East End Food Tour With WalkEatTalkEat
As part of our London Food Tour series we headed to London’s East End with Walk Eat Talk Eat to take in the sights, sounds and especially the food of the local area!
I'm a North West London kind of girl. From my first study abroad experience through to now I’ve always had an NW postcode. So when I was asked if I was interested in a food tour of London’s East End I was thrilled to say yes!
Other than going to Brick Lane for curry a couple of times and venturing to the Dennis Severs house with my mum late last year I can’t say I’ve spent much time in East London. And having not spent much time there it means I also haven’t had a chance to try many of the restaurants or cuisines so a food tour sounded like the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Shoreditch High Street Station
So off my my husband and I went to go on The Great and the Good: The East End Tour with Walk Eat Talk Eat. We met up with our tour guide (and the rest of the group) just outside of Shoreditch High Street Station. Our awesome tour guide was Rousha (Roo) who is a born and bred East Londoner that gives tours by day and does comedy by night. I can’t actually think of a better person to be giving a tour like this than a East Londoner comedienne!
Love locks on a fence
We started off from our meeting point and immediately I could tell this was going to be as much an East London tour as a food tour. From the station itself Roo pointed out quirky bits of Shoreditch such as a stretch of fence with locks much like the bridge in Paris (but maybe slightly less romantic). We continued towards our first destination which was an old carpark that is covered and houses semi-permanent food trucks/stands around a (thankfully heated) picnic area.
Here we tried some Argentinean Sausages which were packed full of flavour and accompanied by delicious roasted red peppers and a garlic sauce. It was quite cold so we enjoyed the warmth both from the meat and the heaters!
Shoreditch Food Village
Argentinian Sausage
Then it was back out into the cold and rain though thankfully the next stop was pretty close. We went to a bakery/cafe/shop/hotel (yes it is all of these things) which also happened to have some of the nicest toilets I’ve ever been to. Here we had a look around while our guide picked up some bread before we walked a bit further to the Boundary Estate bandstand (which is build on the rubbish from the slums that used to be at the site before Victorian social housing was built).
Here we stopped to learn a bit of history and tuck into a Cheese, Mushroom, and Onion Fougasse. Now this was tasty enough but not my favourite of the dishes we had this day. I think at least a decent portion of the reason behind this is I was trying to take photos on top of this hill in the cold wind and it just got too cold. I bet if I had it fresh and warm I would have enjoyed it more. But also 2/3rds of the filling were mushrooms and onions - not my top ingredients of choice. However the bread was buttery and delicious and I love cheese so the merits of the fougasse weren’t totally lost on me!
Cheese, Mushroom and Onion Fougasse
After we climbed down off the hill we wandered over to Brick Lane. Now I’ve been to Brick Lane in the evening when every two steps there’s a nice Indian man offering free wine or starters to come into his restaurant yet in the day it was totally different. We were there for the a bagel - or Beigel as it’s spelled there - from one of the oldest bagel bakeries in London.
We had a Beigel with Salted Beef, mustard and kosher dill pickles on the side. My first bite had quite a bit of mustard to the back of the throat which of course burned right up my nose, but once I got over that it was delicious. Now in America we call this corned beef which I always avoided on St. Patrick’s Day at the local church when my parents would drag me to corned beef and cabbage nights (blergh). But this on this lovely boiled bagel with the tasty strong mustard. It was heavenly and I was a BIG fan!
The cherry on the cake (or pickle on the side) was that kosher dill. Fun fact about American Expats in the UK - we complain in large numbers about the lack of decent dill pickles. So this was a nice surprise for me!
Salt beef and mustard bagel with dill pickles
We then veered off to another car park surrounded by large pieces of art that contained more food trucks. There we had some BBQ- another favourite for this American! We had some Pulled Pork that had been slow cooked for TEN HOURS. It was incredibly tender, packed full of flavour and quite spicy with the sauce. This was probably my favourite dish of the day and was certainly the quirkiest location. There is a cute little seating area inside the food truck that you can use if there is space - which is great for cold, wet days!
Pulled Pork
Cabose BBQ Kitchen
Then it was time for what a sweet tooth like me had really been waiting for...dessert! We went to a cafe for a Gluten Free Brownie which apparently Harrods and Fortnum & Mason both wanted the recipe for. It was very fudgey (which makes sense if it was gluten free I guess). Personally I really liked it - though my husband wasn't a fan. So if you aren't a fan of really rich, dense brownies this isn’t for you. But if like me you are a chocoholic and love the dark richness then you’ll enjoy the brownie!
After this we got a bit more history about the area from the French Huguenot silk weavers to the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid which has housed three different religions in previous incarnations of the building. All the history really painted a picture for us about why there are so many different cuisines in the area due to the different waves of immigrants into the areas over centuries.
We made a quick stop at an Asian confectionery shop to pick up some chocolate and pistachio barfi. We finished our tour just outside Christ Church Spitalfields and were sent away with the barfi to enjoy at home.
Cafe and bakery
Gluten free brownies
Asian confectionery shop
Overall this tour is a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon getting to know a vibrant area of London. Not only did I try some amazing food from some places I wouldn’t even know existed but I got a taste of the history of the area, local street art and even worked off some of those calories walking around! I think I’m definitely a convert and will be looking for food tours in other areas in the future!
Street art in action
Special thanks to Walk Eat Talk Eat for having us along on their The Great and the Good: The East End Tour tour. For more information about all their London tours visit the links below:
Website: www.walkeattalkeat.com
Twitter: @WalkEatTalkEat`
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkeattalkeat
