The weather was supposed to be cloudy with sprinkles, but for the second day in a row, it was absolutely gorgeous and therefore a beautiful day for a walk. The last time I was in London was with Mr. Misadventures in May of 2009.

We stayed in the Piccadilly area lodging at The Dilly, a Starwood property (since we are loyal SPG members) which turned out to be a nice little area to spend my first weekend in London. It is made for gourmet foodies.

This trip as it turns out that Piccadilly is very close to the Pall Mall area where my office is, so I am staying at another Starwood property, the Park Lane Hotel, which is right across the street from Green Park and very convenient to where I met my docent for our first stop on the tour.

I actually walked past Fortnum and Mason the day before my tour and was dumbfounded by the fact that it was only a half-block from Le Meridien. During our trip every time Mr. Misadventures and I walked out of the hotel we turned left towards Piccadilly Circus and therefore completely missed this giant food mecca.

I am certain we must have passed by it on the last trip but we were likely having a deep discussion (planning our next meal no doubt) because I cannot believe I didn't see the ginormous building which houses the food purveyors that have been supplying the royal household since 1707.

This building is hard to miss!

Inside is a foodie's fantasy with little departments dedicated to sweets, pastries, teas, biscuits, coffees, and fresh food staples like cheeses, deli items, and meats. And since Fortnum and Mason started the concept of hamper it is a requirement that they sell all the supplies you would need for a lovely picnic in any one of London's parks. There is so much history around this one store that you could spend an entire tour there, but sadly we had to move on.

Our next stop was the oldest cheesemonger in London which opened in 1797, Paxton & Whitfield. Again, another location with quite a history. It was actually begun by Mr. Sam Cullen who became partners with Paxton & Whitfield, but I guess they muscled him out. They began supplying the royal household in 1850 and for some time became a regular grocery store during the World Wars when cheese became scarce.

The store is adorable and has a large variety of continental cheese, a focus the store turned to when cheese in London became an industrialized product (much like what happened with bread in France). Later they moved back to carrying a large selection of cheeses from the UK including Ireland and Wales. This part of the store is entirely native cheeses, who says the British don't have good cheese?

Our next stop was the Japan Center which for me was very much like the Japanese grocery store in Japantown in San Francisco and my very own Japanese Fish Market in Berkeley. The Japanese embassy is in the Piccadilly area and there are lots of Japanese restaurants in the area as well. Also, oddly enough, the only other two locations for Fortnum and Mason are in Tokyo!

The food in the Japanese store looked heavenly and when the tour ended an hour later I headed back here for some fresh gyoza, sashimi, and milk tea!

But before that, we crossed over from Piccadilly to SoHo, an area known for immigration. It started with the French who came to London in exile to escape religious persecution. Then many Italians arrived during the second wave of intense immigration.

There are a ton of French and Italian restaurants throughout the district in addition to many, many other varieties of food. In fact, Chinatown (the second one) butts right up to SoHo as well.

We visited The French House where some of the Free-French were exiled during World War II. It was a spot the Charles de Gaulle would often be found. It is tiny inside and while it may look like a pub, it is actually more of a wine bar.

We then moved on to Bar Italia. A 24-hour truly Italian coffee bar. I was excited upon seeing the spot as by sheer coincidence I had just finished watching the London episode of Anthony Bourdain's The Layover on the plane over. I had two episodes of the show to watch and did not even realize that one was in London.

In any case, in that episode, Anthony met a restauranteur friend, Fergus Henderson at this location for a coffee (see the photos from the show, image #3).

Inside looks exactly like an Italian coffee shop and all the people in there (except one waitress, the same who served Anthony coffee in The Layover episode) are Italian and there is no messing around, they are serious about their coffee and serve a mean prosecco! They ought to as they have been open since 1949.

We visited a few other places in the area with each location having its own unique history. I could spend weeks just in this one little area discovering all its secrets. The thing I like most about it is how all the cultures are mixed in so harmoniously, it is something that you rarely see in many cities.

Generally, you will see a Japantown or a Chinatown (and London does have these) that have only that one culture's shops and restaurants, but in SoHo all the regions are mixed and it is delightful!

Here is just one example. This French patisserie here in this spot since 1871 sits right next to a classic English pub. They co-exist tremendously. You can start your day with a croissant and an espresso and end it with fish and chips and an ale!

We ended at the entrance of Chinatown and I walked through it a bit heading back towards the Japan Center for lunch. The tour was great, a nice way to get to know a little part of the city, kill time when you are alone, and enjoy the magnificent weather.

A few tips:

• Unlike the food tours in Paris, there is no actual eating, so make sure you have a proper breakfast or lunch prior to your tour start.
• Try not to book a tour on Sunday that involves going into stores or restaurants, many are closed and you won't get to go inside.

The Gastronomic London tour is another fantastic Context Travel tour and I am so pleased to share my experiences with you because I would HIGHLY recommend this activity for you on your next trip to London (or if you live there, do it, you will discover areas of London that you aren’t familiar with, promise!). For more info on Context Travel Tours in London, visit their website.

London is not the only location where this amazing company operates tours. I say amazing as Context Travel is a company that practices and deeply believes in sustainability, they have even created the Context Travel Foundation for Sustainable Travel and operate as a certified B Corporation a relatively new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

These are extremely important initiatives to me and I am happy to promote and support Context Travel by spreading the word!

I really wanted to spend much more time exploring London. I have been there twice for business and would love to go back. I've got the perfect 2-day London itinerary from my friend Greta, so I'm all set, now I just need a plane ticket!

How about you? Have you been on a food tour while on vacation or a business trip? Tell me about it!

Like it? PIN it!

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Growing up, every time London was mentioned, my grandfather would talk about the fish and chips, praising the food non-stop. He had spent time in the UK during WWII and always remembered the fish and chips fondly.

When my sister graduated from high school in Spain, my grandparents decided to do a big trip to Europe which included visiting my family for my sister's graduation in Madrid and a trip “home” back to Portugal and the Azores Islands where my grandparents are from.

And of course, since it had been 45 years since he had been in London, my grandparents went there as well. Basically, they went to London so that my grandpa could reminisce and eat fish and chips!

Being Portuguese, my grandfather is very passionate. And the thing he is most passionate about is my grandmother. They were truly one of “those” couples, always holding hands, always together, always laughing and giving each other little kisses. They were so in love.

My grandpa's health was weaker, he had had a heart attack, had a pacemaker, and had problems with his legs. My grandma had her own health problems, but she was the “strong” one. We always said that if something happened to my grandpa, she would be ok, but if something happened to my grandma, my grandpa would quickly follow her. We were wrong.

My grandparents were huge baseball fans, Oakland A's. They had season tickets and went to all the games, my grandpa had even worked at the Coliseum a few years post-retirement. During one game in 2002, my grandpa was exiting the bathroom when someone much younger and stronger went through the exit and knocked my grandfather over, badly.

He broke his leg and hip and there were lots of other complications. He was in the hospital, and he almost did not make it, but somehow he did. And at that moment something changed in my grandma forever. Dementia hit and then Alzheimer's. And it got worse and worse.

My grandfather was devastated, he had bought a new RV and they were going to tour the U.S. again (they had already done it before), she was the strong one, the one that was the rock.

I moved to Europe and heard the rumblings from afar. My grandfather was adamant about taking care of my grandma, he would not be separated from her. Eventually, she was and she continued her downward spiral. When I came back to the U.S. I could not bear to visit her.

That was no longer my grandmother, the fiery, vibrant lady who I loved so much, it was a shell of a woman who could no longer talk and did not know who anyone was. I wanted my memories of my grandmother to be frozen in time, the saucy redhead you did not mess with. When she died, I could not bear to see her casket, I was at the burial, but could do no more.

During all that time, my grandfather got worse. He became a bitter, broken man who suffers from dementia and is mad at the world for taking his wife away. I cannot bear it. I visited a few months ago, but cannot bring myself to do it more often. I want my memories to be the good ones, the good years. I am selfish. I am a fair-weather granddaughter. I want only good memories and cannot bear the reality.

So instead, I pay tribute. I went to London. I had fish and chips. I thought of my grandpa. And I sent him a postcard telling him that I had fish and chips just for him and that I loved him.

The post More London: Fish and Chips and being a Fairweather Granddaughter appeared first on Misadventures with Andi.