York, a wonderful surprise

When our original plans to visit Russia fell through Graham immediately suggested we visit Scotland. Since I try not to have us on the road driving more than 4 hours a day on vacation, I wanted to break up the 8 hour drive from Oxford north to Glasgow (more on that in a later blog entry) and, looking at the map, the city of York was just about halfway. Everything fell together so easily and it turned out to be a wonderful place to visit. We could easily spend 2-3 days there.

Our b&b was specially designed with clean modern rooms and local foods. Our host was very informative, providing suggestions for things to do and see and suggested a marvelous restaurant. And so, we were off, walking the rest of the day.

The old city of York still has much of the ancient walls surrounding it and we climbed up at the nearest gate and walked along for a while. The view of the buildings inside the wall captivated our imagination of times past.

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Ian, our host at the b&b, after determining that we had not eaten lunch and of course had a large meal planned for dinner, suggested we enjoy a cream tea at Grays Court, a Class I historic home that was the residence of the treasurer of York Minster from the 11th century until the 1600s and then owned by nobility when Henry the VIII shifted the power of the church during his reign.


The gardens were gorgeous and we could have eaten out here but we chose to go inside and ate instead in a window nook area.

We ordered 3 different teas and each pot was for one person, but realistically we could have shared one pot. As the day was still very warm, we also ordered a large bottle of sparkling water and, of course, some decadent "puddings" as the Brits call desserts.
I had a lavender shortbread tower and I believe I will be able to replicate this at home. Sam had a lemon cream cake which was delightful and
Graham enjoyed a fruitcake with currants and cheese.

We tried to behave our best; some were goofy and some were stuffy...guess who was which.

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Following our tea, we wandered inside the city walls. While this is an ancient city which had a population of about 20,000 in Roman times, it is a living modern city today. The streets are amazingly narrow and I was wondering how people managed to access their garages. We also managed to get a glimpsed into a courtyard and saw that there is green space within.

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We had been told not to miss the Shambles, a narrow street of shops which had been the butcher's street for centuries. There we chanced upon a shop that had vinegars, liquors and scotches to taste and purchase. Graham had fun tasting some scotches and we have a wee bit to enjoy over the next few days.

This sign caught our attention, as most pubs and other hang-out places have large signs indicating that they ARE a place to watch the World Cup meets.

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The York Minster towers over the old city. This was one of our first views as we walked along the City Wall. The exterior is amazing, but the interior even more so. Check out the windows and the ceiling! We made sure we were there to enjoy the Choral Evensong, the evening prayer with the men's choir singing most of the service. The sound was amazing.

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British food has a reputation of being not the best in the world and perhaps several of our meals so far would fit in that "edible but not noteworthy" category. It was with great delight of anticipation that we followed Ian's advice to make reservation at J Bakers. Jeff has been the proud holder of a Michelin star for 10 years at his prior restaurant, the only pub in Great Britain with a Michelin star. But he decided he wanted to make the food a bit more fun and opened this place.

We decided to partake of the grazing menu with seven courses served. The first was an amazing asparagus mousse which I forgot to photograph. This dish was amazingly light and we hope to be able to figure out how to replicate it.

Second was a smoked salmon with warm potato salad with apples and celeriac.

The third was amazing...something we were not sure we would enjoy. The served us lamb tartare with a black olive tapenade, with a quail's egg and olive biscuit on the side. For me the quail's egg was nothing special, but the rest was great and I will try to see if I can find the olive biscuit at least.





The forth course was Jeff Baker's fun twist on Cup Of Noodles....but packaged ramen can never hope to be this good! He starts with a fresh pork belly placed in a cooking bag with all kinds of herbs, vacuum seals it, and then simmers it for 24 hours. To serve he crisps up the pork belly and then serves it up with noodles, calamari and some veggies. yummmmmmmm

Dessert was a HUGE surprise, a tomato sorbet. Together with some pressed melon and served on an olive oil cake, this amazed Sam and me although Graham felt it was not quite up to the high standard of the other courses.

Cheeses were then served, as wel as pieces of a local fruit cake. The final course was coffee with chocolate truffles.

Graham also enjoyed a dessert wine from Spain which was sweet with a strong raisin flavor and a perfect ending to an amazing meal.




We took a cab back to the b&b and easily fell asleep!!