Conwy Terry and Mason's Great Food Trip

-I'm liking North Wales.

-I think it's really nice.

-But we've liked nearly everywhere we've been, haven't we?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I'd say so.

-And why? Because we're sunny-natured.

-Yeah, exactly that.

-Particularly me.

-Really?

-Yeah, I'm the more cheery one of the group.

-How do you work that out?

'It's taken 50 years in broadcasting but I've finally cracked it -

'a chance to meander around the country, see the sights,

'meet the people and, yes, eat and drink.'

Is melt-in-the-mouth a suitable phrase?

'I've hailed a cab with one of London's finest cabbies,

'Mason McQueen, to steer me around Britain's highways and byways.'

-I'm looking forward to a decent meal. Are you?

-Oh, I'm starving.

I can't wait, Tel.

'Our route has been mapped out by an adventurous gourmand,

'Samuel Chamberlain, in his book, British Bouquet.

'Almost 60 years later, we're following in his footsteps...'

I'll do all the work, Tel.

'..to seek out weird and wonderful regional British cuisine

'and discover how our tastes have changed over the years.'

Do it right, son!

-Gloves, please.

-Oh, no!

-Not that again!

-Turn round.

-No!

Our merry meanderings have brought us to the

north coast of Wales in the mediaeval town of Conwy.

We're not short of fine ancient monuments in this country,

but surely this castle and its massive battlements are one

of the finest. Built by Edward I as part of his conquest of the Welsh.

Almost 1,000 years later and they're bracing themselves for another raid.

This time on their larders, as we continue our jolly campaign

to track down the finest flavours in the land.

Hey, Mason, keep your eye on the road but at the same time,

have a look that castle!

Ahoy, look at that!

Look at the crenellations. It's an extraordinary place, isn't it?

Old Chamberlain says it's a worthy competitor of the French

castle of Carcassonne.

It cost 20,000 quid to build all those years ago.

A bargain!

Impressive start to Conwy. Where's the A? There's no A.

-Isn't there an A in Conwy?

-There's no vowels in Welsh.

They've never heard of the A, E, I, O or U.

-We are in the narrow alleyways of Conwy.

-I'm loving it, Tel.

Lovely spot, isn't it? Look at this old archway here.

-How many hundreds of years old do think this is?

-I don't know.

-These seagulls, though, you've got to watch them, Tel.

-Oh!

They'll take the eye out of your head, those.

Look at him looking at us. Look!

Yeah, he doesn't like the look of you. I've a way with seagulls.

-Don't worry. They fear me.

-Yeah, right(!)

When our guide Sam Chamberlain was here in the 1960s,

Conwy was a small fishing port.

Since then, news of its charms has spread and now it's home

to around 15,000 people and is a popular holiday resort to boot.

You'll probably buy a yacht down here, won't you?

-I could see myself buying a yacht.

-Man of your means.

-Yeah.

I just see myself out there, Tel, nice pair of beige chinos.

And me, running down there in my Speedos, diving into the water.

That's a bad thought, that is! That's a bad thought!

I thought that was quite a nice picture. Oh, maybe you're right.

Time to put those summertime reveries aside

and get started on the important business of eating.

Our first stop on this gastronomic sweep through Conwy takes us

to the Tan Lan Bakery.

It sounds more like a Chinese restaurant to me,

but I'm sure the owners Dean and Emma Geldart will reveal all.

-Mason, follow me.

-Into a baker's, any time, Terry.

-Is there promise of more food?

-Nice to meet you.

-What does that mean - Tan Lan?

-Hello, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Tan Lan?

-Fire on the hill.

-Fire on the hill.

That's a romantic name for a bakery. What's your big seller here?

The big seller, to be honest, Terry, is the bara brith.

Bara brith - what is it?

-It's fruit soaked in Welsh tea with black treacle.

-A Welsh fruitcake?

-Very similar, yeah, with a lot of spices and stuff like that in.

-Wow.

-And this is?

-They're Welsh cakes - cacen gri in Welsh.

-Say that again.

-Cacen gri.

-Cacen gri.

-Same to you, pal.

-Cacen gri!

HE LAUGHS

-Would you like a cacen gri?

-I'm going to try this.

You have to eat this with your little finger.

-Yeah, sticking up, definitely.

-Spicy.

Bakers, I always think, are the hardest working people in the world.

-We are.

-What time do you get up in the morning to start?

-I'm up at 1:30, in work for two.

-What time do you go to bed, then?

-I go to bed about ten, half past ten, don't I?

-Yeah.

-And then do you go back to bed?

-No.

-No, I go home.

-We've just had a baby.

-I'm surprised.

-There's no chance of that!

-How did you manage?

How did this baby come about?

The stork just accidentally flew over and, you know...

-Well, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-It shows persistence.

-Yeah, it does.

THEY LAUGH

Lovely sunny day and, of course, the ruins of this extraordinary castle.

-Everywhere.

-Look at it up here, though, Tel, look.

-It's like a proper fortress.

-Oh, gosh. That's fantastic, isn't it?

Back in the 13th century,

it might not have looked quite as glorious to

King Edward I as he was trapped here in 1294 for three long

months in the winter with only his personal jester Tom le Fol

to keep him entertained.

Tom's descendant Erwyd still lives in Conwy

and has carried on the family business.

-And you are?

-Erwyd le Fol.

-The descendant of Edward I's court jester?

-As close as you can get.

-I'm the full-time jester of Conwy.

-Oh!

This would keep the king amused for quite a while, wouldn't it?

-I would hope so.

-Oh, look at that. There we are.

-Look at this.

-How does it look?

-On you? It looks great.

-Quick juggling lesson, OK?

Basically, you want everything to go from side to side, OK?

-So it's kind of a figure-of-eight kind of movement.

-You can do this.

-You can do this!

-I can't do this.

-You can do this!

-I need more time.

-Learn in about five seconds.

-Look at that.

-One, two, three.

-There you go.

-Perfect!

-OK. We can do this trick.

-OK.

THEY LAUGH

We may not be jesters but we're certainly fools.

-Thank you very much.

-See ya.

-See ya.

-Bye-bye.

Got to get the ball out the quay now.

The next stop on this Conwy food trip takes us

back up the hill to the butcher's shop of Mr Ieuan Edwards.

Sadly, Welsh isn't one of my many languages but Mason assures me

he's been working on a suitable greeting.

-Ieuan, how you doing?

-Pleased to meet you,

-Terry. Ieuan Edwards.

-Welcome.

-Prynhawn da.

-Prynhawn da!

-Spoken like a native, Mason, may I say?

-A native of...

-Of the East End.

-Uzbekistan.

Ieuan is a farmer's son from the Conwy Valley.

He's famous for his Welsh black beef, which is displayed in this

rather impressive meat maturing cabinet.

It starts off being about three or four weeks old here

and some people like their beef extremely well hung,

so you're going up to five and six weeks old.

-And we show that maturation process.

-I think that is a terrific idea.

-Yes.

-You don't do what the Japanese do

and massage your beef with beer or anything like that, do you?

No, we drink the beer in Wales.

With all this prime meat on offer,

you'd have thought Ieuan would be bringing up some steaks or

best rib, but his speciality is rather humbler.

So, Ieuan, we're only making hamburgers here.

Why have we got three different types of meat?

Normally, butchers, when they make burgers,

they just use offcuts of various meats.

We felt we needed to take the whole process a lot further by

introducing a proper recipe, if you like, for the actual meat as well.

So you've got the influence of the chuck,

which will give it that lovely soft texture.

We're using the skirt of beef here

and then the beautiful fats and things from the short ribs.

-You're pioneers!

-So the first thing we need to do, Mason,

we need to mince this lot together.

-OK.

-You can mince.

-Commence mincing!

-Commence mincing!

-Commence mincing!

-Damn the torpedoes!

-Oh, yes.

-What you think, Mason?

-Yeah.

-Can you work with this?

-I can work with this.

-Excellent.

After the mincing comes the shaping.

Grab a handful but don't overwork it, OK?

Just make a small round ball of mince, like that.

-He's got a good feel for this.

-He has. He knows what he's doing.

This is fun. This is fun, working in a butcher's.

So I press this over the burger.

Just gently press it down in one action. There we are.

-The light touch of Mason McQueen!

-Look at that!

-It's a triumph.

-It's stunning.

-A burger to remember.

-A natural.

Don't get cocky, now.

He does it with a flourish now, doesn't he?

Look at that!

But the proof of the burger is in the barbecuing and, as usual,

it's going to be a team effort.

It's like a Blues Brothers tribute band flipping burgers in North Wales.

Give them a flip. Way!

-How do you have your ideal hamburger?

-Best to have it medium.

-I wouldn't go to rare on it, personally.

-Not on a burger, no?

No, no. But medium's fine.

-Don't take any chances with these burgers, OK?

-No.

You know, I went to a lot of trouble to do these

-and I don't want you messing them up.

-We must have missed that bit.

-Yeah, we did, yeah.

-Yeah, OK.

I've never eaten a hamburger like this.

That is the tastiest burger. It's like steak.

Well, that's the quality of the meat.

Is there anybody who would like to taste a burger over there?

-Well, you can't!

-Please.

-No, you can't, cos they're my burgers.

-You can't eat all them!

-I'd like to let you have a burger, but...

-Oh, all right, then.

-Come on, Terry. Share them.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much for sharing.

-Be careful now.

They're a little hot, so be careful.

-I cooked these myself, you know.

-Thank you,

-Terry. Go on, my boy.

-Force it down! Have another one. Go on!

-Thank you.

-This is my life.

Having given up the radio and the Eurovision Song contest,

I'm now feeding the people of Wales.

Bit of hamburger?

-Go on, son. You'll like it.

-Drive-in burgers! Have a good day.

-Thank you.

-OK?

Well, I'll be brutally frank, you made them but I sold them.

-You sold them.

-So I'm the one that gets the commission.

-OK.

-I can live with that.

-I get to finish the bits.

-Tasty, eh?

-Mm.

Time for a little stroll to work off all that protein

and take in a few more of the sights of Conwy.

-Look at this, Mase. Smallest house in Britain.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Welcome to the smallest house in Conwy.

-Thank you.

And do you live in this little house?

-No, but would you like to see it?

-Yeah, we'd love to, wouldn't we?

-Come on, Mase.

-It was built in 1500s and lived in until 1900.

And who lived here?

The last person to live here was a 6'3" fisherman

and he lived here for 15 years.

Excuse me, how could a 6' 3" fisherman live here!

-And this is a picture of him.

-Good Lord! So he wore his hat as well?

That was because every time he walked, he bumped his head...

-Yes, probably.

-He had a bad back, I know that.

-And there's an upstairs?

-Yes.

-Is that where the bedroom is?

-Yes.

Hello, mate! He's still up here! How you doing?

I think it must be interesting with coach parties, though, eh?

THEY CHUCKLE

-Wow.

-What a view, though.

-I know, I know.

-Did you see that?

-Fantastic.

Did it again.

50 years ago, when our guide Sam Chamberlain

was in these parts, Conwy would have been full of working fishing boats.

Nowadays, the bay is mainly used for leisure,

but a team of local enthusiasts are hard at work restoring

an original boat to help teach young people nautical skills.

-It's a boat.

-I suppose so!

-I know a boat when I see one.

She's a 43-foot Morecambe Bay prawner,

which were sailing fishing boats.

They started life in Victorian times,

catching shrimp for the tourist market.

-And how long's it taken to get her to this stage?

-Three years' work so far.

-Three years?

-Yes, three years.

-Where you been, in the pub?

No, I've been working hard.

Every single piece of her has had to come out.

And if it was rotten, you had a new piece made and put back in, so

it's taken much longer than building one from scratch would have done.

-Will she float?

-Yes. Well, not right now, but she will eventually.

Looks like a couple of holes in there.

-Ah, well, you're going to help us with that, we hope.

-Oh.

-We're going to fit the final plank.

-What an honour.

Lift! And separate!

-To me, to you.

-Up your end.

-Knock it in a bit.

-Mind your fingers.

-Look at that! Well done. Well done.

-We built a boat! Well done, us.

And to celebrate the completion of the prawner, what other snack

would we have but sandwiches filled with the locally caught shrimps?

-After you, Tel.

-Come on, it's your boat. You're the skipper.

They look really good.

I'm starving after all that hard work.

-That plank was heavy.

-Very tasty shrimp.

-They are very good.

A credit to Conwy.

It's time to saddle up the old black cab

and make a pilgrimage across the water to Conwy's near neighbour,

an island that the Welsh call Ynys Mon.

Anglesey, yeah. It's like Wales' food basket.

I think that's what they call it, you know.

I think you're perfectly right.

That was the original thing about Anglesey -

it provided the rest of Wales with its food and certainly its seafood.

We're an island nation and this is another little island.

-What a landscape, eh,

-Terry? It is. It's really unusual.

-What's that?

-The Menai Strait?

-That's the Menai Strait.

It's quite mystical, isn't it?

There's castles, there's Snowdonia, you know?

It's the Snowdonia National Park, that is. Isn't it beautiful?

Fantastic.

And look, there's all the old boxes, if you ever fancied in mussel.

-Is that what it is there?

-The boxes? Yeah. Mussels. I love a mussel.

-Do you?

-Yeah, I do like a mussel.

-Yeah, a little white wine.

-Vinegar and pepper.

-Eh?

You'll be back to the jellied eels in a minute!

-Shall we go and have a look, Tel?

-OK. I'm with you.

-Come on.

-Do you know where you're going?

-No.

-OK, I'll follow.

The Menai Straits, which separate Anglesey from the mainland,

have been used for farming mussels or bivalve molluscs,

if you like, for hundreds of years.

-Shaun, look at all these mussels!

-Yup.

What we do is, we actually hand-gather the mussels, which is

simply filling a smaller tray,

which we then use to fill these bigger trays.

So this box here holds between 4-500 kilos of mussels.

-You handpick the mussels?

-Yes.

-Where do you handpick the mussels, out there?

-On the beds here, yeah.

So you and a couple of boys are going round, picking the mussels?

-Yes.

-How long does it take you to pick that number of mussels?

Three guys working this will probably fill this

box in under half an hour,

so we'll do five or six boxes per tide with three men.

And, like, they're there to just grab...

You just scrape them on with your hands, put them in a tray,

you've got to give them a quick clean in the tray to get

the mud out, and then that's emptied into here.

-Must play havoc with your fingernails.

-And your back.

-Your back is the thing.

-Tell me about the Menai Straits.

Why is the Menai Strait particularly good for mussels?

Well, we've got rather strong tidal currents here.

Some areas, they're cultivated different.

I mean, these are bed-grown mussels, intertidal,

but you'll have rope-grown mussels as well,

and there are differences between the two.

-But your ones are the best.

-Yeah, these have got the best flavour.

I haven't told you, you've got to number

and label these individually and put them in a bag,

-so you'd better get started.

-Well worth the effort.

-Three...

-OK, you keep counting. Carry on.

-I'll see you soon.

-Yeah, carry on.

Six...

Seven...

Eight...

Mason must have run out of fingers because, before you know it,

he's back where he feels safest - behind the wheel.

It's amazing where this tour takes us, isn't it?

-We're going to see a sea salt factory.

-Amazing!

I know nothing about it, but I feel like I'm going to know

a lot about it...

-and very soon.

-Whether you like it or not!

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-It's called Halen Mon.

-I think that's Welsh, isn't it?

TERRY LAUGHS

-Takes a good one to get past you!

-I know "araf"

and that means slow for the roads, so we want to keep that on board.

-Araf!

-Araf!

-Araf!

The island has a long history in the manufacture of salt

and Anglesey sea salt has been given protected status in recognition

of the quality and expertise required in its production.

Salt.

Sea salt, not just salt, this is the salt.

This is what we believe is the best sea salt in the world.

'Sea salt is made by naturally filtering the local sea water,

'it goes through an evaporation process and into special tanks

'until the sea salt crystals form.'

Ten days from sea to salt

and this is the final stage

where this beautiful salt

is harvested, and you can see those crystals

and this sea water is absolutely special

because it gives a special flavour to our salt.

Salt is a much maligned thing.

You've got to have a bit of salt in your diet, haven't you?

-You've got to.

-But not too much though, David, right?

-No.

Actually, if you don't have any salt,

you start hallucinating after ten or 11 days.

That's what's been happening to you.

I told you, "Eat more salt,"

-I said, "Mason, you're beginning to go."

-Yeah.

-Eat smaller quantities of better salt.

-I couldn't agree more.

I could do this.

Yeah, of course you can. If you put some gloves on.

Do you know what, Mason,

-it's extraordinary the things I've seen you do in the name of this programme?

-Yeah.

Now you're shovelling salt.

And it ain't even winter!

So this has been here for 23 hours

and it's harvested at the same time every day,

so it's all very exact.

We're controlling the temperature, the humidity.

-And all for a packet of salt?

-Yeah.

You can see it glistening, almost like snow.

'David and his wife Alison have been running their business since 1997

'and produce every kind of sea salt you could possibly wish for

'and some you didn't even know existed.'

-It's a feast!

-It is, indeed, if you like salt.

It's a different kind of feast.

We have our chilli and garlic, celery, oak smoked.

We have vanilla.

-Go on, Tel, straight in.

-What's that? This is your ordinary, isn't it?

This is the stuff that people will shake onto their food.

-It's like...dust.

-Yeah.

It is but don't you feel that there's a bitter taste?

Because that has up to 5% chemicals in it to make it free-flowing.

-And now.

-The superior salt.

-It's very salty, Mason.

-Yeah, mmm.

There is no comparison.

-What's that?

-Chilli salt.

-You spread this over your roast meat?

-Yes.

-And then you get the lovely crisp crackling.

-I love the garlic.

That one is sage and onion salt.

We may need some more water for Mason.

Yeah, I know, I've got palpitations.

Thank you for the salt tasting.

It's an as-salt course.

GROANS

I just thought of that.

We're going to go and see the Anglesey Sea Zoo.

Now, you wouldn't think, if you come to Wales,

that you're going to see an aquarium.

But, apparently, they're attempting to save the lobster.

-Save the lobbo, eh?

-I'm all for that.

Save the lobster, more for me.

MASON CHUCKLES

You've got your armbands, Tel?

-I'm not getting into the water.

-You're not getting in?

-No.

I mean, I'll eat lobsters but I'm not going to swim with them.

'The Anglesey Sea Zoo was set up as a visitor attraction

'where you can come and gawp at the 150-plus fish

'and sea creatures that inhabit these shores.

'It also big on conservation,

'particularly where my friend Mr Lobster is concerned.'

Frankie, lobsters, my favourite fruit. I'll have that one.

These are spiny lobsters, or rock lobsters,

also called crawfish,

-found in salt water.

-Are they?

-Good eating, though?

-They are very good eating.

-In fact, they're possibly better eating than the common lobster.

-OK, I'll have two, then.

These are very rare, Terry. There aren't many of these any more now.

You're not going to allow me to eat them?

-I won't allow you to eat them.

-Nobody's allowed to eat these?

These are part of a specialist breeding programme.

'Ah, very important, this conservation,

'but they aren't half tempting.

'I think I need to see the little tiddlers,

'it might make me a little more compassionate towards them.'

This is the Lobster Hatchery of Wales, Terry.

It was established in the 1980s with funding from fisheries

and across Europe because the common lobster was becoming very rare -

it was being overfished.

So these are lobster larvae?

These are starting to look like proper lobsters now.

They are with the little pinchers.

-There we go, a jump.

-Yeah. Oh! Yay!

-They wouldn't be worth eating, would they?

-They wouldn't, no.

You couldn't put a couple of thousand in a sandwich, or anything?

-They wouldn't taste of anything, would they?

-Not really.

They might be a little bit crunchy.

How old are these?

These are between six months and 12 months old.

-They take a long time to grow.

-They do.

This is one of the problems that we have with the overfishing,

you need to allow them to grow large enough to breed.

People think that lobsters are orange or pink,

but they're very, very blue until they're cooked.

It's the same with prawns -

people think prawns are pink and they're transparent.

At what point are you going to release these into the Menai Strait to take their chances with nature?

-Usually around one-year-old.

-OK.

You can see they're very feisty.

We have to keep them in separate boxes like this

because they are cannibalistic.

So if you get a really big lobster,

it means he's probably eaten about three of his family?

The next time I'm eating a lobster, I shall have a lot more respect.

That's good to hear.

'In spite of my valiant efforts to stem my craving

'for the esteemed lobster, I've failed.

'The good news is I've heard there are some sustainably sourced ones

'on the menu only a stone's throw away

'at a local campsite, of all places.'

I don't know about you, but my stomach is beginning to rumble.

-It must be...

-There's a change.

How long is it since we had something to eat?

I mean, we've seen a lot of stuff.

I've looked at mussels, I've looked at salt, I've tasted salt,

I want to put some salt on some sustenance.

That's probably the wisest thing you've said

throughout this entire series.

-Really?

-Give me your hand.

-You're most kind.

-Put it there, pal.

-Put it there, pal.

-Let's go.

Come on, let's stuff our face.

'And at the Marram Grass Cafe,

'it looks like there's going to be plenty to fill our ever hungry appetites.

'It's run by two enterprising young lads who spent their childhood

'holidays here and they're putting their culinary skills

'and Anglesey's finest produce to work.'

Yes, one of my favourite locations, a restaurant.

You're both from Wales?

-No, we're Scousers, aren't we?

-How did I know that?

This is Ellis.

Who have you got as the helper?

This is the waiter. This is Liam, me brother.

-Good for you both.

-Yeah.

Entrepreneurial skills. What brought you here, then?

Why did you come here?

Me dad decided...he went through a bit of a midlife crisis

and bought a little campsite in North Wales.

So I was trained in fine dining and this was a little, greasy spoon.

We started it off with me and Liam.

We started making the food fresh, so we took the greasy spoon aspect

and got rid of all the deep fat fryers.

All the main bits of the menu we have at the moment,

everything is off the island.

We know all about these, of course.

That's the local...Shaun's mussels

and Welsh wild bass.

Welsh wild bass, literally caught off Cribinau island.

This is a very dead lobster.

He's been cooked, but this one hasn't.

This one hasn't been cooked yet, but if we throw him in...

-That'll be ready for service.

-Good work.

'In no time at all, the boys whip up a seafood feast

'of bass, mussels,

'lobster

'and oysters.'

Some food to fight over.

Fantastic.

-This is our lobster, I'll drop that in the middle.

-Thank you very much.

'Our new island friends are on hand to get stuck into

'a prime Anglesey platter.'

This is fantastico.

Everything we use now in the restaurant is all off Anglesey.

Thank you so much.

If you've got good produce, you don't need to do much to the food.

Oh, I thought they were our oysters.

-LAUGHTER

-It's coming back, don't panic.

It's terrific. That's really good flavour.

Here's to you. Thank you for all you're doing.

-Ah.

-That was lovely, Tel.

-Wasn't bad, was it?

-A fish feast.

-I like me fish, don't you?

-He would've been proud of that, Neptune.

Yeah, a bit of lobster...

The Menai Strait...

best place to be for food.

Let's hope the next place we go is half as good.

As long as I have you driving me...

-You'll be fine. I'll look at you, Tel.

-Thank you, thank you.

DOOR CLOSES AND ENGINE STARTS