Real English Food Trip: A Secret Revealed!
If you’ve been following the food scene, you might already be aware that English food isn’t really something people look up to. In fact, it’s often berated for many things. Simple preparations and repetitive menus are often the culprit. But not everyone agrees with this, and as time passes it becomes apparent that English food’s bad rap is an unfair exaggeration. Hence, many people are geared to change that outlook. Among them is London’s Secret Food Tour, which seeks to expose tourists to the city’s bustling culinary scene.
The tour took us first to the bustling Borough Market. While the tour proceeded with a cheerful spirit, we saw the memorials dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack last June 5.
The guide led us to a place where we had samples of delectable Scotch tails scotch eggs. This was really a good start to the tour. Matt mentioned how this is his favorite Scotch eggs and I could see why. Even better, they make it fresh, it tastes so much better when eaten fresh. The eggs came from Scotchtails, and came in different flavors! The sausages were an instant hit, too, and turned out to be the group favorite.
We also dropped by Fish Kitchen, also in Borough Market. This hip place is famous for its beer battered fish and triple treated chips. They call it “triple treated” because the chips had been fried three times. This is a cooking technique that London has mastered, resulting in chips that are very flavorful and very crispy! London’s chips are usually fried in beef drippings — while that’s not as healthy as the other oils used elsewhere in the world, it’s definitely much tastier.
Of course, food won’t be complete without drinks. We had excellent mead in Cartwright Bros. Another drink we tried was Cox & Bramley Apple Juice, a drink made primarily from Cox’s Orange Pippin apples and produced by Maynard House. The sweet and dry flavor of the apple is offset by the sour sharpness of the Bramley variety.
From there, we went to a place called Ginger Pig, and had really tasty sausage rolls! It’s fun how you can taste all these flavors even without leaving Borough Market. Our next stop took us a little away from it, however, as we went to The Mug House in the Victorian section of the London Bridge. It’s easy to miss this one, so props to the tour! We had ciders and different kinds of British cheese — mature stilton, and goat’s cheese ticklemore. The sweet Aspalls cider was a treat, as well as the drier Luscombe cider.
Our second-to-the-last stop was Bread Ahead bakery, back in the thick of Borough Market. It’s famous for its award-winning creations, particularly what has been repeatedly called the best doughnuts in the world! Do yourself a favor when you come to London, and grab at least one of their filled doughnuts.
And what good would a trip to England be without tea? At the final leg of our tour, Hornimans at Hays Galleria served us real English Breakfast tea with sticky toffee pudding. It’s a perfect end to an amazing tour. From what Secret Food Tours had us experience, it’s tough to think how English cuisine ever took a beating!
Great photos and I am glad that you enjoyed the food. I do think our food gets a bad rep as frankly I have been a ton of places in Europe and otherwise where the food is appalling. British food I think is more a case of good old comfort food!!
There’s something I would never tire of in London…especially since I can’t find the exact same thing in the US…fruit scones, clotted cream and fruit jam!
I visited London last year, but had no idea about this awesome food tour!! Lots of the foods you tried appeal to me – I’d definitely try different flavoured scotch eggs (how does that work?), triple treated chips (even if they are unhealthy!), goats cheese ticklemore (just for the name!), and those AMAZING filled doughnuts!! But I probably wouldn’t want to eat anything else for the rest of the day, haha!
I love eating tours. I’m particularly impressed with this one that you managed to eat a lot of what I think of as quintessentially British food – and all well done. The Ginger Pig is fab for example.
Wow Karla! The Borough seems to be a good place to include in one’s itinerary in England!
Food tours are alway good fun. Love the look of that Scotch Egg, so much fresher than the ones you get in service stations on the motorway.
Oh, this is fab! We’re cooking up a London trip in the summer and these recommendations certainly help!
Am surprised that London has food tours. English tea seems good. Is there anything on the tour for vegetarians?
You just have to indicate when you join so they will find options for you. You should give it a try.
Oh WOW!! This is indeed a secret food tour and your right, English food has a bad rap. I’d really love to do this tour, just seeing the Scotch Eggs brings me back to my childhood and my English grandmother, she always had Scotch Eggs every Christmas Breakfast. Haven’t had them forever.
I never expected to see such delicious food in England. I love scotch eggs, they go great with a nice cider. That is one beautiful stuffed donut. And the surroundings aren’t too shabby either!
I am visiting London and I am definitely going to try the places you went to. I am not big time into food. But secret food tour looks too good to miss.
Interesting to see how this brand has created an entire food tour at a market hall. It seems you had enough stops for it to be a pretty good tour.
I tried my first Scotch egg earlier this year in Bristol. They are yummy, but so rich.
They are best eaten hot. I loved it a lot, but I agree, it is rich.