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Food without frills

The soups are the highlight of the Anglo Indian food fest on at the Verandah

This was the original fusion movement. But, it didn't start in a fancy kitchen outfitted with pricey equipment. It wasn't spearheaded by temperamental chefs with quicksilver moves and brilliantly innovative ideas. And it didn't bask in glossy restaurant menus, accompanied by gasp-worthy price tags.

Anglo-Indian food grew out of a completely natural, totally unstudied movement, as the country's Anglo-Indians gradually blended in with the locals, consciously keeping their customs, traditions and beliefs vibrant all the while. Their food habits, naturally, changed too as they added local spices and cooking techniques to their essentially English recipes.

Over the years, however, the cuisine seems to have become so popular that households across the country have added it to their repertoire, without really thinking about its origins. Besides, in clubs and on the very British tea estates, this cooking lives on, as butlers and bearers continue to dish up the food they served the British planters, everything from roasts with an Indian accent to the stodgy bread pudding.

Which makes the Verandah the perfect setting for the festival, thanks to its atmosphere, and — at the same time — an unfortunate setting for the festival, thanks to its price tags.

Because — judging by the Taj's spread — typical Anglo-Indian food is tasty, but not exceptionally exotic. Well, not in a Five Star, I'm-expecting-something-exhilarating way.

The buffet menu on the night I checked it out included `cabbage foogath,' basically boiled and lightly spiced cabbage, a startlingly ordinary peas-and-potato sabzi and boiled eggs set in gram dal. All nice enough, but, all the same, all items you can probably get at your local railway station.

Simple techniques

Subtle spices, local ingredients and simple cooking techniques characterise this cuisine. The coconut rice, for instance, was delicately flavoured and went well with a mild preparation of prawns set in a green masala curry.

Surprisingly, the highlight of the meal turned out to be the soups: the ubiquitous mulligatawny, an aromatic vegetable broth, and the nourishing beef macaroni soup, served with warm bread rolls and pots of aromatic butter, spiked with herbs and garlic.

Dessert featured good old caramel custard and bread and butter pudding. They also had the obligatory chocolate fix in the shape of some rather dry brownies and a crumbly chocolate rum cake. The `jalebi pudding', a creamy dessert bursting with sweet minced jalebis, made from an old Anglo Indian recipe, was rather interesting, and the lemon curd tarts were good.

By the way, Connemara's Verandah is a lovely place to soak in these flavours, with its old-fashioned table settings, replete with snowy linen and silver cutlery, and warm golden interiors. It almost makes you feel like the past five decades never happened.

The festival is on till July 16. For reservations call 66000000.

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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