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!