Big British Food Map Leicester's lunchbox

Date Published:

15/09/2008

Andrew's journey continued East sampling the spoils of Leicester and Peterborough

Queue to the capital

After coming back in to London for the weekend I spent Monday planning the next phase of the trip - Leicester then Peterborough then perhaps Kings Lynn and on into East Anglia, or perhaps a short detour south into Cambridgeshire? There's plenty on the Map to explore. As for being back in London, well I'll admit to a certain country mouse syndrome after so long away. Seeing it again with fresh eyes was remarkable, seeing the traffic queuing on the A1 into the capital was inevitable.

Rock 'n' Roll in the Yard

Hit the road to Leicester today to pick up where I'd left off last week. I decided to take a detour to the lovely town of Market Harborough. Mike Brown added Joules Yard to the Map but by the time I got there (nearly 3pm) they'd stopped doing lunches. The courtyard looked grand though, choc full of antiques and bric-a-brac. I can imagine that on a warm summer evening it would be a great place to sit out in.
The bar and music events look good too. I feel perhaps a return to Joules Yard is in order to get the full experience. However, fortune smiles on the brave and I spent a happy hour exploring the town.

Time: like a river, but not a canal

Time, they say, is like a river. But is it also like a canal? If it's anything like the Grand Union Canal that runs through Leicester then time is a bit slow and dirty, with the occasional duck. Talking of time, a look at my calendar this morning and a quick ferret on the 'information canal' also known as the internet shows I've been on the road almost constantly for 150 days (or 4 months, 28 days, or 12,960,000 seconds, if you prefer) This means there's only 64 days (or 2 months, 3 days or 5,529,600 seconds, if you prefer) left, so get adding places to the Map for the South East folks!

Incidentally, putting the number 5,529,600 into Google UK brought up a host of results, one of which was, by chance, the business registration number of Ultimate Corkscrew, a wine accessory business based in Cardiff. A look at their products page reveals this device, the 'Clef du vin'. This device appears to 'mimic' the aging process that happens in laid down wine. Googling the name reveals this clearer description: "The Clef du Vin has been carefully calibrated so that one second of contact in a glass of 10 cl. will display the potential lay down time of one year." So effectively, your wine can travel forward in time... I'm off for a lie down now to think about the implications of all this.

No time for a toilet break

Continuing to work my way towards Peterborough and East Anglia but stopped off to indulge my science and space loving side at the UK National Space Centre. Yes we do have one and while it's no Cape Kennedy, it's still ace. Upon leaving I bought some astronaut's rations from the gift shop, well, freeze dried strawberries.

A peek into the spirit world still needs paying for

Spent last night with Chris Falco and the team at Fratelli's in Bourne added to the Map by Rebecca. While chatting, Chris told me I was in for a special treat as the 'Cappuccino Club' were coming in. Sure enough three women of a certain age came in, ordered cappucinos and had a natter. What was fascinating, however, was that two of them were mediums (the third, drinking decaf was just along for a chat).
You've heard of reading tea leaves right? Well these ladies read cappuccino foam residue after it's been drunk. Now personally, I don't think you can read the future or contact the dead with a empty cappucino cup, or anything else for that matter, but as the old saying goes, different strokes for different folks.

Poppies by the side of the road

What's this? The sun's out, the broad East of England sky is a cloudless blue... is this a taste of the summer we never had? Better make the most of it.

Last week Andrew was in Nottinghamshire.

Back to top