Hello hello!

This was my first ever food tour! My Aunt and Uncle came to visit me in London and we all decided to go on a tour with Secret Food Tours. We took the tube to Shoreditch, a fun, hipster part of London with some of the best food. We met up with our amazing tour guide, Eddy, and got started on a historical and tasty tour around this beautiful city.

We started with one of my favorite food groups, bagels! This area was inhabited mainly by Jewish immigrants who knew what they were doing when it came to carbohydrates.

When we first got to the neighborhood, we saw these amazing street murals. We found a bunch of these masterpieces along the tour, so I’ll include them throughout this post!

This portrait is of a man who lived in this neighborhood for many years who had recently passed away.

The name of the bagel place we began with was Beigel Bake, a very famous shop that was opened on Brick Lane in 1929. They are mainly known for their traditional Jewish style bagels filled with hot salt beef and mustard. WARNING: the mustard did not mess around, which I quickly discovered as my sinuses were lit on fire.

It was interesting to see how many other bagel shops were in the area. As we walked down the street, we saw several more. Now, note the spelling of “beigel”. This is a historical spelling, coming from Polish Jews.

Next, we headed over the food stands along the Brick Lane Market (right near Spitafelds).

We met up with an Indian woman who had married a Turkish man. They decided to mix their backgrounds to create a Turkish- Indian fusion food stand. The mix of flavors was unique and colorful. I’m personally not a huge fan of Indian food, so I enjoyed the Turkish side of things a bit more!

Next, we decided it was time for some chocolate (but when ISN’T it time for chocolate). If you take one thing from this blog post, it should be that you must go to Dark Sugars when you’re in London. This place is incredible, and the chocolate is truly the best I’ve ever had (believe me, I’ve had a lot of chocolate). Dark Sugars was founded by Nyanga, a Ghanaian woman with a passion for cocoa. She started at Spitafelds with just two truffles, and after rave reviews and a bit of time, she was able to open her stores around the city (that was the condensed version, lol). All of the displays are made from cocoa wood and all of the chocolate from Ghanaian cocoa beans. YUM.

These were my favorite: Irish Kiss Truffles (aka Baileys Irish Cream and Dark Chocolate. THIS IS WHAT HEAVEN TASTES LIKE.)

Still with me? Awesome. Let’s go to a place that is both famous and traditional for Brits. Fish and Chips! We headed to Poppie’s, founded in the East End of London by Pat ‘Pop’ Newland in 1952. The fish and chips are served in newspaper, just like it would have been decades ago. How do we look?

As we walked to our next destination, we saw more amazing art.

This part of London is untouched from the Victorian Era. It’s so elegant and breathtaking.

Something that this part of London is known for is the historic Truman Brewery. Famous for their ales, we stopped at The Old Blue Last Pub to have a taste of the room temperature beverage (how it is meant to be).

Our last stop on the tour was at a Northwestern Spanish Resturant called Sagardi. We had a wonderful dessert and some tea to end the tour, although this restaurant is known for their meat dishes.

I would highly recommend going on a Secret Food Tour. They have them all over the world, so the next time you’re exploring a new city, see if they have one for you!

Thanks for reading!

-Katherine