Tag Archives: salad

Raw Food at The Hay Festival?

28 May
the epicentre of the second hand book world

the epicentre of the second hand book world

I’ve just spent the long weekend at The Hay Festival a ten day international book fest set in Hay-on-Wye in the Welsh Brecons. With some thirty major bookshops it has been famous as the world’s largest secondhand and antiquarian book centre since 1961. While there are some perfectly reasonable pubs and cafes around town, (I ate the best beef wellington of my life at the Old Black Lion), none of them serve raw food other than the lettuce leaves in the prawn cocktail I saw on a fellow diner’s table.

While the town is about nothing but books, the festival is really a series of lectures and discussion by and with recently published authors from a range of backgrounds covering a range of subjects. This year, amongst other published celebrities, economic and political commentators and literary greats I managed to see foody legends Jay Rayner and Heston Blumenthal but just missed out on Monty Don speaking about his new book Fork to Fork.  

But what do people eat at a literary festival?

fresh strawberries from a farm around the corner

fresh strawberries from a farm around the corner

Other than the delicious, organic and locally grown punnets of raspberries, blueberries, cherries and strawberries, I noticed that my bookish fellows queued around the block for sheep’s milk icecream, venison burgers, crisps, cider, pimms, ploughman’s cheese boards, and the fudge. I have to say it did look tasty and I was impressed that it was at least all local produce, but it was absolutely and utterly – not raw. 

So it seems the tastebuds of Hay Festival bookworms do not veer towards to raw food. 

The suprising news, even to me, is that I resisted all of it except for the Burnt Sugar fudge, which after a bag full, gave me such a sugar high that I didn’t get to sleep until 2am.  Thankfully, the next day I managed to find a fresh salad stall and stocked up on an onion and carrot salad, lettuce leaves and seasoned cucumber. Combined with my bag of apples, the berries as above, and my nakd bars, I was happy.

The festival was interesting, frustrating, thought-provoking, exciting, comforting and inspiring.  My brain feels stretched beyond recognition and besides my fudge feast and a brief encounter with a dried up piece of cod, I was for once, an under-control raw foodist…

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Where is the Raw Food in Tignes?

17 Mar

Raw food is everywhere in the Savoyarde region of the French Alps, but your willpower will have to work its pants off to ignore the gooey, cheesey, dreamy, creamy, heaven-sent dauphinoises, fondues, raclettes and tartiflettes. 

You don't need this cheesey and potato dream! It's bad for you!

Dauphinoise tastes delicious but you're asking your body to digest cement.

Not to mention the tarte tatins the size of tractor tyres and the mountains of fresh pain au chocolats, eclairs and mille feuilles at the many patisseries dotted around town.  Anyway – enough drooling – it’s not impossible to go raw on the slopes. 

Self catering helps because you will at least have control of the menu.  There are several supermarkets, so prices for fresh fruit and vegetables are competitive, not exorbitant and the selection is broad.  However if you fancy popping out for some restaurant food, I found a fantastic Mexican spot in Val Claret in Tignes. 

 Daffy’s is probably more widely known for its margherita happy hour and free wi fi, but I think it also deserves a mention for its fantastic range of salads that can be easily tailored sans fromage and crème. I enjoyed the obviously named ‘Mexican salad’; a huge corn tortilla loaded with leafy lettuce, tomato and avocado, covered in a light olive oil and French herb dressing.

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