It may say too much about me but if I find myself in a strange town and in need of something to eat then one of the first things I do is type in the name of where I am followed by The Guardian and see what comes up. It has worked okay in the past and it worked okay this evening.

There was a list of cheap eats for Leeds and somewhere down the bottom of the list the name of a place that did charcuterie and good beer. It was difficult to resist.

The only problem was my hotel was the other side of the city but that didn’t matter too much as there was time to kill and halfway across on the walk I found a pub that had about eight real ales and twice as many ciders. I resisted the cider and tucked into a pint and some chilli pork scratchings. I wasn’t sure about the chilli but I came to regret them later.

It was quiet inside The Reliance but I was sat down and given a pint. There was a blackboard list of charcuterie on the wall and I was supposed to choose what I wanted but I didn’t pay enough attention as I ordered and so found myself with a plate of it all.

There were two slabs of pâté, two large piles of salami, gherkins, baby Spring opinions and four slabs of good bread. There was enough for two. I just about managed to get through it all.

As I pushed the empty board back another plate was put in front of me – a pigeon cooked in red wine with pancetta. As I sucked on the last bone I could feel my belly stretching another couple of inches. It was a good job I had a 30 minute walk back to the hotel and a replete nights sleep.