Purveyor of Penclawdd produce preps posh sushi

“TRY SOME!” That was the shout as I walked past Anne’s cockle stall in Llanelli market on Wednesday (Jul 6).

It is a place familiar to most connoisseurs of seafood, as Anne is known hereabouts for her cockles, lobsters, prawns, laverbread and crab sticks.

Given that I had tried most of Anne’s products over the years, including the new range of Selwyn’s Seaweed Crisps, I was a bit perplexed as to what could possibly be on offer for trying.

Anne went to the fridge and pulled out a container as if it contained oysters lined with real pearls. She carefully removed the lid and revealed what lay within, with a look of Penclawdd pride twinkling in her sea blue eyes.

“Sushi!” she exclaimed, as she tilted the container to reveal delights of the sea combined with rice and wrapped in seaweed. Not being one for refusing a free titbit – or free anything – I took one and was quickly told by Anne’s senior assistant that I should eat it in one go or, in her words, ‘shove the whole thing in your gob’.

Years of experience have given me confidence in Anne’s culinary skills, so I did as I was told and shoved it in my gob. There followed a gaze in my direction from Anne and her assistant who appeared to be going through the motions of chewing it with me. In between the ‘mmm’s’ and the ‘ooh’s’ I used adjectives like, ‘lush’ and ‘bloody gorgeous’.

The question to Anne was: “Why Sushi?” As I admired a winkle, she told me: “I just thought I’d try something different.” She explained someone had come along on Tuesday, bought some, and had put it on Facebook.

She continued: “Two very distinguished gentlemen came here today and bought some after seeing it on Facebook.”

I asked whether she thought sushi was a bit posh for the market.

“Not at all,” was Anne’s reply. “This is simple food and we have all the local produce here for anyone to make sushi for themselves. They can use Selwyn’s seaweed crisps, our cockles, prawns, lobsters or crab meat. All they have to do is add some rice.”