a stew, is prepared with lamb, leek, potato, carrot and rutabaga. Common throughout the UK, shepherd's pie is similar to our shepherd's pie but is often prepared with lamb. Faggots are pork meatballs usually made from lean parts (fat, offal, etc.) that are usually served with peas and a brown onion sauce called gravy. Be careful to use the term faggot only in restaurants when ordering this dish, because in English it is also a particularly coarse insult, the meaning of which you will have to find out for yourself. Tatws pum munud,

whose name in Welsh means "five-minute potato", is a quick-cooking stew consisting of thin slices of potato simmered in a broth with bacon.

Soups are also popular and the most common is of course cawl cennin (in Welsh), a creamy leek and potato soup. For those on a small appetite and budget, Clark's Pie is an ideal snack for those who want to eat on the go. This crispy Cardiff landmark - often selling for around £2 - is filled with a mixture of beef, vegetables and gravy. More than a dish, Sunday Roast is above all an experience. Very popular, the Sunday Roast is often the occasion for meals with friends or family. Usually served between noon and 4pm, this great classic consists of roast beef, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings (a kind of puff pastry), all topped with a succulent gravy

. But the cuisine of Wales, which is largely open to the sea and crossed by many rivers, has been able to integrate several species of fish and seafood. Once landed, the fish was generally dried in the wind, then smoked or salted. Herring, a fish that lends itself well to salting, has become a much sought-after catch. Mackerel, trout, salmon and sea trout are the main fish found in Welsh cuisine. Salmon was common as recently as a century ago and therefore a staple food for the poor, traditionally served with fennel, which grew wild in abundance in the region. Lobsters and crabs are also fished - especially in Cardigan Bay - as well as cockle, a close relative of the cockles. And if there's one dish that the British and Welsh love, it's fish & chips. In 1838, Charles Dickens wrote about fish and chips warehouses in his 1838 novel Oliver Twist. It is estimated that the first real outlet appeared at Mossley, near Oldham, England, in 1863. At the beginning of the 20th century, fish, French fries and pea puree were a rich and affordable diet. Fish & chips was the only non-rationed takeaway during World War II. Today, there are nearly 8,500 fish and chips restaurants in the UK, twelve times more than McDonald's! They are available everywhere and can be eaten at any time of day for around £5. The fish is breaded and served with a portion of chips that are seasoned with salt and vinegar. Finally, laverbread, is a seaweed fondue - rich in iodine and calcium - which the Welsh eat with bread or meat.

Desserts and drinks

Among the few Welsh desserts is bara brith, a thick and nourishing type of cake with currants and spices. But also crempogs, pancakes and welsh cakes - also known as bakestones - thick, soft biscuits filled with raisins and dried currants. There are many value-for-money tea rooms where you can enjoy local pastries and other British cakes such as carrot cake, victoria cake, lemon bar, muffins and more. Not surprisingly, tea, as in the rest of the UK, is widely consumed; as is beer, which is by far the most popular alcoholic beverage in Wales. Here, the beer is top-fermented and therefore less carbonated than bottom-fermented beers. This brewing method considerably changes the taste compared to French or Belgian beers. The tasting is done at room temperature, which may be surprising at first, but one gets used to it quickly. Despite the Temperance League, a movement that emerged in the 19th century to limit excessive alcohol consumption in Great Britain, Wales' passion for beer has remained. The Wrexham Lager Beer Company opened its doors in 1881, as Britain's first lager producer. The Felinfoel Brewery became the first brewery in Europe to put beer in aluminium cans.

The Welsh also have a long history of whisky production, in a similar way to other Celtic peoples such as the Irish or Scots, but on a smaller scale. Distillation began for commercial purposes before the middle of the 18th century, by families who then emigrated to America and helped to found the whisky industry in the current state of Kentucky. Still a niche industry, at the end of the 19th century, the main whisky production in Wales was in Frongoch near Bala, in the north-west of the country. The distillery has been bought by Scottish whisky companies and closed in 1910 while they were trying to establish brands in England. Penderyn single malt whisky was the first commercially produced whisky in Wales for a century, in 2004.

Finally, if the British Isles are rarely seen as a wine-producing country, Wales maintains a small wine production. Thanks to the Gulf Stream current, summers and winters are relatively mild with few climatic extremes. Wales' vineyards were first planted by the Romans, but production has remained modest or even insignificant for much of the country's history. In the 1970s modern vineyards were planted in South Wales with the intention of creating Welsh wine. Despite a slow start, by 2005 there were 20 vineyards in Wales, producing 100,000 bottles a year, mainly white wines, but also some reds. And to sip your beer, nothing beats the warm rustic atmosphere of a pub. It's hard to find Welsh villages that don't have one! Note that if in France they are above all bars with an Anglo-Saxon atmosphere, in the United Kingdom they are also restaurants. The quality of their cuisine is sometimes very uneven, but they usually serve a rich and consistent cuisine, especially in the evening.