There's a section in one of Bill Bryson's books in dire need of revision. He describes a journey by train from Llandudno to Blaenau and as he arrives in the station the steam train down to Porthmadog is just disappearing.
With hours to kill until the next train, he consoles himself with egg and chips, the only customer in the only café.
But there's just so long that you can stretch out egg and chips - he gives up waiting for the train and takes a taxi. I think he said it was raining as well.
These days the timetables of both railway companies are integrated and with a degree of flexibility to ensure connections are made. In 2003 Bill Bryson came back to ride the trains and revised his opinion, but the culinary delights of Blaenau are still underrated.
On the takeaway front, a visit to the Model Bakery is recommended. You might expect Welsh cakes, but you will also find Kurdish Pasties. Laced with piri-piri sauce, these taste bombs are great for a hike in the surrounding mountains.
They are made by Kurmang Aziz Rashid, the colourful character who swapped his life as a Home Counties computer programmer to become Blaenau's baker.
He's too busy to attend Welsh classes, but his customers have trained him well. When he does get time off he likes to take part in the local mountain races.
Caffi Bont is just across the road from the railway station. The café's name comes from pont (bridge) as it's on the site of the bridge under which the slate wagons passed en route to Porthmadog - the public toilets in the car park are the old station buildings.
But maybe the name comes from the feeling from inside, of being on the bridge of a ship with its large windows and railings in the front. On fine days the pavement doubles as the deck.
The new owner is Gaile who gave up working for a merchant bank in London - nowadays the problems of commuting are a thing of the past as she rarely gets to leave work with the café open seven days a week.
The great thing is that the place is full of character. The internal shape is anything but square, more of a funnel shape with the wide end given over to windows and bright daylight and the narrow end to the wonders of the internet - are holiday emails replacing postcards?
Behind the counter an impressive array of Italian gadgetry is used to create coffees of every description, whilst chocolate brownies tempt you from the counter. A cauldron of home-made soup and sandwiches are amongst the standard fare, but goat's cheese and artichoke lasagne gives you an idea of the range on offer.
The ambience is great. Pick up a paper from the communal rack or feel free to play the piano - plenty of sheet music to choose between. It's a great place to meet friends or just while away a moment. Maybe do a jigsaw. In the future you'll be able to hire a bike.
However, if you're in a rush and can't afford the time to break your journey, the buffet car on the Ffestiniog Railway serves great snacks and drinks, including beers from Mws Piws (Purple Moose), the small brewery in Porthmadog.
If the buffet car is not to your liking you might have another option if the right driver is on duty. He's a bit of a gourmet and one of his specialities is smoke-box chicken!
It's wrapped up in a triple layer of kitchen foil with potatoes, a few parsnips, a couple of cloves of garlic, some butter and bunged in the smoke-box in Porthmadog. Thirteen and a half miles later the meat just falls off the bone, tender and moist.
The smoke-box is at the front end of the engine. Heat and gases from the fire flow through pipes in the water tank out to the smoke-box and up through the chimney. Naïvely I asked Mol the driver whether this added to the flavour. "Don't be daft," he said. "There are all sorts of noxious fumes in there, that's why it's triple-wrapped."
Huw Jenkins
