East End of London Food Tour

 We took a free walking tour through Free Tours by Foot (www.freetoursbyfoot.com). The topic was food in London's east end. It was a combination of a history lesson and a taste test. This part of London has a rich history of immigrants coming to live here and passing through on their way elsewhere. Some of the prominent groups in the past were the French Huguenots, Eastern European Jews and Bangladeshi. It is still an area rich in immigrants (perhaps now several generations born and living in this area). 

We sampled many types of foods in this east end. Our first stop was at the Square Pie Company in Old Spitalfields Market. The market is a collection of stores (many food-related) under the same roof. We ordered a small pie (a "canapie") that was a pastry crust filled with goat cheese, spinach and sweet potato. It tasted like a Cornish pasty, but the shape was square and not that of a pasty. There are different sizes of pies to order. This fits under the category of "native British food" and not of immigrant food. www.squarepie.com

Our second stop was at Ambala on Brick Lane. It fits under the category of a "Indian/Pakistani savories and sweets place". It is more like a takeaway (carry out) place as there was no seating in there. Behind the counter was a variety of foods, quite often fried. We ordered a channa roll which looked like a fried egg roll. Inside was the delicious channa, a North Indian chickpea stew filling. You could also find samosas, pakoras and halva there. The channa roll was tasty. www.ambalafoods.com

At the next food stop we decided to pass on the food so we could save room for more food later. Others on the tour sampled the fish and chips with homemade tartar sauce for the fish, malt vinegar and salt for the chips and mushy peas. There were several kinds of fish to choose from (haddock or cod). They were all battered. The small portions were huge. This place is called "Poppie's" and is the best place around for fish and chips. The queue was long. Hanbury Street is the location in Spitalfields.

www.poppiesfishandchips.co.uk

The Beigel Bake on Brick Lane is one of a few remaining Jewish influences in the area. It is mostly a takeaway place with long queues, but fast and efficient service. They are famous for their bagels (homemade and boiled, not baked) with salted beef. The meat looked very rare to me, so I chose smoked salmon and cream cheese. Delicious! The prices for bagels and other types of bread are reasonable. Open 24 hours a day for all your bagel needs. 159 Brick Lane.

For the chocolate lover there is "Dark Sugars" on 141 Brick Lane. It has fair trade chocolates in bulk lying out with many flavors and fillings. I liked the chocolate and fresh ginger the best. A close second was a liquid salty caramel filling. You pay by weight. It is rather expensive, but a nice splurge. Check out their Facebook page.

The last stop on the tour was "Dumdum Donutterie". This place is all the rage with their fancy filled donuts and something that is a cross between a donut and a croissant called a "Cronut". We passed on this food as well because we were full and it was too much sugar. At Box Park, 2-4 Bethnal Green Rd., near Shoreditch High Street train station.

Overall this was a rewarding and tasty tour. If you are interested in taking a tour with this company, reserve your place online. They take donations at the end for the guide. Basically it is a "free" tour.

This food tour did not include the price of food, but the samples we had were reasonably priced.