London’s East End is one of the city’s most happening neighborhoods. Once a rough-and-tumble immigrants’ quarter, today London’s East End is a creative playground for artists and chefs alike.

London’s looming skyscrapers tower above the East End like a tsunami wave ready to crash this party, but life here seems more focused in the present.

We’re joining a food tour for a tasty education.

Max: Hey, guys. I’m Max with Eating Europe. We’re going to go on a food tour today in Spitalfields Market and the East End. This is where culture, immigration, and food all meet. Spitalfields Market was a fruit and vegetable market for over 300 years. Today, Spitalfields Market is just filled with these incredible food stops. It doesn’t matter what it is—as long as it’s good, it will find itself here.

First up, a cheese plate appetizer.

Max: Alright. We have got a lovely creamy blue cheese, then we’ve got a really light French cheese here, Comté. This is a Swiss Alpine cheese, nutty, creamy, delicious. Help yourselves, guys. We love cheese over here. We—we—we love it!

Max: OK. Curry sauce: Big in this country. We’ve got three here. Butter chicken, black lentil dal Maharani, railway lamb. That will be the spiciest, but it’s all pretty English-spicy . Curry in the last 20, 30 years has become the UK’s national dish. There are 5,000 more curry houses in this country than there are fish-and-chip stands. The East End is by far and away the best place to have a curry in London. This street alone has more than 30 curry houses on it. It’s the spiritual home of the Bangladeshi community. You will notice, though, every curry house on Brick Lane says it’s the best on Brick Lane.

Max: The East End has centuries of layers of cultural history. The French were here, then the Jewish were here, then the Bangladeshi community, and now the hipsters are here.

Max: If you wanna come and see street art in London, you come to the East End. This is not just graffiti; this is art. This is a way of people—the voiceless—expressing their voice with their spray cans, and every one of these pictures tells a unique story. If you come back here this time next year, all of this will have changed. All of it will be different. New stories for new people in a neighborhood that is ever-changing. Everywhere you go around the East End, every street you turn, there is always something new and something beautiful.

Max: It’s time for an East End classic: fish and chips.

Max: And here are our fish and chips. Fish and chips was made—invented—in the East End in the 1850s. It is still an absolute icon of this area. So: We have curry sauce here—quintessentially British. You can slather it on. You can dip. Same with the mushy peas. It’s like a thick split-pea soup; it goes perfectly with chips. Tartar sauce there. You’ve got your pickle or “gherkin” or “wally”—if you’re from the East End, it’s a “wally.” Salt and vinegar is crucial. It’s mandatory. Vinegar first, then the salt so the salt sticks. Oh, yeah.

Rick: Health food!

And just when it feels like you couldn’t eat another bite, we head back to Spitalfields Market for one final British delight.

Max: Crumble is the quintessential British dessert. Stewed apple in sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon. On top of that, you’ve got your shortbread layer, kind of crumbled shortbread. On top of that, you have your warm vanilla custard. On top of that, you have our non-traditional crumble ingredient: pink piped marshmallow, which is then lightly blowtorched and then sprinkled with some rose petals. Perhaps the most hipster crumble you will ever see possibly in your lifetime. The trick is: Dig right the way to the bottom—get every single layer on that spoon. Not so humble anymore.