Nottingham World Market

Today I popped into the City Centre for some rather tedious chores, but was soon confronted by a sea of marquees!

As I saw the little white tents I was filled with excitement! I'd completely forgotten about the number of markets held in Nottingham's Market Square over the autumn months - how I forgot I don't know...it is in the name after all!

Today was the World Market! According to the Nottingham website here for ONE DAY ONLY - sorry to those Nottingham readers who thought they might pop down tomorrow, you're a little too late!

So, how did The Nottingham World Market end up on this food blog?




Well the ratio of food stalls to other stall must've been 8:1! So there was plenty for me to explore!

First I managed to stumble down the row of sweet stalls.

Churros from Spain

Baklava and other sweets from Greece (want to learn how to make them...check out the recipe here: )

As well as Crepes from France - the Grand Mariner Crepe looked particularly delicious! Seeing them be cooked at lightning speed made them all the more impressive! You can't argue with fresh food!

Next I stumbled across 'Calypso Rosti Cakes' - these smelt AMAZING! The aromas coming form this stall were like nothing I'd never smelt before and certainly got my tastebuds tingling!!!

German BBQ and hog roast...not quite as refined as the other stalls so I quickly moved on...

Next was an amazing French sausage and cheese stall! After a few cheeky samples of the sausage I really wished I'd had some extra pennies in my purse! But it being the last day of the month I really couldn't stretch to a whole cured sausage for myself!

The next most tempting stall was the Paella stall! They had four absolutely HUGE paella pans all sizzling away! It was £4 a portion, £5 for a large and the customers were not going away unhappy! Extremely generous portions were full of seafood - they certainly hadn't saved money on the ingredients!

There was a noodle bar, a bread stall (check out Oliversbakery.co.uk for more info), and a stall selling Mango Pulp juice!

Just as I was starting to flag - no food or drink and a scorching autumn day does not make for a happy Emma - I came across the two best stalls!!!

First the Posh Pork Pie Co.

They were one of the busiest food stalls, offering any two pies for £5, and I could understand why! They had a wide variety of different flavours from the classic to the new and exciting - all of which sounded delicious!!! How anyone chose just two I do not know!

And finally, the World Meats Company.

This stall smelt amazing! They had fired up a hot griddle and were BBQ'ing some delicious world meats, including Kangaroo, Wild Boar, Ostrich, and Venison burgers. £3.50 for a good sized burger was certainly tempting as I hadn't eaten all day...but then...I saw there freezer section!!!

For just £3.80 I could treat myself to TWO large burgers!!! Other varieties included Impala and Springbok (a type of South African Game). After discussing with the rather lovely stall owner about the most tasty, the strongest, and leanest of the meats, I settled on sprinbok. I'd never tried springbok before (and still haven't the burgers are tucked in my freezer for a rainy day!) but the nice man has informed me they were his favourites out of the burgers on offer!

The meat is supposedly 'subtly gamey' and has a peppery taste due to the watercress-like plants they eat.

If anyone has tried Springbok, or any other of these interesting meats before what did you think?

If anyone also has any suggestion as to what I should cook with my burgers I'd love to hear them!!! And I'm sure I'll let you know how delicious they are soon!

All in all I had a brilliant time nosing around all the stalls! It's quite interesting seeing the delicious and sometimes quite intricate dishes that can be prepared fresh in such a small area!

I can't wait for the next foody event...Goose Fair, where Nottingham showcases its best mushy pea stalls!