Surprised and Offended

As a visitor to your country, Welsh born and bred, I was more than a little surprised to read Joel M. Vance’s reference to Wales. Wales is not, and never will be, a part of England. It is a separate country within the United Kingdom. The Welsh are a passionately patriotic race, and had the reporter voiced his assumptions while in Wales, the response he would have been afforded would have been unprintable.

Debra Scott’s article on Welsh food I found somewhat offensive. Having grown up in Wales, eating out with my family fairly regularly, I have no recollection of any of the fare being “stodgy.” Why Scott should have found a proposed “culinary tour of Wales” so amusing, now, or at any time in the past, I do not know. There are, and have always been, some very good restaurants in Wales. What makes Scott assume that the palates of the Welsh are less “sophisticated” than those of anyone else?

R. BINTZMAN

Ventura