Nothing is better than toast and jam, if it’s slices of the hand-mixed pain de compagne from Ben Mackinnon’s E5 Bakehouse that go in the toaster and nearly any combo from Lillie O’Brien’s London Borough of Jam spread over ’em.

It goes without saying – or billing – there’s good butter melting there in East London, over that toasted sourdough toast and under those Technicolor jams.

London weekends abound with exceptional  food diversions from cutting-edge chefs at posh restaurants to kerb-side cooks at street carts. Even at E5 Bakehouse, tucked under the railway arches near London Fields station (see map), there are brunch temptations to lure you and your £2 away from Ben and Lillie’s great Hackney T & J, from poached eggs to Full English, both with strong backup from the same exceptional toast. On Saturday afternoons E5 has good sourdough bagels.

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The merits of those distractions notwithstanding your attention must turn back to those jams with fruit flavours as sharp and pointed as darts: On Saturday the luminous rhubarb and rose geranium duo I spread on one slice marked my introduction to a new colour that’s neither rhubarb pink nor pink rose. The peachy peach and fennel seed jam I spread a little too generously on the other slice left me with a single regret: Such a pity the five of us – the bread, the butter, the peach, the rose, the me – hadn’t met before.