On the 3rd December, ffresh at the Wales Millennium  Centre launched it’s program of events for Christmas 2012 with a Christmas Music Night. This is the latest event in series of live music nights where diners get entertained by members of the Welsh National Opera Chorus in between courses.

MrsA and I were fortunate enough to be invited along to sample the event and so we set off to the WMC looking forward to the festive fun. Apart from a slight mix up with the menu, which meant that the one that was published here earlier became a more traditional Turkey dinner, we settled down to enjoy the evening’s entertainment.

Starters took the form of a smoked salmon dish.  A fresh salmon mousse, wrapped in smoked salmon it was generously portioned. MrsA thought it was well seasoned  and the punchiness of the fresh micro greens and spicy horseradish gave a  nice balance. She would have liked a bit more toast though.

Smoked Salmon Starter

Not being a lover of salmon, I switched to the vegetarian starter of Pear and Blue Cheese Salad. Again generously proportioned the cheese was really punchy, just how I like it.  The baby pears were a little on the hard side but had good flavour.  The whole thing was sitting on top of a kind of carrot coleslaw, which was just unnecessary and only served to confuse the dish. It would have been better to leave out the carrot and add more pear.

Pear and Blue Cheese Salad

Before our mains we were treated to the first recital from PEDW4R, the operatic quartet, who began with Winter Wonderland. Now I’m not the worlds greatest lover of opera and to my untrained ear I thought it took PEDW4R a few songs to hit their stride.  Once they had, they managed to put a novel spin on a lot of old favourites and brought smiles and enjoyment to their audience.

Our main course was a traditional turkey dinner with stuffing, pigs in blankets, sprouts, baby potatoes and carrots, parsnips cauliflower and cranberry sauce. The turkey was very moist and the gravy was lovely and rich, there just wasn’t enough of it. A separate jug of gravy would have been ideal. Gravy aside, everything was nicely cooked and the veg retained its flavour.  Although it was traditional it was very well done.

Traditional Turkey Dinner

After another round of carols and Christmas themed songs from PEDW4R, it was time for dessert.

PEDW4R Meriel Andrew (soprano) Sian Meinir (mezzosoprano) Michael Clifton Thompson (tenor) and Martin Lloyd (bass)

It was a shame but the pre-made individualised Christmas pudding portions were a real let down. Rubbery with no flavour or texture and splash of white sauce they didn’t match the high notes of PEDW4R.

Christmas Pudding and White Sauce

Despite the poor pudding both MrsA and myself enjoyed the ffresh Christmas Music Night. It was an idea way to kick start ourselves into the Christmas mood. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves too and quite a few tables (MrsA included) were signing along to the carols.

The WMC has a number of other Christmas themed events running during December and you should also look out for any more ffresh music evenings.  Details can be found on the WMC website here.

ffresh
Wales Millennium Centre
Bute Place
Cardiff Bay
CF10 5AL.

Tel: 029 2063 6465
Email: ffresh@wmc.org.uk 

We attended the event as guests of ffresh and as such the evening was complimentary.