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The Food of London
A centre of trade and a major port, London's food scene has long been characterised by its diversity and variety. Try some regional recipes:
Classic Trifle
Devilled Chicken Drumsticks
Sausages and Mash with Onion Gravy

With its historic food markets - Smithfields for meat, Billingsgate for fish and Covent Garden for fruit and vegetables - Londoners have always enjoyed a decent supply of ingredients from around Britain and across the world.

Borough Market
The recent success of Borough Market, transformed from a veteran wholesale fruit and vegetable market to an upmarket food lover's paradise has made it one of London's most celebrated shopping experience.

Fish and Chips
One of Britain's most popular dishes, fish and chips, is thought to have originated in London. Fried fish had become a staple street food during Victorian times, and Charles Dickens wrote about a "fried fish warehouse" in his novel - Oliver Twist. Exactly when and where fried fish became paired with chips remains a mystery, but London continues to boast a number of top-notch fish and chip shops.

Jellied Eel
Traditionally sold from stalls or pie and mash shops, jellied eel is a classic Cockney delicacy. Fished from the muddy Thames Estuary, this East End staple can be sampled in homely pie and mash shops. Expect jellied eels to be served with a mound of mashed potatoes and surrounded by a moat of herby liquor - an acquired taste!

Coffee Houses
Today, coffee is taken for granted, but once this dark, bitter beverage was seen as an exotic brew for the privileged set. London's first coffee-house opened in 1652, two years after England's first coffee-house had appeared in Oxford, and the stimulating drink quickly became very fashionable in the city.

Tea
Tea was introduced to the capital in the seventeenth century. The diarist, Samuel Pepys recorded, in 1660, that he 'did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) of which I had never drunk before'.

Close to Kew Gardens, Newen's vintage teashop serves dainty curd cheese tarts known as 'Maids of Honour' alongside pots of tea. Theese little cakes trace their history to Henry VIII's court, and even today, are made to a secret recipe.

Multicultural flavours
Over the centuries, people from all over the world have settled here, adding their national culinary traditions and distinctive ingredients to the capital's cosmopolitan food scene. Today, Londoners looking to dine out can choose from a global range of cuisines, and dine on dishes including Ethiopian 'wots' (spiced stews), Chinese dimsum, Polish pierogi (dumplings) and Thai green curry.

London's sheer size and also its affluence makes for a very varied eating-out scene. Asian venues range from affordable vegetarian cafes in suburbs such as Wembley or Newham, to upmarket, sophisticated new-wave Indian restaurants, which offer an elegant and pricey taste of India's regional foods. Similarly, Italian restaurants in the capital include both pizzerias and glamorous restaurants.

Did you know...
During Victorian times Greenwich was noted for its Whitebait Dinners. Westminster politicians would make their way to the Trafalgar Tavern in the summer to feast on whitebait, freshly caught in the River Thames. Deep-fried and served with brown bread and champagne - they made for an elegant meal.

A light cure for smoked salmon is known as London cure, which was developed by London's East European immigrant community. Today, Forman and Son, founded in 1905, still produce smoked salmon using the London cure in their London factory.

For hundreds of years cows were tethered in St James's Park and you could buy a mug of milk, fresh from the udder, for one penny.

Jenny Linford