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London food writer and critic Sejal Sukhadwala writes for Time Out and national titles including The Guardian, The Times and the BBC food website. No one knows the London food scene better. For foodies in a hurry, these are her top spots Click to view Top 5 London Food Destinations.
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Best For Nostalgia (A Gold) |
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 You once dug up an authentic recipe for a Thai curry from a 16th century cookery book. You can discern the difference between six varieties of Hungarian paprika. But when did you last taste Banbury cake? Head for this amazing British food shop for a taste of childhood. Grandma would approve. |
Old London |
Situated on the borders of the City and the East End, just outside the Roman walls, A Gold is located inside a wood-panelled Georgian house that was built around 1780. A French milliner named Amelia Gold once used to own the place and her original signage, dating back to 1880, still graces the elegant charcoal-grey façade.
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The shop is located inside what used to be Henry VIII’s artillery ground, where soldiers once practised archery and musketry, and is close to Hawksmoor’s impressive 18th-century Christ Church Spitalfields. The area is infamous for Jack the Ripper’s serial murders, and the Great Fire of London.
When this cosy, cream-coloured venue opened in 2000, with its emphasis on regional British specialities sourced from small suppliers all over the UK, British food was considered to be a joke. It has since enjoyed a revival – thanks in no small part to A Gold, which now also has a stall in nearby Old Spitalfields Market.
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| Savoury Seasons |
 Here, you’ll find sweet and savoury biscuits (some beautifully packaged in hessian bags), such as currant Shrewsburys from the 18th century, made in Lincolnshire, and Dorset knobs – a seasonal variety that dates back to the 19th century and is eaten for breakfast or afternoon tea. There are several cakes, teabreads and puddings like plump Lancashire Eccles cakes, Welsh cakes dotted with sultanas and currants, and ginger oat pudding from Scotland. The popular Campbell’s Perfect Tea comes from Dublin in sunshine-coloured tins, and elderflower wine is made from flowers handpicked from the Sussex woodlands in early summer.
Soft drinks like dandelion and burdock come in stone jars, and were once promoted by the temperance movement for their medicinal qualities. Cheeses include nutty, grainy Berkswell made from ewe’s milk in the West Midlands, and Cornish Yarg wrapped in nettles. There are many savoury snacks such as Bury black pudding and Gloucester Old Spot pork pies, plus cured meats and smoked fish. Store cupboard staples include gravy salts and mushroom ketchup, and there’s a good selection of preserves, honeys, chutneys and mustards.
Bestsellers include old-fashioned sweeties (also currently enjoying a renaissance) like fresh marshmallows, Mr Stanley’s mint humbugs sold in containers that look like ration tins, and pink and white sugar mice with rarely-seen traditional string tails from Wales.
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| 'Luvly Grub' |
 A Gold has featured in Time Out, Saturday Times magazine, the Sunday Telegraph, ES magazine, and the Independent, and was singled out by designer Paul Smith, who guest edited an edition of Time Out, as a place selling "luvly grub".
And the Banbury cakes? These 13th century oval sugar-coated pastries filled with currants and spices are displayed in a basket bearing the legend "save me, I’m an endangered food". Surely £3.60 isn’t a lot to prevent a delicious English delicacy from becoming extinct?
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A Gold, 42 Brushfield Street, E1 6AG. Tel: 020 7247 2487. www.agold.co.uk. Liverpool Street Tube/railway station.
Open Mon-Fri 11am-8pm; Sat, Sun 11am-6pm. |
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