Centuries-old dishes laid out at Anglo-Indian Fair

The atmosphere of a carnival hung in the air at St. George’s Anglo-Indian School and why wouldn’t it when there was much reason to celebrate? The Forum of Anglo-Indian Women turned 25 and to rejoice this occasion, an Anglo-Indian Craft and Cuisine Fair was organised on Saturday. While shuttling between counters and customers, three women took the time out to talk to DTNext about the community, their forum and Anglo-Indian cuisine.

“A group of us got together to garner funds to educate Anglo-Indian children beyond school. Until then, they’re entitled to a certain number of scholarships but beyond that, they don’t receive any encouragement,” said Eugenie Pinto, retired principal of Queen Mary’s College. “So to ensure that kids who are good at studies opt for higher education but can’t afford the fees, we set up a scholarship,” she added. While this was the predominant purpose, the forum has another side to it. “Women from our community were known to take up service-oriented jobs like nurses or secretaries but there were very few entrepreneurs. Today, as you look around, you can see that most of stalls are run by women, so supporting them is our second aim,” she explained.

As the sights and smells drew us to the stalls, we discovered a plethora of Anglo Indian cuisine being served at the venue. We caught up with Penelope Smith, who had set up a stall with some of the products she had stitched, to find out more about the food. “Most of our dishes are a fusion of Indian and Western cuisines with each region having its own influence on the food. For example, the pork vindaloo we make in Tamil Nadu is very different from what you get in Goa, especially because the Portuguese had a stronger influence there,” she began.

One might be familiar with dishes like kichdi or pepper rasam that have been Anglicised into kedegere (made with legumes and eggs) or mulligatawny, that are cooked and eaten widely among the Anglo Indian community in Chennai to this date. “Not just that, we have a wide variety of dishes like meatball curry with coconut rice, railway mutton curry, dak bungalow chicken and others. These probably got their names because they were served by Indian cooks to the British on the trains or in traveller’s bungalows when they were commuting,” she said.

The 500-year-old community in the city is very close-knit and it was evident in the way they interacted at the fair. We were introduced to Dr. Beatrix D’souza, a former MP and MLA, who told us what her favourite dishes were. “The ball curry with rice and devil’s chutney is a favourite. In fact, the devil’s chutney is also called mother-in-law’s chutney because it’s both hot and sweet — it’s made from onions, red chillies and raisins or plums,” she laughed. And as for her comfort food, “Pepper water with ‘doll’ as well call it or dhal (lentils) mash and beef fry is my all-time favourite,” she signed off.