Pump Street Bakery

Hello everybody,

When we lived in New York, one of our favourite weekend pastimes was to have brunch.  There are so many places for this in Manhattan, ranging from chi chi restaurants with massive queues outside to old school diners where everything is supersized and you don't need to eat for a week afterwards.

So, I was a bit worried when we decamped to the house by the sea that we'd have nowhere to get our weekly fix of excellent coffee and tasty treats while we flicked through the sunday papers.  I need not have fretted.  Because not very far from where we live is the lovely and amazing Pump Street Bakery.

You know you're in trouble when even the lighting excites you

Their sourdough bread is just delicious, and they do a fab bacon rocket and lemon mayo bap.  Their savoury snacks really are good - fresh ingredients, locally sourced, with perfectly balanced flavours.

But the real treats, the things that keep us going back there time after time, are the sweet treats.  Doughnuts filled with jams - rhubarb or raspberry - or creme anglaise, or brownies or meringues.  Eccles cakes don't normally have me salivating at the sight of them, but one bite of these and I was hooked.  Every time I go, I debate whether to have an Eccles cake or a Portuguese nata (I'm a sucker for custard...)

There's a fire in winter and outside seating in the summer months.  And the simple decor perfectly complements the good simple food...

But the best bit for me is Cedric.

From Wednesdays to Sundays, Cedric can be found around and about, selling bread and treats to those who can't make it to the bakery.

So, you see, I needn't have worried.  Brunch is taken care of wherever we are.

And you needn't take my word for how good Pump Street is.  The bakery has a finalist in the BBC's Food and Farming Awards.  Hope it wins.

C.x

ps I have no affiliation with Pump Street Bakery.  I just like their stuff!

Madison Square Park

This weekend was all about staying indoors out of the rain and generally moping around.  But I still haven't told you about the perfection of last Sunday, when the sky was blue and Mr. P. and I meandered down to one of our favourite parts of the city.  Madison Square Park lies on 23rd Street, where 5th Avenue and Broadway converge.  It's also next to one of my favourite buildings in the whole city.  I don't know how many photos of Flatiron I've taken over the years, but I can't be near it without trying to capture its magnificence.

The park was packed because there was a food festival going on...

... complete with a stall that made ice lollies the old fashioned way, sprinkling cordial over the shavings of a glistening iceberg....

But we weren't there for the food festival.  

New Yorkers are an impatient bunch as a rule.  They don't wait for anything.  But, rain or shine, they wait for Shake Shack...

... Which gives everyone time to admire the blousy tulips...

... and the calming hydrangeas...

... and make new friends...

Though even he got a bit bored in the end...

But, finally, we made it to the top of the queue and scarfed down burgers and shakes with the best of them.  

And afterwards, through the trees, we came across this fabulous creation...

It's by Jaume Plensa and is called Echo.  He took as his inspiration a 9 year old neighbour of his in Barcelona.  I can't tell you what an electrifying thing it is to see amid the buildings all around the Square and the people milling around.

It's made even more impressive by its 44ft height.

Just breathtaking.  And the perfect, tranquil end to a busy, happy day.

C.x

Perfection

If you set out to design your favourite neighbourhood brunch place - the kind of place that tourists would feel quite clever about discovering - you might put some thought into the location, tucking it away at the top of a hill so that people could feel they'd earned their breakfast treat. You might give some thought to the lighting so that the place was warm and inviting...



... you could have a big wooden table and strew it with papers and magazines...


...and allow people a peak into the kitchen where all the magic happens...


...add splashes of vibrant colour to complement the creamy/browny goodness of the neutral decor...


... and spend time thinking about the tasty treats people might like to eat..









...and then you'd pretty much have arrived at the perfect place to break your daily fast.


Mr. Granger, I salute you. You are a clever, clever man.

C.x