Derek Cooper explores some of the traditional dishes of the East End of London from jellied eels to smoked haddock.

Derek first visits Joyce's Pie and Mash Shop on Tower Bridge Road, the oldest eel and pie shop in the East End, where the menu pie, parsley sauce, mashed potatoes and stewed eels has remained unchanged for decades. Then on to Tubby Isaac's jellied eel stall in Aldgate, where Tubby himself addresses the rumour that eels are an aphrodisiac, and bemoans the rising price of his most famous ingredient. After a quick stop at Billingsgate Fish Market, Derek finally speaks to Eric Ruffell one of the few remaining East End fishmongers who operates a smoke hole to prepare traditional smoked haddock.

As urban renewal projects see the old tenements replaced by highrise flats, are these the last bastions of traditional East End cuisine?

This clip is from A Taste of Britain, originally broadcast 27 August, 1975.





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