Another new café bar has opened in York while my back was turned. Good luck to them.

It never ceases to amaze me just how many eateries there are in this city. They keep opening, though a few disappear.

How are they all supported? Can the chomping, slurping and burping from this multitude of food and drink establishments be heard in space? Answer ‘no’, but possibly from as far away as Selby.

Can York claim the title of ‘Food Capital of the North’?

When there are so many books and programmes on home cooking, how do the myriad food outlets stay in business? Amazing how they all, or most, manage to survive.

It would be interesting to analyse their varied and vast clientele. What percentage are tourists and visitors; what proportion is from the student population; how many are middle aged or older York residents, how many children and so on?

Unlike too many parts of the world the majority of us in the UK are by comparison almost spoilt for choice. Our diet is not for mere sustenance or survival. We’re more into the scrumptious and occasionally sumptuous category.

Yet even in the UK the pendulum swings from Michelin stars to food banks. Meanwhile, many of our pets eat better than some human beings.

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York