Secret Food Tours and Tate Modern

After a late night at the theater, we slept in today (Tuesday, May 24, 2016). This is a rarity for us while traveling! We slept until 9:00 a.m., and left the hotel around 10. I ate one of the apples provided in our room, and we stopped by Nordic Bakery for some coffee. The baked goods there looked fantastic, but I had to save room in my tummy. We had not one, but two food tours scheduled today with Secret Food Tours.

Secret Food Tour London: Traditional British Food

We went to Baker Street station via Baker Street, and apparently walked by Sherlock Holmes' house without even noticing it. We arrived at London Bridge just before 11 for our British Food Tour. We met up with seven other people and our guide, Raj, and set off down a flight of stairs. Suddenly we were surrounded by amazing food smells. We were in Borough Market, which has been operating continuously since 1100.

Our first stop was a stand called Hash, which served traditional Cumberland sausage sourced from The Ginger Pig. It was topped with some onions braised in red wine and fresh greens. I topped mine with salsa verde and English mustard at Raj's recommendation. The mustard was deliciously spicy!

The bar right nextdoor was selling some "specialty beer" - made in Stevens Point, WI where I went to college.

We had a few minutes to explore the market, and we sampled some super creamy cheese and delectable Turkish sweets. But, we were just getting started, so we needed to save room and didn't try too much.

After meeting back up with Raj, we had "proper" fish and chips from a stand that brings fresh fish in everyday. Our 1/3 size portions were more than enough!

The fish was fried in beer batter with the skin on, and it was crispy on the outside and moist and flakey on the inside. Topped with some malt vinegar and salt, it was magnificent! The chips, however were not as "proper" as advertised. The crispy outside was absent from most of them. In an odd way, this was good—it meant I didn't fill up on fries. Oh, I mean chips!

We took a round-about walk to the other end of the market so we could catch a glimpse of the apartment door from Bridget Jones' Diary and the adjacent tavern from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

We also learned a bit about The Shard before being turned loose for a bit more market exploration.

I wanted to eat everything from every stand, but unfortunately that would be counter-productive on this tour.

In this part of the market, we stumbled upon a bottle shop that carried an international beer selection, including some U.S. beers that we can't get in Wisconsin.

The group gathered once again and we shared small samples of locally-made fudge, both ginger and rum raisin flavor.

We walked along the market and Raj pointed out places that unfortunately we wouldn't be able to return to visit—a cheese shop and a coffee shop. Next time, London!

We rounded a corner to see some ancient palace ruins, and then popped into Southwark Cathedral, in search of Doorkins Magnificat, the cat that has lived there for ten years since showing up at the door as a stray. We did not find him.

Leaving the cathedral, we popped into a pub just under London Bridge. Here we sampled two ciders (Aspall and Loscombe), two cheeses (Stilton and Ticklemore), and a fig cake. Our tour mates apparently weren't big cheese eaters, so we got seconds. On, Wisconsin!

Next, another short walk brought us to a scenic promenade with views of the City of London, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.

Raj sat us down and revealed his surprise for us—custard doughnuts from Bread Ahead, voted the best doughnuts in London. He had picked them up while we were exploring the market.

They certainly were tasty, and not overly sweet. The custard contained vanilla bean and clotted cream...yum!

Our tour mates seemed to like them too.

It sort of felt like the tour should end at this point (it was 2:00, the stated end time), but we weren't done. We turned the corner and entered a large restaurant, where we were seated and served sticky toffee pudding with ice cream and tea.

Another delicious dessert, but I was full and we were running late for our planned afternoon activities.

Tate Modern

We said goodbye to the group and walked as briskly as we could to the Tate Modern, hoping to catch the 3:00 p.m. tour. After a few trips and lots of art museums, we've learned that rather than trying to walk through an entire museum, we prefer to go with a guide and get the story behind a select few pieces. Most museums we've visited offer free tours like this at least once a day, or on certain days of the week.

Thankfully (and surprisingly), there was absolutely no security or bag check at the Tate. We found the guide in the Studio at about 3:05, and were able to join the tour without missing too much. Over the next hour, our knowledgeable guide showed us a handful of pieces, explained their significance to the artist, the time period, and in relation to other artists. We saw a Picasso, Dali, and Matisse, among others. After about 40 minutes I had to take a break (my ankle was throbbing), but I rejoined the group for the last painting. Aaron liked it so much we picked up a print in the gift shop.

We didn't even scratch the surface of what there is to see at the Tate, but hopefully we'll be back and can see a bit more next time! By now it was after 4:00 p.m., and I had some grading I needed to get done (once again I was traveling while teaching an online class...isn't the internet grand?). So, off to another pub! We strolled to the Millennium Bridge and stopped to take a few photos.

Pub Time

I was cursing the wifi, which wasn't working again. Luckily, I had a general idea of the direction we should go, and I found the Cockpit without any major problems. Walking into this pub was like stepping back in time. The interior was covered with plush red velvet-like material, and the bar was shoved in a corner. When we needed to use the restroom, we found tiny toilets and sinks up (or down) a flight of stairs with crude, non-glass mirrors. But, they had wifi and beer, so I parked myself at a table with my laptop for 90 minutes to get my work done (and sample some fine beer).

After grading the last assignment, we were on the road again! We needed to catch a train go the East End for our second food tour of the day—an Indian food tour, also with Raj.

Secret Food Tour London: Indian Food

Time for food tour round two! Normally we wouldn't do two food tours on the same day, but I really wanted to do both of these and we had limited time in London. So, we made it work. We met up with the group (us, two Canadian tourists, and some locals with friends). Our first stop was a shop that sold sweet and savory items to go. We had mixed pakora and dhokla.

Both had a unique, lasting spice flavor that stayed with me until our next bite. Raj took us down Brick Street, an area of Banglatown that is increasingly experiencing hipster immigration. We passed by some impressive street art and turned up at a packed restaurant with a line out the door.

Sensing a predicament, Raj took us to the next spot, an empty restaurant, then went back to pick up our order to go. After waiting a few minutes, we had kebab wrapped in Puri (Indian bread) with a special red sauce. It was quite good, and unique.

Then the beer was served (Cobra), followed by three curry dishes: saag chicken, lamb pathia, and daal, accompanied by naan and rice. All three were excellent. I was surprised by how soupy the daal was.

It seems a little odd that we went to an empty restaurant. I don't think we were even told the name.

At 8:30 we hurried to the next place, a market/deli, before it closed at 9:00 p.m. We ordered two desserts for later. One was in a syrupy sauce and the other was dry. I think they were both made with chickpea flour.

We also stopped in a grocery store to marvel at the 5kg bags of chili powder and the 20 kg bags of rice.

Our final stop was a large, popular restaurant that I believe was called Kebab House. They have a BYOB policy, so we stopped at the off-license liquor store to get some local brews.

Once seated, we were served three dishes along with garlic naan: a spicy potato dish, chicken tikka, and paneer.

I didn't really care for the potatoes because they seemed under cooked, but Aaron liked them. The chicken tikka was moist and delicious, and the paneer was pleasantly unique. Finally we brought out our desserts. They were ok—I wasn't in love with them.

We said our goodbyes, made our way back to the underground, and ended our night fairly late again. I feel asleep at 11:45. We clocked 20,123 steps today (8.25 miles) and climbed 25 flights of stairs.

Comparing Food Tours

If you're looking at this and wondering what tour was my favorite—it's the British tour, hands down. I feel like we got a lot of "uniquely British" food that was better than what is hawked at the tourist places, combined with some unique sight-seeing. The Indian food tour, while interesting, didn't bring a lot of uniqueness to the table. I suspect you can get a lot of really great Indian food all over London. I'm glad I made it to Banglatown though, since it has a very different vibe from central London where the tourists tend to stay. Our groups were different as well. The British food tour was all tourists. The Indian food tour only had four tourists, and the rest were locals that were a friend of a friend of the guide. That changed the dynamic a bit, I suspect.

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