Have a hankering for Railway
mutton curry, Aloo chop, Bengal
Lancers shrimp curry, or even
Hurry-Burry chicken curry?
You’ll find them in pockets of
India, where Anglo-Indian cuisine
retains a hold long after the passing
of the British Raj. Indian-Chinese
food may be more popular,
but before Gobi Manchurian there
was Vindaloo. Although vindaloo
is a staple at Indian restaurants
everywhere, the more obscure Anglo-Indian dishes
are found only in certain places. Kolkata and Delhi are
examples, as is Bangalore—and yes, there are regional
variations. “So in the South, Anglo-Indian dishes tend
to use pepper, cinnamon, cardamom; in the Goa-Mumbai
belt, souring agents such as vinegar and kokum are
popular, whereas in the East, the gravies use less spice,”
notes Seema Chowdhry in Livemint.
At Bow Barracks, a newish restaurant in Bangalore
named after an Anglo-Indian hub in Kolkata, you can
order classics like Lamb Hussaini curry, Grandmother’s
Country Captain’s chicken curry,
and Brinjal and potato vindaloo.
Talk about fusion.
Vindaloo comes from the
Portuguese Vinha d’alhos (garlic-
wine marinated dishes); the
“aloo” comes from sounding like
“alhos” (garlic)—potatoes were
not part of the traditional dish
but were added later, perhaps for
cheap filler or to counteract the
salt. While Railway mutton curry
no longer needs to be preserved for long train journeys,
the tamarind juice or vinegar that’s still added makes
it tangy and tasty.
Aficionados like Bangalorean Bridget White Kumar
keep Anglo-Indian cuisine in the limelight. A prolific
food blogger—her blog is called Pepperwater, which is
another way of saying Mulligatawny soup—and the author
of several cookbooks, she also advises Bangalore’s
125-year-old Taj West End, which offers a generous selection
of Anglo-Indian dishes. Now, a chota peg will go
well with their sumptuous weekend brunch.