So we are on our way, as I write I'm sitting on the train to Paddington having had an early morning walk to the railway station at the beginning of our journey. But more of that later, before that, an update on our first meal of the holiday, last night at Matsudai Ramen.
Matsudai Ramen
I first got a taste for Ramen when visiting Hawai'i in 2019 - the rich flavour of the broth and the amazing mix of ingredients in the soup were delicious. [Co-Pilot's note: Lies and deceit and more lies, he first got a taste for Ramen when he went to Bobby Wood's stag doo in Wagamamas in 2008, he's forgotten that!!]. Thanks to the co-pilot for correcting me, but I had indeed forgotten that and in my defense it clearly didn't make a big impact as I didn't taste it again until 2019 in Kauai! So, when Jay Rayner finally found something nice to say about the Cardiff food scene (he had developed a reputation for being negative about it) it was nice to see his focus being a Ramen restaurant - Matsudai Ramen - and we were glad to take his advice and try it while our kitchen was being replaced earlier this year.
When thinking of somewhere to eat the night before our trip (so that we didn't have any dishes to wash, food to dispose of before leaving for the holiday) Drew suggested we return - it was a good decision.
We began with three taster dishes to share. These were Karaage Mushroom - a triple fried marinated oyster and shitake mushrooms with Japanese curry mayo, sunset powder and lemon.
this wasn't the easiest dish to eat with chopsticks, Drew suggested he'd bring his own spoon next time! But they were light and crispy, the curry mayo was tangy, with a gentle curry flavour, but a perfect foil for the mushrooms.
We then had Mini Chashi Don - a small, high-grade Japanese white rice with chashu pork belly burnt ends and a soy-mirin dressing
this was the favourite of the starters, the pork belly was soft and infused with the saltiness of soy and the tangy sweetness of mirin, delicious.
Our final dish was Cucumber Sunomono - a cucumber salad with a sweet-savoury-spicy sesame dressing and chilli threads
this had so blown us away on our last visit that we were determined to try it again. It was every bit as tasty as we remembered. How you can make cucumber, often used as a filler in salads, reach such flavour hights I don't know, but they certainly manage it here.
For mains we both had Ramen, well not a difficult choice really as that is the only option!! Though the choice of Ramen is itself something worthy of a connoisseur.
I opted for the Tantanmen
A rich, sesame-packed moderately spicy ramen based on chinese dan dan noodles - The menu description says: chicken and seafood dashi double-soup, soy tare, tantan paste, schmaltz, house rayu chilli oil, thick house-made temomi noodles, chicken and beef soboro, greens, nori with ajitama egg. Though the detail of the ingredients isn't what is important, but the overall effect of them when they are together. It is like a combination of one's favourite childhood comfort soup and special tangy peaks of excellence. I could wax lyrically about it for some time.
Drew went with the Classic Shoyu,
a golden, umami-packed, clean, clear and balanced ramen. A modern version of a classic bowl and one which is light enough that you could eat every day. Its description is: chicken and seafood dashi double soup, soy tare, schmaltz, thin house-made noodles, sous vide chicken breast, house mema, nori with ajitama egg. Drew says - it was very yummy, he'd have it again (well he did as this was his second time here and his second time of choosing this!).
We had some nori as a side some to dip, some to crinkle up on the palette the way crispy seaweed can.
We caught the bus home from Cardiff and by 10.30pm were in bed with the alarm set for 4.30am tomorrow (and 4.31 for the second alarm, just in case!)
Early Morning
With both alarms set, I naturally woke up at 4am and listened to BBC World Service from 4 until the alarm(s) went off when I got up, followed a few minutes later by Drew.
Breakfast, well more accurately first breakfast, was an apple, almonds and mixed seeds for me and a cup of tea for us both.
Breakfast complete we brushed our teeth, packed or electric toothbrushes, the last items to go into the case as we only have one each and having a spare just for holidays seems a litle excessive!
After shaving and dressing it was time to do our final checks, turn off our five Google home devices (which are normally always on) and other bits of electrical equipment and leave for the station.
Taffs Well Station
At 6am we left the house and walked up to Taffs Well station. As aficionados of previous holiday blogs will know our tradition is to have a photo of me on this part of the journey. You will have seen this at the top of today's blog post and here is me leaving the village:
Here I am 11 years ago when we did our last rail holiday in Europe.
Taffs Well station has been in a state of flux for the last 18 months while the depot for the new South Wales Metro is built. Some of the new Metro trains are already on site
though none are yet in use as the overhead electrical cables are not yet complete on all the routes.
We arrived at the station 6.26am and walked over the bridge, as the normal entrance to the Cardiff direction trains has been blocked by the metro work.
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| Taken from the bridge - note the new electric gantries in place ready |
We caught the 6.33am train to Cardiff Central
Cardiff Central
We arrived at Cardiff Central at 7am and had second breakfast at the Upper Crust cafe in Cardiff Central. Drew had a Sausage Bap and a Latte, I, as it is a Friday, a day when Catholic's abstain from meat, had a cheese and egg bap and an Americano.
As we sat in the cafe for our breakfast we were joined by two other passengers who asked us for directions to the platforms. They were two people from Southern California who were on their way to Pembroke. We had a great chat about our visits to their state and they told us about their first visit to the UK in 1963 (I managed not to say, when I was 5!).
Cardiff to London Paddington
We boarded the London train at 7.55am and found our seats straight away.
The train pulled away on time and had an uneventful journey arriving at Paddington at 9:45am.
