A taste of 'home' – where do immigrants in Britain go for authentic food?

British food is so many things that I scarcely know what it means. We have made curry houses a British institution, and you can find a Chinese takeaway in even the most quintessentially English enclaves. We have taken cuisines from migrant communities and reforged them in our own image, from chicken tikka lasagne to katsu chicken wraps. Some of our culinary fumblings are questionable, others are just the inevitable muddling that happens when two cultures meet over dinner. Either way, we are adventurous eaters, and hungry for a taste of the great unknown.

But what about those for whom “over there” isn’t the unknown, but home? Wherever there are migrants, there is migrant food. Britain has migrants from places as far afield as Nigeria and the Philippines, Egypt and Trinidad. Within each of these communities, food has an important role to play. This food is strange and special: a synthesis of two places, bridging a gap between “here” and “home”. It is something physical – to be felt, consumed and tasted – that plants us in the here and now while also reminding us of where we came from, and where we are going to. In a disembodied age, food is a tangible, physical reminder of who we are.

Source: theguardian