There’s very little to do on the road but eat.

After four hours on the road I eventually arrived in Sheffield for the first of the meetings which brought me up here. With only one visitors parking space I had to forage around for the closest NCP which gave me a 10 minute view of part of the city on my walk back to the office. The meeting was one of series over the next few days all related to a new project we are about to start on. With the meeting over it was time to find the car, remember to ask for a receipt and back down the motorway to Derby.

The Stuart is a “modern and contemporary style hotel and offers the luxury and amenities expected from a self rated four star hotel&rdquo somewhere in the city. Arriving after a whole day in the car all I wanted to do was park up and walk. Strolling down the road I passed the doorman at the Anoki. He was dressed in flamboyant turban, long embroidered coat and gold slippers, curled up at the end. “Is the food good ?”, I asked. &lqduo;The best Indian you will ever taste, I guarantee”, he said and so I went in. The Anoki occupies the old picture house in this block of 1800’s buildings on the top floor above the shops and keeps up the tradition of showing films with Bollywood movies projected on the wall from the Tigra channel. High on style it mixes Victorian arches which support the roof from the shoulders of bare breasted maidens with large photographs of Indian dancers and architecture.

The food is a good version of the standard Indian fare you get in this country but owes it’s tastes and textures to the Bengali tradition of the chefs. The Goan prawn curry I had lacked the subtly of the curries I had eaten in places like The Fisherman’s Cove in Candolin, Goa. That said it was good food but the real problem of the evening was being the single diner in a sea of large parties. The order arrived late and was wrong, it took and age to clear the table, the flower filled finger bowl offered to every other diner sailed past my table and the bill took 15 minutes to arrive.

As I leave the doorman asks me &lqduo;Go on tell me honestly, how was it&rdquo. After I tell him he looks at me