We
are always awestruck by the variety we have in our country in terms of
food and produce, whenever we chance upon something new in a far corner
of the country or even sometimes in our own backyard. The foreign
cultures have influenced the cuisines of India and have added more
layers of flavours on them, each one worth exploring whenever you get a
chance.
So when I got to
know that Bridget White Kumar is in town to curate a colonial
Anglo-Indian menu at K3, the all day dining restaurant of J W Marriott
Aerocity I decided to go and meet her as I have been following her work
for quite some time. Bridget has authored 7 books on the subject of
Anglo-Indian cuisine and has been helping many hotels and clubs to
create special menus around the cuisine.
She has been sharing recipes on
her blog as well, a really warm and affectionate person I must add.
Chef
Vivek Bhatt has collaborated with Bridget to bring Anglo Indian food to
the capital for the first time, to celebrate Independence day week, and
his team has done a wonderful job of recreating the fusion of flavours
beautifully. I was there for lunch yesterday sharing the table with
Bridget, Rohit Sharma, Nikhil Nair and Chef Bhatt and we ended up
discussing the present day politics and how we have performed (not) as a
country in the last seven decades of being free of foreign rule. We
decided anonymously that Dak Bungalow Chicken comes to comfort in such a
scenario as none of us are keen to join politics to bring any of the changes
we want in the leadership.
Food is a great tranquilizer, or equalizer too. Let's go to the table.
The
Anglo-Indian food is served in a beautifully laid out buffet, the menu
changes everyday for lunch and dinner but a few signature dishes are
constant. I loved that the menu has not been made too extensive with
dozens of dishes, one can taste and savour every single dish and come
back with the flavours still teasing the memory of the palate.
The
starters appeared to have jumped out of a high tea party of a memsahib,
all wonderfully made. The Mushroom scramble on toast, the Lamb mince
chop (Bengali style) and the Panthras were delectable, though not my
kind of food, the husband would have taken several helpings of these I
know. I had my eyes firmly focused on the main course that looked like
homely comfort so I took care not to fill myself up with the starters.
The
Kedgree needs a special mention as this was the first time I was
tasting an authentic kedgree, though I have mentioned it on this blog
earlier. This was made of mung dal and rice, cooked perfectly so each
grain was separate yet cooked well, the taste and the texture reminded
me of a similar dish I have had at an Oriya friend’s place but I have
forgotten the name of the dish as it has been almost 15 years to that
dinner. I wonder if there is a connection between the two. The usual
garnish of boiled eggs was missing as the kedgree was to be made
suitable for vegetarians too, you won’t miss any garnish because there
are much more flavourful food to devour.
Check my main course plate here on Instagram.
I
have had many versions of the Dak Bungalow Chicken but the one served
at this festival was so light and flavourful with a thin yogurt based
gravy that it will be the benchmark from now. The Lamb Country Captain,
the Pork Devil Fry and the Prawn Temperado were a delight to discover.
Each
one had its own identity in terms of flavours and appearance, the Lamb
Country Captain felt like a light homely curry we make at home, the Pork
Devil fry had green capsicum and garlic flavours, the Prawn Temperado
with a pleasant caramelised onions and tomato flavour and a hint of
tartness to balance.
A special mention to the Okra in Butter and Garlic, the vegetarian main course that I loved so much that I tried to recreate the dish today. I knew it was something the husband would love and I was right, this recipe is going to be repeated frequently all through the bhindi season. More about this in the next post.
The
desserts were the classic Trifle and a Roli Poli pudding which is a
steamed jam cake so light you can easily over eat. Better take a small
proration and eat small bits of it, take your time to finish if you are
sensible or save some space for desserts.
More
than the food, it was a delight to meet Bridget in person. I have been
connected with her on social media for a long time but was meeting her
for the first time in person. She has done a lot of work in discovering
and preserving the family recipes and she has been doing it ever since
she took voluntary retirement from her banking career. She found her
mother’s and grandmother’s recipes hand written and filed along with
knitting and embroidery patterns and revived all of those classics
meticulously converting the weights and measures as most of the recipes
written by the women had measures written in the form of a housewife’s
manual, 2 anna’s coriander leaves and 3 anna’s onion must have been
difficult to convert to grams and tablespoons. Anna was a unit of currency during British period.
I
admire Bridget to have done such wonderful work of documenting the
recipes and bringing the flavours to us, each fusion and progression in
the history of cuisine is an important link with the older history as well as the changing times I
believe. Food reflects the society at so many levels, each recipe brings
a new story sometimes.
Bridget is here for just one week so go
soon and discover these stories and flavours. You would love to meet the
humble and cheerful lady behind this food too.
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