Cooking and the history of it

I think everyone is sort of aware of the idea of 'peasant cooking' such as cockaleekie or pot au feu - food that is easily available and cheap.  The sort of foods that warm you in winter and stick to the ribs so that you have the fuel to go out and do the work in the fields.  Most of the ideas have been prettied up for restaurants at some point or other, but the basic bones are cheap and filling with what is available locally.

So what is the urban equivalent?  I seem to have started a few ideas off with scouse, and then you have the stovies and the lancashire hot pot (amazing stuff if done well, and usually a safe bet for a pub lunch, and often urban).  All have in common that they are easy to make, use odds and ends, use potatoes and onions which are easily carried and stored for the urban shopper, all are cooked with the first efforts at the beginning and then left until ready to dish so that the cook can get on with other stuff.  

I suppose you have the local delicacies in cities in the same way that you have in the countryside.  Some countryside areas have fruit and vegetable specialities or particular types of cheese.  In the city you have things like jellied eel for London, or scouse for Liverpool where the local surrounding area can send in certain types of food that are cheap and good.  

I suspect that the modern equivalent to peasant cooking is findus lasagne.  One thing that is nice, though, is the exchange of tasty and inexpensive recipes over the internet, so all the good, inexpensive, city based, fuel conscious recipes can be shared.  That is definitely a good thing.