This is a tale best told in pictures.
So you walk in off the street, run a gauntlet of very smelly fish stalls in the foyer, and find yourself looking at this:
This is Cardiff Market. It was built sometime in the 1890s, but there has been a market on or near this spot since the 1300s.
Here is a stall in Cardiff Market:
There are also fish stalls, butcher stalls, cheese stalls, bakery stalls (sweet and savory), handmade candy stalls, record and used book stalls, noodle stalls, a pet store with canaries and guinea pigs and rabbits, a barbershop, several clothing shops, and a number of lunch counters with burgers, fish and chips, sandwiches, sausages, pies, peas, Cornish pasties, and basically any other British food you could name. I have yet to see a meal that would cost more than £4.
The catch, of course, is that they only take cash. The good news is that there’s a bank right across the street.
This is what I had for lunch at Cardiff Market:
(Also I had a lamb mint pie and tea, but I didn’t get pictures of those because I ate them too fast.)
This is what I spent on strawberries, lamb and mint pie, and tea at Cardiff Market:
£4.
I could feed myself three meals a day here for less than what Dad is paying for the meal plan, and there’s a built-in workout involved, since it’s about a 20-minute walk from Aberdare Hall through the park and around the castle walls.