The Brighton Jotter

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London Day 5: East End Food Tour

Friday April 25th April

This morning I went with G to Fortitude Bakery to pick up pastries and coffee (for G, not me. I am still off coffee). I had their cinnamon scroll. Yummy! No big breakfast for me today because I had another food tour. This time I would be exploring the London East End in Eating London’s Bricklane, Shoreditch and Spitalfields Food Tour. The tour began at the Spitalfields Market which was a short tube ride away from our hotel. We had four people on the tour, but it was supposed to be five. I’ll tell the story with some photos.

First stop: Breakfast Bao
Portuguese custard tarts from the Chinese bakery. This area was near the docks and some of the Chinese working the ships ended up settling, bringing their version of custard tarts from Macao.
There were also many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Earlier Jewish immigrants built this soup kitchen for the next lot arriving.
An old homeless shelter with seperate women’s and men’s entrances, The majority of the beds were for women and children.
Coal used to be delivered through chutes in the pavement. Around Spitalfields the grates have been replaced with designs that point to the areas history. This one was outside the food market
Fish and chips. They get the newsprint paper specially printed with food friendly ink, pointing back to when fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper
Graffiti
Street art.
Our next food stop. Indian.
The inside of the reastaurant
Preparing the Beigels. More evidence of the Jewish immigration
Apple Crumble with custard and meringue topping. These were so good.

After the food tour I went to the Australian High Commission to vote in our federal elections. It was pretty straight forward and no queues. I was so full after the food tour I just had a morning bun that we’d bought in the morning at Fortitude Bakery.

This is the first time I’ve had to vote overseas. Have you ever had to vote while overseas?

Comments

14 responses to “London Day 5: East End Food Tour”

  1. Elisabeth Avatar
    Elisabeth

    I’ve never voted while out of Canada!

    And you found pasteis de nata!! I was just talking to someone about them earlier this week.

    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Well not me, but the guide. They are a little different to the tradition Portuguese ones because they are adapted to Chinese palates I think, but they are very yummy.

  2. Tobia | craftaliciousme Avatar
    Tobia | craftaliciousme

    I have never needed to vote outside of country.
    That dessert looks amazing. I am quite envious.

    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      They were very yummy

  3. Daria Avatar
    Daria

    I love how food tours take you off the beaten path!
    Those custards with whipped cream – omg, give me one! LOL

    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      They were so good. I took G for one the day after the marathon

  4. Nicole MacPherson Avatar
    Nicole MacPherson

    I’ve never voted while not in Canada!
    This looks like fun, Melissa!

    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Yes great fun

  5. Ernie Avatar
    Ernie

    Those apple custard things look amazing. Even if I was there, I’d not be able to eat one- dare to dream though.

    I have not voted outside the US. You are quite the organized traveler.

    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Luckily voting was not too hard to get to, otherwise I would have skipped it because I would have been able to give a valid excuse for not voting.

  6. Alexandra Avatar
    Alexandra

    I cannot think of anything better than a food tour to learn more about a place, and where better than in London, right? Damn, but that food all looked delicious, I’m almost salivating looking at all these photos. Bacon butties and Portuguese tarts, divine!

    And that’s a yes to voting outside my country of origin. When a Brit, I worked and lived abroad, a lot, so had to do mail in or vote in person.

    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      We love doing food tours.

      1. Alexandra Avatar
        Alexandra

        I’ve done one but nothing recently. We have one planned on our trip to Montreal, in July. I shall report in then.

  7. London Day 8: Churchill War Rooms – The Brighton Jotter

    […] Soho and picked up two crumbles. I’d been wanting to take G to try them since I had them on the East End Food Tour. We had the apple crumble with custard and meringue and rhubarb crumble with custard and cream. […]