London's Brick Lane: Where the streets smell of smells of cumin, cardamom and turmeric

Brick Lane is indeed paved in bricks, and the street gets its name from the area's former brick and tile manufacturers that supplied building materials to the city center.

But this long, narrow alley is better known as an immigrant street. French Huguenots, Eastern European Jews, South Asians, and most notably Bangladeshis have all settled here.

In fact, Brick Lane is lined with dozens of little curry houses, their windows all covered in big signs with messages reading: "Best Indian restaurants." And then their are men standing at the doors inviting passersby to come in for lunch. "Best Indian food!" they all say.

It's hard to know who to believe, so we turn to National Geographic Traveler for a recommendation. Bengal Village is where we end up for a late lunch. The inside of clean, modern, white-table-cloth restaurants smells of cumin and turmeric. The chicken curry is sweet and spicy and our kids quickly slurp up their mango lassies.