Last weekend I went to Southwell in Nottingham, an area of the country I've never ventured to before. I was visiting my new grandma-in-law with the better half's fam and even though it was a Saturday, I still had my Yelp head on and thoroughly relished the opportunity to explore the little village-town a tad. Off we wandered, brisk winds rendering us shivery and buried in our scarves. After spending an obscene amount of time in Nellie in the Shed (review coming soon - it's such an ace timewaster!), I emerged to find my beloved clutching a fresh bakery box and holding something aloft to my mouth. 'Fresh cheese roll?' he offered, feeding it to me. I had to stop still. Foodgasm passed, savouring the gooey melted centre and cheese-infused pastry still warm from the oven, I said, '*Where* did that come from?' He jerked his thumb in the direction of Birds Bakery over the road.
There was more to come. When he opened the box, there was a selection of miniature tarts so cute I cooed at them. He'd grabbed a variety - a little bakewell, a couple of blackcurrant jam tarts and a large number of their famed lemon curd tarts which his mum and sis had been telling us about. Feeling a bit peckish before lunch we shared one of the little lemon curd delights and again I stopped, it's a flipping good job I wasn't in the middle of the road for crying out loud. I've never tasted pastry so buttery, lemon curd so eggy (this word sounds horrid but trust me, it's a good thing), and as for the flavouring, it was just the right level of sweet and sharp. I had to poke my nose in the clean white shop itself and was so impressed at everything I saw. Pastries and cakes, sweet and savoury... egg custard tarts that were huge and positively blasted with nutmeg, meat and vegetable pies, so many kinds of breads...
Every one of our takeaway bites was exceptional, so what did I do when we got home? I went on their website of course. Thinking it was a local bespoke boutique bakery, imagine my surprise when I found that there are tons of them all over the Midlands! The attention to detail was such that I thought it must be independent - turns out it's just one of those absolutely great chains. And not the biggest one at that. I almost don't want to tell them to expand as that might take the unique edge off, but sod it. Please, Birds. Please please please come to the North West. I'd walk several miles for one of those lemon curd tarts, don't leave me hanging,
The best part yet? The guessing game Chris and I played re: the tarts' price. They are priced individually and he asked me how much I thought they were. '80p?' I tried. '40p,' he corrected me. Clearly I've been living in a city too long, as have our friends as they guessed 85p and £1.20 respectively the next day when we gave them a couple of our tarts. I heart Birds. I miss it already. read more