The East End has been absorbing newcomers for four centuries and feeding them in the process. The Huguenots arrived from France in the 1600s and brought their pastry. The Jewish community came at the end of the 19th century and built the beigel bakeries and salt beef counters that are still standing. The Bangladeshi community arrived in the mid-20th century and turned Brick Lane into one of the most concentrated stretches of curry houses in Europe. Each wave left its food behind, and this tour eats through all of it.

Three and a half hours through Spitalfields, Brick Lane, and the streets between them. Depending on your departure time, you start with either a proper bacon bap or a croque monsieur from a French specialty cheese shop that has made its home in the East End. At Poppies, you eat mini fish and chips with mushy peas, one of the most honestly British things you can order anywhere in the city.

On Brick Lane, a fragrant curry at Aladin arrives with a fresh mango lassi. At Beigel Bake, open every hour of every day and unchanged in the way that matters, a salt beef beigel: hand-sliced meat, mustard, soft dough. An artisan seasonal crumble at Humble Crumble closes the tour.

Come and taste the history that four centuries of immigration built into one square mile of London!