Eating London Food Tours — Her Favourite Food & Travel

Feb 25

Feb 25 Eating London Food Tours

Launching our series of reviews on London Food Tours we joined Eating London Food Tours on a tour of London's East End and sampled it's fascinating history, culture, street art and of course food!

The East End

is home to various cuisines due to the many cultures that settled over the decades and formed a part of its identity and not to mention the eclectic hipster hub it is today. In the past, the East End was home to the poorer citizens and to many a tradesman and the evidence of this remains.

The group was a mixture of tourists and Londoners (so I didn't feel out of place) and we were lucky enough to have an East Londoner in our company who grew up working in the very area we were exploring. Other individuals had either booked themselves or received the tour as a gift. The whole tour is complimented and informed by the history of each dish and each section area we travel through.

Lead by our endearingly funny and energetic tour guide Nicole, our first stop saw us at "St. John Bread and Wine" a perfect fit as I had skipped breakfast and this sample did just the trick. A bacon buttie is a British breakfast staple served in many a greasy spoon. For those of you who like pork, the bacon sat on good quality bread with a small amount of crispy bacon and a "secret ketchup" which we learned was made with apple. Very tasty indeed.

On to our next stop "The English Restaurant" rescued and preserved by owners Kay and Peter who delivered us a helping of divine bread and butter pudding which in the 13th century was known as a poor man's pudding, the building was left derelict after its history of being a trader's market, nut factory and Jewish bakery and is now a lovely heritage listed building. The pudding itself was soft, crispy on top, served hot with cold rich rum custard which I was unable to taste being the dairy free member of the group but feedback was that the custard was yummy!

Off to the backstreets for some more history, the East was previously known as Britain's red light district and we were even shown where one of Jack the Ripper's victims was murdered. We also stopped at a soup kitchen for the Jewish poor founded in 1902 and a further refuge with separate entrances which served hot cocoa and bread for the homeless. Small alley ways with names like "Gun Street" were home to shooting ranges and artillery and the local houses were taxed by their amount of windows so they would cover them with bricks to avoid the extra costs.

Back at the Old Spitalfields Market which used to be a burial, hospital, and gun range, then after it was bombed in WW2, it became a fruit and veg market where 40% of the original structure remains. Inside the indoor shopping market, we popped into "The House of Androuet" where the staff were very inviting and knowledgeable about their hundreds of cheese. We sampled a great tasting cheddar from Somerset and a creamy blue cheese from Nottinghamshire with a garnish of walnuts.

Next was the famous "Poppies Fish and Chips" with all it's 1940's character features their award winning fish and chips: battered cod, chips and mushy peas. The batter and cod was light and the chips were thick and fluffy on the inside. I'm not a huge mushy peas fan but I dipped in and folks were lashing on salt, pepper, vinegar and ketchup - everyone likes theirs a certain way. And if you order a takeaway they'll be wrapped in newspaper, how authentic!

Next up a visit to a quintessential British pub "Pride of Spitalfields" which was extremely cosy and home to a famous (and seemingly very well fed) pub cat named Lennie. We tried the Truman ale and orchard cider. I am not personally a beer drinker but the cider did remind me of summer festivals and the pub was so cosy and welcoming.

Now for something spicy at "Aladin". Brick Lane is now a curry capital of the world due to the Bangladeshi community that integrated into East London with some 55 outlets stretching down the curry mile all displaying their award accolades and enticing you in but we have reservations. The spicy veg, lamb and chicken curries have been modified for British taste but some do like it hot! The flavours of each were scrumptious and I couldn't help but wonder what HRH Prince Charles had to eat when he visited this very restaurant.

Off to the infamous "Beigel Bake" shop, there's a queue outside but we've got friends in high places. We are each served with half a bagel filled with salt beef, mustard & pickles. This dish was originally introduced by the Polish community and is open an impressive 24/7, 7 days a week and has been run by the same owner who has worked here every day for a whopping 30 years! The bagel was my least favourite meal of the day as I didn't enjoy the texture and taste of the salt beef and I'm not a big mustard fan but the boiling technique used to make the bagels is a noticeable difference to manufactured bagels and I think if I had another filling in there, it would have been ace!

In between stops we are topped up with East End history facts and trivia as well as highlighted to the various displays of street art including a piece by Banksy. We even pass a group of youngsters working for an organisation offering a game of what looked like beer pong on top of a car with prizes to be won but not a pint in sight and sadly, the car wasn't on offer either.

After bonding with our friendly group, we approach our final stop at "Pizza East" but I couldn't possibly handle eating a pizza, luckily we're here for dessert! A very cool and trendy restaurant typical of Shoreditch style. Introducing the salted caramel tart- originally from Brittany, this tart features as one of Time Out's top 100 dishes to eat (along with the bagel and Poppies fish and chips) so I definitely feel like one of the East London in-crowd! Pizza East serves up the salted caramel tart with double cream, the chocolate is rich and sweet and the salted caramel is perfection teamed with the pastry. Again I was unable to indulge in the cream but I'm told it balanced the dessert evenly on the palate.

Nicole sums up our day by running through all of the stops we visited and hands us a brochure detailing where we had visited and gives us the opportunity to sign up for the Eating London newsletter to keep up to date. Not until after finding out what the group enjoyed eating the most and it was the first meal: bacon sandwich was a clear winner!! With a big hug from our lovely tour guide, we bid farewell to our new foodie friends.

These tours also operate in Rome, Amsterdam and Prague which excites me incredibly. I go home wondering if a tour existed in my beloved area of North West London where would they start and what would feature along the way. My advice if you're going on one of these tours would be to wrap up warm if it happens to be the winter months and wear comfy shoes whatever the weather! Travel light, any extra bags will just get in the way and don't forget your camera, you'll see some very interesting and unique sections of this area and will learn the history behind it all and your food will be pretty too!

So be prepared to stuff your chevy chase (that's Cockney rhyming slang for face). All in all, great tour, great food, great bunch of people. Thank you East London and Eating London for your hospitality!

Website and blog:www.eatinglondontours.co.uk