My Favourite Spots in Nottinghamshire by Erik Petersen

This week we are sharing Erik Petersen’s favourite places in Nottinghamshire. If you would like to share your ‘favourites’ with us, email us at social@experiencenottinghamshire.com or use the comment section below. You may feature on our blog and our various social media platforms.   Erik Petersen writes features and a column for the Nottingham Post. In the summer months you can usually find him pushing his daughter through the park in her Bugaboo, addressing himself to a pint of ale in a beer garden or sitting at Trent Bridge. With his daughter, the Bugaboo and the pint of real ale. "Trent Bridge. Obviously the atmosphere’s great when it’s sold out for a Test or England one-day match, but I love a good sparsely populated county match as well. I’m a Hound Road Stand man myself, but if I’ve got a whole day I like to meander all the way around - that way I can say hi to all the stewards. And here’s a tip: real ale can be tough to find in the ground. But on international matchdays, staff from the Larwood and Voce pub round the back of the Larwood and Voce Tavern Stand usually open up a little ale bar from a storage area underneath the stand. You’ll find it between the Larwood and Voce Stand and the Hound Road Stand. The Arboretum. Anya, our daughter, is 16 months old, and a favourite family outing is always to walk from our house in Forest Fields to the Arboretum. We’re particularly looking forward to the start of the new brass band season, when they have a different band in the pavilion on summer Sundays. Although that always does slightly sadden me, as it reminds me of how I’ve never fulfilled my ambition to learn to play the tuba. Radford Road and Gregory Boulevard. Not the actual street corner, the places around it. This is the nexus of great, inexpensive Central and South Asian food in Nottingham. Kabul Express, Khyber Pass, Desi Express, … and after all the spice, you can cool down with dessert at Yumi ice cream parlour. The Vat and Fiddle. It doesn’t look promising – an industrial street down from the station and next to that post-apocalypse Soviet parking garage. But this is the brewery tap for Castle Rock Brewery, which sits next door on Queensbridge Road. They’ve got a great new function room and dining area named for Spyke Golding, the past Nottingham Camra chairman who passed away a couple of years ago. Other than that, what they’re doing in the Vat isn’t rocket science – just lots of great ales on the bar and a proper pub atmosphere. When I came to Nottingham nine years ago my first flat was about 100 yards from the front door, so I also like the place for nostalgic reasons. It was my first local here. The new international food hall in Victoria Market. This is still a work in progress, but the hall at the south end of the market is looking good. I definitely recommend the Cameroonian curried goat. Simon Wilson’s house. EG’s entertainment editor loves nothing more than entertaining random members of the public in his Lady Bay front room. You don’t even have to call first. Just pop round and tell him Erik sent you. Best to bring him a gift. Bless him, he can’t say no to a bottle of Babycham. Lee Rosy’s Teas. Great cake, Hockley cool-kid atmosphere and of course, more tea than you could shake a stick at. Not that you should shake a stick in a teashop. It’s also a family-friendly place, and on days when I’m on my own with my daughter we can usually be found in here having a pu-erh (me) and some fruity yoghurt (her)."