Wednesday 12 December 2012

THE GOOD FOOD SHOW


The weekend before last I made my first visit to Birmingham.  My sister moved there recently so I went to visit her, see her new home and share her birthday treat -  a visit to the BBC Good Food Show.
I took the train from Manningtree, crossed London on the underground to Euston and then took a Virgin train to Birmingham.  These trains are a little smarter than the ones run by Greater Anglia.  I choose to travel a little earlier than I really wanted and saved around £80 on the fare!  This meant that I had a couple of hours wait for my sister to finish work.  
The Bull Ring is a massive shopping centre and it was packed! I have not seen that many people out shopping for a long time - obviously less of a recession in the midlands than the south.
On Saturday we went to NEC or National Exhibition Centre.  Our first stop was the main theatre to watch a cooking demonstration by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood from the Great British Bake Off.  They made 3 things that had been challenges from the programme - the strawberry cake, iced buns and the famous 8 plait loaf which Paul made look so easy.  They were chatty and funny.
We then looked around the stalls.  We some how managed to start with the alcohol stalls, we sipped this and tasted that-  a drop of red wine, white wine, champagne, cocktails, rum this gin and that gin.  I almost had to sit down for a bit.

We then tasted cheeses, biscuits, cakes, fudge, olives, nuts, crisps, yogurt, tea and chocolate.  Quite a mixture and felt a little sick after a bit.  We had planned to have lunch but were too full up!  
We watched another demonstration from the Marks and Spencers kitchen on how to make pop cakes, which also meant a welcome sit down and another goody bag.
We shopped until we dropped and then had to carry it all home.  A very long walk back through the NEC and then two trains and car journey home.
Not very hungry when we got back so had a delicious meal of cheese, bread,crackers, olives and Baklava all purchased from the show.
Home on Sunday- what a lovely weekend, think I have just about recovered!

2 comments:

tlcukjourney said...

Sounds like a good day, and saving 80 quid... wow, is it really that expensive for the train? That is crazy isn't it? I know it's bad enough just taking the bus!

tlcukjourney said...

If my partner worked for Cadbury's I'd be big as a house!!!!
You're lucky to get all that free Chocolate.......... YUM!