Birmingham Craft Fair etc

Today I noticed that Birmingham Craft Fair has started.

It is held in Chamberlain Square and Centenary Way continuing from Frankfurt Christmas Market in the Victoria Square.

There are fair amount of art and craft, but there are foods as well. This is sausage burger stall in Centenary Way. Regular sausage bap is £2.20, so it is slightly cheaper than German sausage hot dog. Burgers are about £3. The smell was very tempting, but, not being a burger person or sausage woman, I happily gave it a miss.

Actually, I was on my way to Dudley Road. That is why I did not go to Chamberlain Square to see the Craft Market, but took a pedestrian way to the bus stop.

Near the stop, I saw this.




The New Year Eve Bollywood Ball in Holiday Inn? Mmmmh.

Sounds entertaining, but I am not a party person either (and I won't be in Brum anyway). If you are interested, check out Itihaas web page.

http://www.itihaas.co.uk/

Click the flier on the right up corner. A ticket costs £65 for 3 course meal catered by Itihaas, unlimited amount of drink, and live music and DJ.

By the way, this is not a publicity. I am just being curious.

The reason I went to Dudley Road was to visit a new Indian restaurant! I did not have curry, but had a big fish! It was about 30 cm long and cost only £5.99.

I will write about it more in detail very soon.

The Cube Construction Site

Whenever I go close to The Mailbox, I never fail to take a look at The Cube construction site.



I am not sure if this photo do justice to how gigantic this site is. Difficult not to amaze.

Really looking forward to see what will be realised here!

St. George's Day in Birmingham

Today there was St. George's Day festival in Birmingham. St. George's Day really is the 24th April, but as it happens often to the religious festivals in UK, the festive activities are moved to the weekend so that those who work or go to school during the weekdays can participate. I don't think I have to say St. George is the patron saint of England, but I have already done. ha ha ha.

As it was such a sunny, warm, and wonderful day, I took some pictures.

This is a concert stage in the Victoria Square.



When I passed walking, a band was playing what I would recognise as Irish music. BUT, as I don't know "English" music, it might well have been "English" music.

Next, Mary-go-round. There was a lot of children riding it.



Mary-go-round is very shiny. Its decoration has something very baroque about it.

At the same time there was another evening in Chamberlain Square. These are the guys who were preparing for Morris Dance performance.



It is interesting that the Morris dancers ware cheerful (non manly) garment and bare objects usually associated with women (flower, handkerchief, ribbons). There should be explanations to it.

When I was there, childen and some adults were performing this.



I don't know what it is called. I see this on tv and in movies from time to time, but I have never grasped what they were doing. It is something that has never introduced in Japan.

It was such a lovely day, and all those who participated in the festival must have enjoyed it to full.

Farmers' Market at the University of Birmigham Part 2

Today, Farmers' Market was held at the University of Birmingham.

In March, it was held on the third Tuesday, but this time it was the fourth Wednesday. So, there does not seem to be any regularity. Let's see what happens in May and try to work out.

I counted the number of stalls and there are 21. Unfortunately there were not so many customers around, as it is not lecturing period. Some disappeared and some debutted. I did not buy anything, as I am on Lenten fasting (I am doing it only for the last week and this Sunday will be the Orthodox Easter day). I would like to try something maybe on the next market day.

Sweet Buns from Birmingham Chinatown

When I went to have dim sum lunch in China Court, I bought also some Chinese sweet buns. I am not sure if I call them "Chinese", purely because I bought from a Chinese bakery, not because they are particularly Chinese in taste.

These are the buns. I paid £2 for three (buy 2 get 1 free).



This is a custard cream bun.



The custard cream was not of the highest quality in a patisserie way, but sufficiently enjoyable.

Then, this is sweet red bean bun.



Sweet red bean paste is made of azuki beans and sugar, which is hugely popular in China and in Japan (and also elsewhere, but I don't know). Some European people find the mixture of beans and sugar disgusting, but some, including my Greek husband, like it.

Lastly, chesnut paste bun.



I expected the chesnut paste to be yellow, as it is usually yellow in Japan, but it was brown, meaning that the paste is made also with brown skin (not to confuse with the brown shell) of chesnut. It was different from what I expected, but was also enjoyable.

In all these three buns, the quantity of filling was not as generous as it is in Japan, but as the bread was so moreish, it was fine nevertheless.

If you have never tried, I recommend you to do so.

I bought these from
China Court Bakery (just below the China Court restaurant)
中華閣麺包
24 Ladywell Walk, Birmingham, B6 4ST
Tel. 0121-666 7031
Fax. 0121-622 1860

The Chinese bakery next to Day-In Supermarket, and in front of Cafe Soya in Arcadian makes the same kind of things, and just as good.

Farmers' Market at University of Birmingham

Today there was Farmers' Market at the University of Birmingham. I never grasped when it is held, but if today's was the regular one, it should occur every third Tuesday of the month (don't trust me; I will verify this next month!)

It is a small market of 10 or 12 stalls, but I recognised some familiar faces. There was not only the ubiquitous Ostrich Burguer shop, but also Hilltop Farm, Parson's Nose (sausages, but the choice was limited), Woodhouse Farm, and the apple guy whom I saw in Moseley and Stratford farmers' market.

Besides, there are a soup shop, a green grocer, a sauce shop, an ice cream shop, a baker, a cheese shop, a pie shop, and another butcher.

It is convenient if you work there or live nearby.

More about farmers' markets in Birmingham, look up this page.

And, about some of the sellers, check out this page.

Anti-burglary device

When I was walking Moseley the other day, I saw this sight in a closed restaurant (closed because it was not service hours).



Can you see what they are doing?

They put the money drawer of cashier machine on the bar counter so that potential burglars could see that there was no money kept in the restaurant.

Clever.

Hello Good-Bye @ Bullring

When I went to the town this Saturday, I noticed there was 1 opening and 1 closure at & near Bullring.

First, a new comer.

Do you recognise this building?



It is situated between Bullring and St. Martin's church, and used to be occupied by Costa Coffee.

As I noticed some activity inside, I got closer and found this poster.



It will soon be reopened as Gloria Jean's Coffee. I have never heard this name, but it seems to be a pretty large international franchise. It is good that we will have more choice.

And one good-bye.



Pret of Bullring is closing. Actually it was closing Saturday, so should already be closed. It has  always looked strange; closed on Sundays and recently I found it somehow derelict, so the closure is not a surprise.

Evidently this particular lot is specially difficult (Birmingham is difficult, and Bullring is difficult if not as much as the Pavilion). The Tiffin Box, the former occupant, could not last long, and I don't think the former former occupant, which I don't remember, did last long. Before Pret got the place, there was a long interval, so I don't expect someone comes to get it quickly.

Labour Conference @ ICC, Birmingham

This week there was Labour Conference in Birmingham. Today, Gordon Brown was coming to Birmingham to make a speech.

Because of it, the traffic around the ICC, where the conference was being held, was strictly controlled.

This is Broad Street closed by the Police.



Part of the Canal side walk was also closed/

And Hyatt Hotel. It was completely surrounded by the blockade. Probably either part of the conference was held in the hotel, or many important people were staying there.



And this is the ICC itself.



Also completely enclosed.

The conference seems to have finished in peace, but, later, I saw this between Bullring and Pavilion.



It looked there was a fire in Waterstone's, and some firefighters were entering into the building. It did not seem anything serious, though.

Mango Yogurt @ EAT.

This food franchise called "EAT." is making a fair success in Birmingham. In a short period of time, 3 outlets opened and all doing fairly well. In the photo above is an outlet in Bullring.

Their main menu is sandwich, soups and salads, just as in another big franchise Pret-a-manger.

I have been a bit curious but I am not that keen to pay £3 to £4 for a sandwich. For the same price, I would rather go to eat fish and chips or kebab on naan. These give me more satisfaction.

On the other day, however, we had a chance to try something from there. It was Yogurt with Mango puree.



It cost £1.10. If we had eaten in, it would have costed £1.25 or so. It was Greek style thick yogort with pureed mango with little sugar. It was ok, but cost less if I just buy a yogurt from Tesco.

Moroccan Cafe "Atlas"

After a delicious dim sum lunch, we looked for a place to get some coffee. Avoiding our usual haunts, we decided to go to a recently discovered Moroccan cafe.

We have seen it for long time through the bus window, but we guessed it was Greek, because of its name "Atlas", and of the use of colours (blue and white being two colours used on Greek national flag).

We only recently discovered it is in reality a Moroccan, so we went there to investigate.

We had one coffee (£1), one Moroccan tea (£2) and one baklava (£1). The coffee was freshly made with an Italian style coffee maschine, and it was quite nice. Tea was served in a traditional small tea pot, on a metal tray, which make it appear very attractive. Baklava tasted different from the Greek one being drier and having different flavour. I sensed a yeast-ish smell, although yeast should not be used to make phylo pastry. Strange.

In the tea pot, there were some mint sprigs as well as dried mint leaves. It contained sugar from the start, and quite sweet.

As food, we saw hummous and other paste and meat on skewers. On the black board, it was written "ask for today's special", so there might have been other stuff, too. Next time we will try the food.

European Market @ Harborne

Here are some photos from the European Market at Harborne, Birmingham, end of last month.



There were about 30 stalls selling various things from handbags and candles to cheese and paella.

This is a stall selling French cookies. They looked nice, but I don't particularly like cookies, so I did not try any.



This is a stall selling stir fried noodles. They were selling also paella. 4 quids for a plate of fried noodles on a plastic plate, however, seemed too pricey for me.




This photo has nothing to do with the market. There was a cafe selling these terrible looking dry pastas. I wonder if they look appetising to the English people.

Chinese Bakery @ Chinatown, B'ham

If you ever have been to the Chinatown of B'ham, you must have seen this bakery.



It is called Wah Kee Bakery. If you have never been, it is in the Arcadian Centre, about next door to Day-In Supermarket, and in front of Arcadian Palace Chinese restaurant.

I have never interested in the shop, but as I have heard good things about it several times, I decided to sample some.



Inside, I found quite interesting range of products, especially kinds of small buns that I thought I could find only in Japan, like curry bun and red bean paste bun.

We tried the pieces in the above. One is Chinese custard tart and the other is sponge cake, 80p each. The tart was average, but the cake was very eggy and tasty.

If you have never visited, I would recommend you to try. I will go back to try other special breads!

Balti Triangle Trail 3

Ladypool road was rather sad, but we noticed also some new shops. One was Persian restaurant and the other was Lebanese fastfood shop. Are the people getting tired of balti?

Then I found this Indian sweets shop, Milan. I guess it has nothing to do with the Italian fashion capital, or Mr. Berlusconi's football club. In Birmingham, most of the Indian sweets shops are small, rather poor looking, but this outlook impressed us, so we enter. Anyway, there is another big sweets shop also on Stratford Rd.




Inside, the shop was full of sweets, and had also savouries like Samosa, bhaji etc.

Actually we entered to buy these baklava we saw through window. Dim chose some of them just to sample.



When we tasted them at home, we noticed that they were somehow different from the Middle Eastern Baklava. First of all, they were not syrupy.

Especially the rolled ones (left side in the box) were very dry, The square ones (center) had unrecognisable yellow crunchy paste (?) inside. The one looked like a bird nest tasted most similar to real kataifi. The dark brown squre was unknown to us. Dim was disappointed as they were different from the Greek baklava, but they were nice in their own right.



I bought Ras Malai. There were 4 pieces in the packet, and costed £1.8. Ras Malai can take various shapes, and this one is flat oblong. Ras malai are the spongy milk cakes soaked in sweet milk cream. This one tasted good, with a hint of cardamon. It was not too sweets as many of "Indian" sweets. I would buy again.



This is the end of our Balti Triangle trail, but in some time new ones will follow.

Balti Triangle Trail 2

Exloring the Balti Triangle. Arriving there, Dim started to say he was hungry, although we did not go there for eating. In fact there were big chunks of steak waiting to be cooked at home. So we decided to buy something from a fastfood shop. He got inspiration from this place called Kafe Karachi. Pakistani, evidently.



Now, he always has problem in deciding what to order, and this occasion was not exception. Boredom for me.

Finally he decided on Chapal Kabab on naan, as we have never seen elsewhere.




It took quite a while to cook the meat on the grill. This is the chapal kabab on naan. Chapal kabab was a big meat patty made with a lot of chili, whole coriander seeds and whole cumin seeds. It was quite spicy. Dim started to complain about the whole seeds in the patty. I found the meat a bit stale. Otherwise ok for this type of food. £3 it was.

This shop was advatising a dish called Nihari offered Saturdays. Being curious, I checked what was Nihari on internet. Basically it is a curry stew made with beef on bones. I eat steak on bone, but beef marrow soup is still scary. I would give it a miss.



This is a large supermarket on Ladypool road. Something about the exterior decoration makes me think of street of Karachi or Islamabad. Inside there are all sorts of "Asian" and "Arabian" foodstuff. Good place to look for exotic ingredients.

Balti Triangle Trail 1

In Birmingham, there is a quarter commonly known as "Balti Triangle". As you can imagine, it is a triangle shaped area in south east of Birmingah, where there is a high concentration of Indian, Bangladishi, and Pakistani restaurants. If you live in Britain, you might remember the tornado that hit the area on 28 July 2005.



This is the view of Ladypool road, one of the main streets of the area. Bit gloomy, partly because of the weather.

Balti means a curry dish supposed to be born in Birmingham in the immigrants' community here. The idiosyncracy of balti is its container: it is served in a small metal bowl shaped pan with two handles, which is called "kalahi". My impression is that the recipe changes from restaurant to restaurant and does not have real "sine qua non" element. Balti became also local synonym for curry.

If I understood well, tens of years ago, the Balti triangle was the only place you could get decent "Indian" (British term for the people of India, Bangladeshi, and Pakistan is "Asian", but I guess "Indian" is commoner elsewhere) food in Birmingham. However, with the increase of "Indian" immigrants settled in other areas and the "Indian" food got more and more familiar to the British people, it is now easier to find good "Indian" restaurants elsewhere than in Balti triangle, so the restaurants in the area are in decline.

We come to the area from time to time, because it is still exotic somehow and we can find many unfamiliar things. I write about our recent visit in coming entries.

Deep-fried Mars @ Birmingham

This is window of one of our local chippies (note for non English people: chippy means Fish & Chips shop). On the red paper, it is written "Battered Cream Egg/ Mars or Snickers". Cream Egg, Mars, and Snickers are all chocolate ball or bar. They batter them, fry and sell for 70p!

I knew that this delicacy existed in Scotland, but I now we have it also in Birmingham. I don't think I will ever try it, so I will never discover how it taste like. It is kind of a pity, but I don't have courage...

Harborne Farmers Market

Here, there are food markets called farmers' markets. It is ad hoc market stalls open only once or twice a month. Stalls are installed by small producers or marchants who have close contact to local producers.

Also in Birmingham there are several farmers' markets, and one in Harborne and another in Bearwood are close to where I live.

Last weekend we went to Harborne farmers' market.







I bought Woodhouse Farm's cholizo sausages and hand-made butter. Both very nice. I buy these sausages every time, because, quite different from British sausages, they don't contain bread crumbs and meat bits are rather large as Meditteranean sausages. The butter costed £1.60 for 250g. Lurpak butter costs £1 for 250g, so it is not too expensive. I




My husband, instad, got bored and bought for himself a sausage burger.



I tasted one bite, but sorry, British sausage is not for me.