Tour de York

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Yorkshire dales recently – well the “dale” of York in particular.

This is an unusual area in terms of food culture.

Jay Rayner, in his review of Le Langhe restaurant, (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/23/la-langhe-york-restaurant-review) described York as an area punching below its weight and that, for the most part, feels about right.

For an area that smells either of conching chocolate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conching) or “fertiliser” (i.e. manure) being laid in the fields, the foodie offering is surprisingly limited.

In my next few posts, I will do a whistle stop tour of the food in York itself.  Following this, I will cover a few high-end restaurants in Yorkshire as a whole.

I have bribed, threatened and cajoled my colleagues to accompany me on this wild adventure, so keep an eye out for the extras.

Talking about “whistlestop” tours, it would be remiss if I didn’t say something about Le Grand Depart of the Tour de France, also known as the Tour de Farce since both Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome were laid low in the early stages.

This took place a few weekends ago.  The locals definitely joined in the spirit of the race: There were many painted yellow bikes hanging from buildings around York, 

Hanging yellow bicycle

and many, including my friend Richard and his family, came out on the Sunday dressed “a la Francais”.

Richard’s family, French style

I stood out on a relatively cold (it is York!) summer’s morning to watch Froome et al “fly past” at what was for them, a snail’s place.

Despite the limited duration of my view (36 seconds if my camera timer is to be believed), I got some great photos and it was surprisingly exciting to see them go past.

Not quite flying….

Almost more amazing though was the hundreds thousands of pounds worth of bikes, wheels and spare parts being carried by the support vehicles.  I guess this is nothing compared to the value of the cars destroyed during the F1 race at Silverstone later that day but….

There were tens of support vehicles loaded like this

Since watching the Tour that morning,

• Froome found it difficult to remember which way is up;
• Hamilton continues to pin the voodoo doll of Rosberg with limited success; and
• Pele has applied for German citizenship

On to the food!