Welsh Laverbread

Laver is a thin red seaweed gathered off rocks on the Gower and Pembrokeshire coasts, washed repeatedly to get the sand out and then boiled for five or six hours until it collapses into a dark green-black purée with a strong iodine and mineral taste. It is not bread and contains no flour; the name comes from the way it was traditionally shaped into small cakes with oatmeal and fried. Richard Burton, from nearby Pontrhydyfen, called it Welshman's caviar, and the phrase is repeated on every stall that sells it. The standard serving is a Welsh breakfast: laverbread, cockles from Penclawdd on the Loughor estuary, bacon and sometimes cockle-and-bacon cakes. Swansea Market has sold both since the nineteenth century, and cockle gathering at Penclawdd is still done by hand at low tide.

What you actually see

• The Swansea Market stalls - laverbread and Penclawdd cockles sold side by side.
• The oatmeal cakes - purée rolled and fried, the form the name comes from.
• The Welsh breakfast - served with bacon and cockles as one plate.
• The hand gathering - cockles still raked on the Loughor sands at low tide.

When to go

Year-round; Swansea Market opens Monday to Saturday and is the most reliable place to find it. Cockle supply varies with the season and with periodic closures of the beds.

Honest expectations

The taste is strong, salty and mineral, and a substantial minority of first-time eaters dislike it. It looks unappealing, a dark sludge. It is not widely served outside south Wales and can be hard to find even in Cardiff restaurants.

Nearby

The Gower peninsula and Penclawdd are west of Swansea; the market is in the city centre.