The Yours To Taste food fest at Regent's Canal on Saturday benefitted from some of the finest weather this decidedly non-barbecue summer has thrown us. It's a good job too, as any gourmand who came solely for the food will have been disappointed.
Long queues for tiny morsels of unremarkable grub was too often the case. Where the food was memorable — the Victoria sponge at the Pavilion Cafe, or the cake sold by the Barge Cafe — it was wolfed down all too quickly. Was the twenty-minute queue at Matsu for a morsel of sushi and a green tea worth it? Probably not. By early afternoon, testily-written signs posted up on doorways declaring that they were no longer participating in the event were the norm, and some venues didn't even seem to open at all.
Yet did it matter? Not a bit. Who could object to a jaunt along the canal on a beautiful summer Sunday? There was much fun to be found along the route. British Waterways, who arranged the event, outdid themselves with a raffle, where factoids about British canal history were doled out liberally. Thousands thronged along the canal, and despite the aggressiveness of towpath cyclists, it was an aggreable way to spend a late summer's afternoon.
