A Tour of The Anglo-Indian Kitchen Table
By kamla bhatt • May 10th, 2012Category: Bangalore, Books and Authors, Diaspora, Featured, India, Life, Video
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A tour of the Anglo-Indian kitchen table with Bangalore-based Bridget White Kumar reveals a list of interesting sounding dishes like bubble and squeak, pepper water, Bengal Lancers shrimp curry, railway mutton curry, dak bunglow curry, Hussainy curry, foogath, pepper okra, bread pudding, carmel custard and shandy.
Bridget deconstructs these dishes in the interview and takes us through a typical day in a Anglo-Indian kitchen right from breakfast, lunch to dinner and drinks. (Link to a video interview with Bridget.)
Anglo-Indian food is a fusion or a hybrid cuisine that evolved during the colonial period of India (17thc onwards) and initially had more of a European flavor with some Indian spices thrown in explains Bridget, author of several books on Anglo-Indian cuisine. Over the years, Anglo-Indian food has acquired more of a regional flavor points out Bridget.
Bangalore once had a strong and dynamic Anglo-Indian community in the cantonment area, but over the years it has shrunk to a small, but tight-knit community. An upshot of the migration and re-location of the Anglo-Indians to other parts of the world meant that many of the old, family recipes have either been lost or forgotten. Bridget is on a mission to rescue and preserve the old, forgotten recipes cooked during her grandmother’s time. She recently worked with Bangalore’s Taj West End for their upcoming Anglo-Indian food festival that is part of their 125 years celebrations. The West End turns 125 years old this year and Anglo-Indian dishes were a regular fair at the hotel for over 100 years.
Born and brought up in Kolar Gold Field, Bridget moved to Bangalore in the early 1970s. She worked in a bank for several years and took an early retirement, and pursued her passion in preserving the heritage of the Anglo-Indian cuisine.
Related Links: Glenda Michelle Singh on Anglo-Indians of Lucknow – video and audio.
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
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