Ben Viveur: Yorkshire

“Bensoir! It's me, Benjamin. I like to eat and drink. And cook. And write.
You may have read stuff I've written elsewhere, but here on my own blog as Ben Viveur I'm liberated from the editorial shackles of others, so pretty much anything goes.
BV is about enjoying real food and drink in the real world. I showcase recipes that taste awesome, but which can be created by mere mortals without the need for tons of specialist equipment and a doctorate in food science. And as a critic I tend to review relaxed establishments that you might visit on a whim without having to sell your first-born, rather than hugely expensive restaurants and style bars in the middle of nowhere with a velvet rope barrier, a stringent dress code and a six-month waiting list!
”There's plenty of robust opinion, commentary on the world of food and drink, and lots of swearing, so look away now if you're easily offended. Otherwise, tuck your bib in, fill your glass and turbo-charge your tastebuds. We're going for a ride... Ben Appetit!

Showing posts with label Yorkshire. Show all posts

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Second to Naan

So, Mrs B-V and I have been up in Yorkshire for a couple of days, mostly to drink beer and watch our annual opening-day defeat. No surprises there.

Ben Viveur pictured with extremely large naan bread

No way, no fucking way!

But we discovered, completely by accident, a lovely little pub - the Fox in Shipley - as well as visiting several favourite haunts in the city of York, and there was a surprise in store there too.

The biggest-by-fucking-miles naan bread I've seen in my entire 37 years.

Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Let alone eat the bastard.

Overall, the food at Akbar's is pretty indifferent and consists basically of a few simple variations upon a standard Balti theme, some of which weren't as saucy as their clearly needed to be.

But the huge naans, served upright on vast spikey towers, are blogworthy out of their sheer ridiculousness.

This wasn't some sort of special Guinness Book of Records attempt or anything either - it's a standard menu item. Most people seemed to have one on their table!

It utterly dwarfed my garlic chicken tikka balti, which itself was a decent size.

I guess things are bigger up north. Though not necessarily better...

Thursday, October 18, 2012

10 things you may not have known about Switzerland and York

I know, I know. I’ve not done a whole lot of blogging lately. Been out and about you see. Riding panthers, slaying dragonflies, tormenting chickens, that sort of thing.

Actually that’s all a shower of vicious lies, apart from that last one, but last week we were in fact in York, watching the mighty Sky Blues winning 4-0, and the week before we took a little trip to Switzerland (no, not to the Dignitas clinic – things aren’t that bad!)

I’d never been to either Switzerland or York before and there was plenty to do and see and eat and drink. But given that I’m lacking the time and inclination to carefully sculpt vast blogs about either of these places, I’ll just shower you with a dixtet of factoids: