Anglo-Indian cuisine

Anglo-Indian cuisine is the often distinct cuisine of the Anglo-Indian community. Traditional British dishes, like roast beef, are often spiced with the addition of cloves, red chillies, and other Indian spices. Fish or meat is often cooked in curry form with Indian vegetables. Anglo-Indian food often involves liberal use of coconut, yogurt and almonds. Roasts and curries, rice dishes, and breads all have a distinctive flavour. Salted Beef Tongue, Country Captain, Fish Rissoles and, of course, Mulligatawny, are some of the better known Anglo-Indian dishes. The cuisine's sweetmeats include seasonal favourites like the "kul-kuls" and "rose-cookies" traditionally made pre-Christmas. There is also a great deal of innovation to be seen in their soups, entrees, side dishes, sauces and salads.

Some early restaurants in England served Anglo-Indian food, such as Veeraswamy in Regent Street, London, and their sister restaurant, Chutney Mary. They have however, largely reverted to the standard Indian dishes that are better known to the British public.

The term is also used for the Indian dishes adapted during the British Raj in India some of which later became fashionable in Britain.

The British also introduced some European foods to India which are still eaten now, such as beetroot.

More recently in the 20th century, the Bangladeshis in Britain have anglicized various Indian and Bangladeshi dishes resulting in some well known British favourites like the chicken tikka masala and balti.

References

• Curries and Bugles, A Memoir and Cookbook of the British Raj, Jennifer Brennan ISBN 962-593-818-4
• Anglo-Indian Food and Custom, Patricia Brown ISBN 0-14-027137-6
• Indian Cookery: For use in all countries, E.P. Veerasawmy. London 1936.
• Culinary Jottings for Madras or A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles, 'Wyvern' (Colonel Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert). Facsimile of 5th Ed (1885). Prospect Books 1994. ISBN 0-907325-55-6
• A Curry Book (Anglo-Indian Cookery at Home - 1895), Henrietta Hervey. Ludlow, Excellent Press, 2006. ISBN 9781900318334

External links

• Food Stories — Explore a century of revolutionary change in UK food culture on the British Library's Food Stories website

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