A Foodie's Weekend in Birmingham

Two months ago I read in a BBC Good Food magazine (an excellent website and magazine for those of you who like to cook) that during the weekend of November 25-27th the city of Birmingham, which is about 2.5 hours northwest of Egham, would be hosting a Good Food Winter Exhibition. I decided that it looked like something that I would like and have never experienced so I booked a ticket to go on the spot. And so, two months later, I headed up north for a quick foodie weekend.

I left Egham Friday evening after class and arrived in Birmingham at 830pm. The next morning I headed to the Good Food fair at the NEC conference centre near Birmingham's airport.

What awaited me inside was utter chaos. As I went on a Saturday (probably not my best decision), every person in the vicinity of Birmingham and I flooded into a conference arena jam-packed full of stalls advertising foods from every corner of Britain. The theme of the show was winter food as well as British food, so things like British sausage, smoked kippers, Christmas cakes, mince pies, and brandy were fully represented and dominated the show. One could buy himself a turkey, ham, or christmas basket for their Christmas meal in a month and lots of people pulled around small trolleys to put their meat or wine purchases in to take home. If I had lived closer to Birmingham (as well as had a fridge at my hostel) I probably would have bought some of the lovely Christmas food. But alas, I did not, and so my hours at the show consisted of partaking in the plentiful free samples at stalls, watching cooking demonstrations, and hearing about different ways to make one's Christmas dinner flavorful and festive. I even learned the correct way to carve a turkey and to keep it moist until dinner. 

Turkey Carving Demonstration and Food Tasting

After a few  hours the crowds began to overwhelm me so I hightailed it out of the NEC in favor of the giant shopping centre near my hostel, the Bullring (again, not my finest decision). Basically, I moved from one crowded area to another, Saturday being the last day after payday before Christmas. The shopping centre was packed and while I found a lot of very nice clothes in different stores, the queues to pay were at a complete standstill and I just couldn't be bothered to wait for a half hour to buy a shirt. I ended up staying for about 2 hours and then headed in for the night. 

The next morning I checked out of my hostel and decided to spend a few hours lounging in the Starbucks near the Bullring and to take advantage of their free wifi. The place was decked out with Christmasy cheer and Christmas music was playing beautifully in the background; it was a lovely change of scenery from my hectic, and rather overwhelming, Saturday. 

near the Bullring 

I did have one more stop on my foodie agenda and I was told by friends that I could not come to Birmingham and miss it; so at 1230 off I went to Cadbury World in Bourneville, a suburb of Birmingham. Now, I know Cadbury World sounds cheesy and silly, but the idea of touring the factory of my favorite chocolate on the planet just sounded good to me. From the second that I got off the train at Bourneville, the air literally smelled of Cadbury chocolate. Right then I knew I had made the right decision to visit. 

Bourneville was created to house the factory as well as the workers that were employed there. The town is so quaint and simply cute that I wished that I lived there. The houses were all Tudor style (like the picture above) and a throw back to older England. The Cadbury family built a cricket pitch, soccer field, and swimming pool for their workers and were also one of the first to implement a 5 and a half day work week for all of their employees in England in the mid-Victorian period. 

While in the factory I had a tour of the background of the Cadbury family, how they make their chocolate, and the town of Bourneville. I also got to see the packaging plant where thousands of bars of Cadbury chocolate are made and packaged up everyday. I then proceeded into a room where I could see people hand crafting things like chocolate shoes and santas for christmas. I also had a demonstration on how people at the factory used to make the filled chocolates by hand. I have to say that the workers at Cadbury World certainly know how to keep their visitors happy (rides for children, a cup of molten chocolate to eat, and three free Cadbury candy bars doesn't hurt) and going through the museum and factory was an absolute pleasure. Of course the tour ended in the world's largest Cadbury gift shop and I am guilty of buying 12GBP worth of chocolate to give as gifts and to eat myself, and I maintained serious restraint in not buying more. Once I exited the building to head back to Birmingham New Street station (and Egham) I was once again greeted with the lovely smell of chocolate wafting through the crisp, autumn air. What a way to end a weekend!

A Thanksgiving First

This Thanksgiving held many "firsts" for me: first time that I've introduced non-American people to the holiday, the first time I've been the only American at the meal, and the first time that I've cooked the entire meal by myself.
I decided to have my Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday evening rather than Thursday because Thursdays are my late class days at school (until 730pm) and I didn't want to deal with cooking so late. I made two decisions that made my cooking on the day of a million times easier; first I decided that instead of roasting a turkey I would just buy a cooked roasted chicken instead and simply reheat it. Secondly I chose to make an online order of all my supplies on Waitrose.com and to have them delivered to my house. Both significantly cut down on the amount of stress on the day of Thanksgiving. Once the delivery arrived at 11am on Wednesday I got right to cooking the pumpkin pie (which thanks to my Dad, who sent me a can of pumpkin, I was able to make. Canned pumpkin isn't available here). Surprisingly it all went smoothly. I say surprisingly because my oven, which is basically a tiny box, is extremely temperamental and tends to run very hot. I ended up cooking my pie 15 degrees celsius colder than the suggested temperature and for 10 minutes less than the suggested time and voila! it was perfect! (Now do you see what I mean about thank goodness it didn't burn? I had to watch it like a hawk even after turning it down so significantly!)

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

A few hours later I started in on the proper meal itself, first tackling the stuffing recipe provided by my mom. Keep in mind that I've never made any of this food before so everything was sort of an experiment as to how it would turn out. The stuffing turned out beautifully and with that safely in the fridge awaiting the oven I turned to the real experiment of the night, scalloped corn. Scalloped corn was always my favorite thing at Thanksgiving or holidays and when I was a picky eater as a kid I always knew that I could at least eat that. For those of you who don't know the recipe, it's creamed corn, an egg, saltine crackers crushed up, milk, and paprika on top and it is baked in a bowl for about 30-40 minutes until it is crunchy on top and warm in the middle. It is a bit like a corn souffle but denser. This recipe proved the most risky because, despite looking everywhere, cans of creamed corn were not to be found anywhere. Since this is the key ingredient in the recipe I placed an emergency email a few days in advance to my mom and grandma. They gave me ideas and I adapted the recipe in a few ways too. What I did to produce my own creamed corn was to put sweet corn in a food processor with a tub of creme fraiche and then whip them together with the mixture above and included some corn starch and flour. It actually turned out just right with the addition of the creme fraiche and my housemates loved it. After that I popped the stuffing and chicken in the oven, made the mashed potatoes, cut up the french bread, and set the table. 

All of the food came out splendidly, none burnt or undercooked, and tasted fabulous. My final menu was chicken, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, cranberry sauce, bread, pumpkin pie, and ice cream. Everyone tried everything and enjoyed it all. Rachel and Nikki couldn't get over that my stuffing was homemade, as they've only ever had it from a mix. They all tried the pumpkin pie and I think the liked it, though I think they were a bit unsure about it, never having had pumpkin before. It is a bit of an acquired taste so I was just happy that they ate even one piece each. As per usual, we all ended up eating way too much and effectively spent the rest of the evening on the couches in our food comas. We ended up watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" on my laptop and I told them about the origins of Thanksgiving on Plymouth Rock. Yesterday morning when I woke up they even greeted me with "Happy Thanksgiving!" which made me happy because they were so enthusiastic about my favorite holiday. I still have about a half of a pie leftover and lots of potatoes, corn, and stuffing to get through before I head off to Birmingham later today (but Nikki and Rachel will help me finish them). 

The Meal

the corn turned out!

Enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Thanksgiving is always a time to be retrospective and to reflect on those people and things that are most important. This year more than most I have cause to thankful. I am thankful for my mom and dad for supporting me no matter what and for banking on the idea that England and Royal Holloway is the right place for me. They are the ones who made this once in a lifetime opportunity possible. I'm thankful for my old and new friends for always being there (even if I'm across the ocean) and for not forgetting about me. I'm thankful for Nikki and Rachel because they've welcomed me into their lives and hearts in a way that I could never have expected or hoped for and for indulging me in bringing a bit of America to Cherrywood Avenue. I'm thankful for my extended family, for my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, family friends, neighbors, and siblings (that includes you Cristina!). I am also thankful for future visits of friends and family that are making the big venture to visit me overseas during this next year; I cannot even wait to see all of you! I am thankful for people that are coming into my life and for those who have recently left it. I'm thankful that last year I was able to spend one last Thanksgiving holiday with my grandfather as I hold that memory truly dear to my heart. It is always difficult to be away from home on the holidays and the months of November and December are heavy hitters in terms of holidays and ensuing homesickness. I've had my share of it this month but am trying to work through it. When given the chance life opens up new experiences and paths to be taken and I am thankful for being given the chance to live my dream. Having Thanksgiving in England is a small sacrifice to pay, and ended up actually being an enjoyable one, surrounded by new loved ones and plenty of great, American style food.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to all!

My 23rd Birthday

Another birthday has come and gone leaving me only feeling older, and maybe a little wiser too. My birthday was on a Tuesday this year and being in the middle of the week, it felt anything but festive.

I started off the day and afternoon by studying; I know, happy birthday right? I was in the midst of researching for my first 5,000 word essay (about 16ish pages) and since that is the longest paper I've ever had to write, was feeling legitimately nervous that I wouldn't have enough extra source material to bolster my arguments. So basically I spent the week buried in papers and articles and reading like a mad woman. (I would just like to say to all of those people who think that I spend all of my time traveling and none at school, try flipping that idea around. You could not be more wrong! I even spent my birthday doing work!)

By late afternoon I was feeling fairly disheartened and thoroughly unexcited about the idea of my birthday; until Rachel and Nikki got home. The thing that I love most about these two girls is their ability to get excited about life; they have somehow managed to still have that child-like happiness and genuinely get excited about things, rather than me who tries to downplay my own excitement most of the time. As soon as they each got home the first thing they did was to literally run to my room, scream happy birthday with the biggest smiles on their faces, and hug me (followed by dancing, jumping, singing, or all of the above). That reaction in and of it self would have been enough for me but to top it the three of us and our other housemate, Meilin, went out to eat in Egham at a nice italian restaurant named Prezzo.

the four roomies

The dinner was amazing and we spent the entire dinner laughing; I even got a balloon and a piece of cake with candles on it. After the waiter and the girls sang me happy birthday, we happily ate our desserts and had a leisurely chat and sit at Prezzo. I am so thankful to have these girls in my life; they single handedly, and easily, changed my day from bad to great in a matter of minutes. It was a birthday that I will never forget because it was surrounded by new, caring friends. So, again, thank you Nikki, Rachel, and Meilin, from the bottom of my heart; you made my birthday a great one.

reading the most amazing, hand drawn card ever

blowing out my candles!

opening my present (i got a fuzzy, warm bathrobe!)

Comic Books, Chocolate, and Waffles

During the week of October 31st to November 4th I had what is called "reading week" at Royal Holloway. Basically what that means is I had a week off for mid-term break. Reading week is designed to allow students to catch up on reading and work though most end up either going home or on vacation; in my case I did the latter. I have never been one of those students to get behind on work and since I didn't have anything to work on over break I decided to go on holiday. Most of my friends already had plans or were staying home so I ended up going by myself which was fine. I left on Monday and spent the day in London and caught a play, "The Woman in Black," which was genuinely terrifying and appropriate for Halloween. I then hopped the Eurostar train the next day at St. Pancras station in London and two hours later I was in Brussels, Belgium. 

I had two main reasons for picking Belgium for my holiday. First, I had never been the Belgium and wanted to see what it was like; second, i could take the train and avoid the horrific experience that is the United Kingdom airport security and border agency. I decided to spend three days in Belgium and arrived late Tuesday evening, basically just in time to have dinner and go to bed. I stayed near the city center and could walk most places though Brussels does have a metro system. 

View from the balcony in my hotel room

I had Brussels as my base for Wednesday and Thursday nights and Wednesday I set off exploring. I walked to the Grand Place which is slated as the "most beautiful square in Europe." It is lovely, but I have to say I think that Prague's main square is more beautiful in my opinion but you can judge for yourself.

Grand Place

The area was absolutely saturated with Belgian chocolate shops, waffle stands, and lace stores (all of which are Belgium's trademark goods). While I didn't buy any chocolate, I did have waffles on three different occasions and I must say they were outstanding. They topped them with molten chocolate sauce, strawberries, or whipped cream and they simply melted in your mouth. 

Brussels is the capital of the European Union and the city reflects that; it is full of office buildings and, in general, I found it to lack some of the blockbuster sites and beauty of other European capitals. I spent the day wandering and was easily able to do everything I wanted within one day. Two other things that I did was visit the Mannekin Pis statue (a statue of a small boy peeing which apparently has come to symbolize Brussels) and visit the Belgian comic book museum. Comic books are enormous in Belgium and the country has produced many famous comics such as Tin Tin and the Smurfs!

Mannekin Pis

I enjoyed the city but there were a few hiccups during my visit there. Firstly, my map given to me by my hotel was atrocious; it barely covered the city center and the area around it was nonexistent so when I tried to visit a museum a bit further out I ended up walking in circles for two hours and was ultimately unable to find it. Secondly, the city itself is not well marked with sign posts for tourists which was irritating, being a big capital city and all. Thirdly, the metro system in Brussels was confusing at best (and I consider myself a public transit pro). Many times I wandered around stations trying to figure out which way the signs were pointing to or which direction the trains were actually going. I spent a lot of time checking and rechecking my metro map in order to make sure that I was on the right train. 

On Thursday I took a day trip to the town of Bruges, which is in Northwest Belgium in the Flemish speaking area. One other surprise I had was that for most people in Belgium their first language is Dutch whereas I thought it was French. I was completely thrown off when signs were in Dutch and people spoke to me in Dutch on the streets or in shops (I must look Flemish because I had loads of people ask me for directions in Dutch). Bruges is a town that was once on the trading route as a canal stop but has been largely untouched since the 1500's. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and absolutely stunning. 

main square

I spent the day wandering around the canals and the town as well as taking a canal boat tour. It did rain most of the day but I still had a lovely time strolling and Bruges truly was the highlight of my trip. It was so quaint and beautiful and reminded me a lot of Amsterdam. I enjoyed it much more than Brussels. 

Chai tea break at an adorable cafe

I ended my day in Bruges by ascending the large bell tower in the town square in order to get a 360 degree view of Bruges. The stairs up were incredibly tightly wound and there were 366 stairs to boot. Needless to say I was exhausted and slightly on edge because of the steepness of the tiny stairs by the time I reached the top; I have to say though that the views made the climb worth it. I will let my photos do the talking for this.

Death stairs

a sea of red roofs

On Friday I didn't depart on the Eurostar until 2pm so I had time to do one last thing on my list in Brussels: visit the Atomium at the old World's Fair exhibit grounds. It is basically just a giant statue of an atom but nevertheless it was quite pretty in the sunlight. 

Atomium

I arrived back at Cherrywood Avenue at 8pm on Friday night after two train rides, two tube transfers, and one bus ride and I was knackered. I took the weekend to recover my throbbing legs and rested from my vacation. I enjoyed Belgium but was glad that I only visited for 3 days as I felt that I covered everything that I wanted to see with ample time. It was good to be back in the UK where I once again understood the language and could enjoy the comforts of my own home.

A Proper English Stroll

Last weekend what started out as a day trip with Nikki to Bath ended up in a rather sudden decision (at the station's ticket machine) to go to Winchester, a town in the southern county of Hampshire. Though ticket prices dictated our change of heart (Bath was 20 GBP more expensive to go to, no laughing matter for my American pocketbook), I think because of the unexpectedness of our trip I was absolutely blown away with Winchester. Having little or no expectations (except having once two years ago been told by a South African/Englishman in Heathrow that I should visit the town) I fell in love as soon as I stepped off the train. It helped that it was about 60 degrees, blue skies, and the leaves were in full fall brilliance but I think I would have loved it regardless. The thing about Winchester is that it is such an old city; I know that there are plenty of old cities in the UK, nearby Runnymeade goes back to the signing of the Magna Carta, but the difference is that Winchester has amalgamated its past and present in a way that doesn't come off as commercially or over the top. The cohesiveness of the two is subtle and classy; for example, when you walk down the high street you walk by many 16th century half-timbered buildings now converted into shops like Cornwall Pasty co, Boots (pharmacy), or pizza parlors. The city has managed to keep up with the demand of tourism and industry while still preserving their local treasures. This is something that I sincerely wish we did more of in America.

High Street

victorian era storefront

16th Century Home now Pizza Parlor

local market

 Both Nikki and I had never been to Winchester before so we decided just to have a stroll through the city. It is not a very large place and we could walk wherever we wanted to go. We started off visiting the Great Hall, the only surviving part of the Winchester Castle, built in the 13th century. Winchester was once a capital of its area of England in Norman and Saxon times and the town reflects the wealth and importance that it once had. It is primarily a cathedral town and the Bishop of Winchester is still a powerful figure in the Anglican church. What is important to see at the Great Hall is the Round Table. It has hung there for 700 years and is still painted with the original paint from the 1300's. It is thought to be the original round table of King Arthur and on it are painted the names of each knight and a picture of Arthur himself. Whether or not you buy into this idea (I am holding out that it is THE original, huzzah!) it is still a beautiful historical piece of work. 

The Round Table

After having lunch at a pasty shop on the high street (again, located in an old half-timbered building beautifully restored and full of old wood and beams inside), Nikki and I took a stroll down to the Winchester cathedral.

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester cathedral is a masterpiece of Gothic and Norman architecture and is the longest cathedral in Europe. It reminded me in bits of the Notre Dame de Paris because of its high ceilings, stain glass, and angular arches and beams that are trademarks of a gothic church. The original church was built in 1079 ad but was then remodeled in 1350-1410 to the current cathedral we have now. Because this cathedral was so important, it did suffer some damage during King Henry VIII's dissolution of the catholic church in England. For the most part the cathedral survived unscathed but the stain glass windows were shattered as well as entombed remains  spewed about the church. The windows were eventually restored in 1660 and the bodies were replaced in the tombs (although it's anyones guess as to who is actually in each tomb). 

Another thing Winchester cathedral is famous for is that it is the burial place for Jane Austen. It also has beautiful wall frescos from the 12th century that have only been recently found which explains their vivid colors.

Jane Austen's burial site

The choir was practicing while I was there which made the atmosphere even more brilliant. 

House where Austen died

After the exhilarating experience of the cathedral ( I could feel the history seeping into my bones; I loved it) we decided to have one last wander up the high street and near the river Itchen. On the little river (more stream-like) were swans and ducks frolicking about and people were slowly meandering along the little path. Who knew that simply wandering could be so rewarding? As we walked back to the train station to make the return trip to Egham, I felt a calm sigh pass through me. The day could not have been more perfect; good company, good weather, and a good location. Nikki and I both left wishing we lived in or near Winchester and were so happy to have accidentally arrived there. I will definitely be going back there during the Christmas season, Christmas markets being a big draw there in December. Winchester is for me every image I had of an old English town and I fell in love onsite. Now if only I could afford the steep price of an old gentrified Hampshire country home, then I'd be set.

on the river Itchen