Indian-inspired dishes around the world

 

(This article first appeared in online on January 2023 in The Hindu newspaper https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/indians-love-chicken-tikka-masala-the-made-in-britain-curry-what-about-katsu-curry-from-tokyo-and-buss-up-shut-from-trinidad-and-tobago/article66368560.ece)

Puns on a Platter!

From the downright outrageous to the uproariously funny, weirdly named dishes offer an interesting insight into the culinary ethos of several countries around the world.

By Raul Dias

Growing up part Anglo-Indian on my Mum’s side, my initiation into the realm of oddly named dishes was complete the moment I, a preternaturally ravenous two-year-old, had had my first helping of pish-pash. Simply put, the rather onomatopoeic dish is an Anglo rite of passage every toddler must endure. Made with soft rice and some form of protein (mostly chicken), pish-pash as a dish was first spoken of by English writer Augustus Prinsep in the mid-19th century where he called it “a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery.”

Over the years, I would encounter more funnily named Anglo-Indian culinary ‘jewels’ like the meat kofta curry doppelganger with a very rude name of ball curry. Also known as the even ruder “spinster’s delight curry”, the Sunday special would always be enjoyed with its supporting acts that took the form of yellow rice and the scary-sounding (but comfortingly mild) devil chutney. 

Egg banjo, on the other hand is an Anglo snack that was invented by the military during WWII and sees a sunny-side-up fried egg sandwiched between two slices of bread, all doused in the quintessentially British brown sauce. Though the etymology of ‘banjo’ in its name remains a mystery, the sandwich still lives on here in India in the form of the slightly tweaked (both in name and composition) ‘egg benjo’—an insanely popular snack made famous by Indore’s nightly food paradise of Sarafa Bazar. Here, the runny egg is substituted with a more practical folded masala omelette, the sliced bread with a toasted burger bun and brown sauce with tomato ketchup. 

Blighty bites

As a university student in the UK of the mid-2000s, as I navigated my way around various college and dorm cafeterias, I was hit in the face with even more inappropriately named British dishes. Take spotted dick, for instance. 

Now, before images of some virulent, male appendage-related medical condition begin to swirl in your mind, let me assure you of the name’s rather benign innocuity. This traditional British pudding (as desserts are referred to there) is made with flour, suet (a kind of animal lard), caster sugar, lemon zest and dried currants or raisins making up the ‘spotted’ component. The ‘dick’ part being an old English term for a pudding. Served warm with a thin custard sauce, this steamed pudding has been a mainstay across Britain for centuries. 

I am told that the wildly popular Stinking Bishop cheese from Dymock in South West England’s Gloucestershire county apparently gets its nausea-evoking name for the juice of the Stinking Bishop Pear that it is immersed in for its ripening process. Not for its equally putrid odour that is said to be a cross between that of a wet dog and old socks.

Another such bizarrely named specimen is the rather tasty baked savoury dish called toad-in-the-hole. Eaten as part of a light dinner that the Brits call “tea”, the easy-to-prepare dish is a bunch of fried pork sausages (or to use the more colloquial term—bangers) cooked in what is essentially a buttery Yorkshire pudding. But in America, the unfortunately named dish refers to an egg cooked in the hole cut out of a piece of white, sliced bread. 

Servings across the pond

Speaking of America, the land of the free too has its own posse of quirkily named dishes. Some like the molten cheese-exploding burger called the juicy Lucy and the soppy, meat sauce laden sandwich named sloppy Joe paying homage to particularly messy individuals! While others are in honour of “sleepy critters” like the 1970s cocktail party classic of pigs in a blanket that sees tiny, cocktail pork sausages wrapped in flaky pastry and then baked.

Devils on horseback is another iconic 70s party snack where pitted, dried prunes are wrapped in bacon strips and then baked. Interestingly, this snack has evolved from another strangely named turn-of-the-century one called angels on horseback, where freshly shucked oysters stood instead of the prunes.

Deep fried oysters also find a place for themselves in the New Orleans po’ boy sandwich ensconced within the crusty confines of a sliced mini French baguette. A shortened version of the original ‘poor boy sandwich’, the po’ boy was named after the conductors of the local streetcar company, who in 1929, were given the sandwiches free of charge for their daily lunch by a local restaurant during their four-month long strike for better wages.

South of the US in the Caribbean twin island nation of Trinidad & Tobago, a strangely named iteration of our very own Malabar parotta has been the number one snack for over a century. The buss up shut which is the local vernacular for “busted up shirt” is a flaky paratha that is smashed up by the cook using their hands after frying on a griddle. Thus, leaving the flatbread to resemble a torn-up shirt, pieces of which are dunked into spicy chickpea and potato curry and eaten with Trini-style mango achaar.    

Found in translation

Adidas. Helmet. Walkman. Any guesses as to what this trio could possibly mean in the context of food? Well, in the Philippines they are all nicknames given to popular street food snacks, I discovered on a recent trip to the archipelago nation. So, while Adidas is what barbequed chicken feet are called, helmet is the code word for roasted chicken head and walkman is bite sized bits of grilled pig ears.

Still in the Philippines, Bicol express is a spicy stew made with pork, shrimp paste and coconut milk. It is named in honour of the passenger train service of the same name that plies between the capital Manila and the Bicol region that is well-known for its spicy cuisine.

Imam bayildi, as translated onto the English menu cards in restaurants across Turkey reads “the imam fainted” and is an old Ottoman heirloom dish. Here, whole eggplants are stuffed with a mixture of onions, garlic and tomatoes and simmered in olive oil before being served with rice and a dollop of yogurt. It is said to have got its name when an imam who was so overcome by pleasure after eating the dish, fainted.  

Or maybe, the imam had just gotten a whiff of the stinking bishop…?                 

------

Toad-in-the-Hole

INGREDIENTS:

180 gm all-purpose flour

450 gm pork sausages (can be substituted with chicken sausages)

½ tsp salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

3 eggs, beaten

350 ml milk

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp vegetable oil 

METHOD:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour with the salt and a pinch of pepper. Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour in the eggs, milk, and melted butter into the well and whisk into the flour until smooth. Cover and let the batter stand for 30 minutes. 

2. Grease the bottom and sides of a medium-sized, rectangular baking dish with a little vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 220°C and place the empty dish in it. 

3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat remaining oil on medium flame and fry the sausages till golden brown. 

4. Put the sausages in the hot baking dish and pour the batter over the sausages and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the batter is risen and golden.

5. Cut in wedges and serve warm alongside caramelised onions, brown sauce and buttery mashed potatoes.

(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 10th October 2020 issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 19 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/foods-with-bizarre-names/article32804928.ece)

Two of a Kind

Heavily influenced by the tunes brought in by migrant Indian workers and by rhythms from erstwhile African slaves, the unique music of Trinidad & Tobago could very well be a metaphor for the twin Caribbean islands themselves, where fusion and duality are found everywhere.

By Raul Dias

Never have I been made more aware of the currency of the phrase “Necessity is the mother of invention” than in the twin island nation of Trinidad & Tobago. Carelessly strewn across the shockingly blue waters of the Caribbean Sea like a pair of emerald danglers, Trinidad & Tobago that are part of the Lesser Antilles chain of islands may be a mighty trek to get to from India. But once there, this happy-go-lucky country shows off its ingenuity and adaptability in myriad ways. Most noticeably in its music.

Limein’ and Steelpanin’
Blessed with a unique vocabulary that is a fusion of everything from pidgin English to Bhojpuri and even old Hindustani, one of the favourite words used by the local Trinbagonians is limein’. This is one word that you’re sure to come across in conversation at least once every couple of hours here. Put very simply, limein’ is the art of hanging out just about anywhere with friends or family. All this, with a spot of music thrown in for good measure. Often, the choice of music is either that produced by a steelpan band or a unique hybrid genre called chutney soca.
To start off with the former, as the national musical instrument of Trinidad & Tobago, the steelpan is made from oil drums hammered on one end and divided into grooves and notes. The steelpan also bears the distinction of being the only acoustic musical instrument to be invented in the twentieth century. Panbands were said to have originated when erstwhile African slaves working on the sugar plantations were prohibited from participating in the annual carnival.
So, they came up with their own version that they called canboulay where most of the percussion instruments were crafted out of household utensils and other items like pans, oil drums, and garbage can lids. Today, panbands are a vital part of any Trinbagonian celebration—particularly carnival.
And one of the best ways to get an earful of steelpanin’, is by visiting a local pan yard. One such place is the Crazy Golden Eagles pan yard at the George Street Community Centre in downtown Port of Spain that is the biggest city on the island of Trinidad and the capital of the nation. What this yard basically is, is a sort of community centre where steelpan bands comprising of musicians of all ages—including kids—practice almost every day, honing their skills for their line-up of various performances across the country.

The Desi Connection
Yuh feel this Indian gyal cyah come and wine and wuk she waist
Take over the street make ah bacchanal in the place
Drop it to the ground and sh-sh-shake it all around
Push up on ah speaker beat it like ah Indian drum…
…go the opening lines of ‘Indian Gyal’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmPFOhkDTdI) a monster hit of 2015 by the reigning queen of Trinidad & Tobago’s chutney soca scene—Drupatee Ramgoonai. With its pulsating rhythms and a unique blend of pidgin English and Bhojpuri lyrics set to decidedly East Indian dance tunes brought in by Trinidad & Tobago’s Indian immigrants who started coming here from UP and more particularly Bihar in the mid-1800s, chutney soca is another national obsession of the islands. Particularly in Port of Spain’s raucous nightclubs and during carnival season. Taking on the drumbeats of the typically Caribbean ‘soul of calypso’ aka soca music and merging them with the sounds of tablas, shehnais, dhantals and sitars, is the hybrid Indo-Trinbagonian chutney soca music genre.
And while it may not have been born out of necessity and oppression, just like steelpanin’, chutney soca is very much a twentieth century invention. Late twentieth century to be more precise when pioneers of this musical genre like Lord Shorty gave it form in the early 1970s. However, it was only in 1987 that the term ‘chutney soca’ was itself coined by Drupatee with the release of her debut album simply titled Chutney Soca. Within one year, with the release of her next single ‘roll up de tassa’, this style of music got co-opted by the neighbouring, Indian immigrant-rich South American countries of Suriname and Guyana, where it is still insanely popular.     
Interestingly, chutney soca even finds a place for itself in worship in Trinidad & Tobago. The Port of Spain suburb of Carapichaima is home to a gigantic 85-feet tall Hanuman statue that occupies prime position at the saffron-hued Dattatreya Mandir. It is here that locals not just come to pay obeisance to the statue of the Monkey God that is believed to be the largest one outside India, but also to sit down to a rather sonorous chutney soca-style bhajan singing session every evening.
And just when I thought that I’d heard it all, en route back to Port of Spain from Carapichaima, my driver of Indian origin introduced me to the three newest sub genres of chutney soca that he insisted on playing on the car’s stereo. He called them ‘chutney rap’, ‘chutney jhumar’ and ‘chutney lambada’. ‘nuff said!


Travel log
Getting There 
As there are no direct flights from India to Trinidad & Tobago, one needs to fly to Port of Spain via New York, Miami or London on airlines like Jet Blue, American Airlines and Caribbean Airlines. Indian nationals do not require a visa to visit Trinidad & Tobago.

Stay
Despite being a relatively small city, accommodation options are abundant in Port of Spain catering to most budgets. Perched up on a small hill that overlooks the city’s iconic Queen’s Park Savannah, the centrally-located  Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre (www3.hilton.com) is a good pick. Here, one can expect to pay around Rs 10,896 for a double room with breakfast. The Hotel Normandie (www.normandiett.com) in St. Ann’s is another great option. The tariff for a doble occupancy room in this 4-star property is Rs 8,911 without breakfast.

Tip
* As a protective haven for the scarlet ibis which is the national bird of Trinidad & Tobago, the Caroni Swamp sanctuary, a little out of Port of Spain, is a great place to commune with nature. A boat tour down the meandering swamp gives you a glimpse, not just of the habitat of the scarlet ibis, but also of snakes, spiders and other inhabitants of this vast ecosystem.


(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 23rd May 2020 issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 20 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/music-of-trinidad-and-tobago/article31648003.ece)

Desi Flavours

(An edited version of this column first appeared in the 28th July 2019 issue of The Free Press Journal newspaper's Weekend section on page 3 https://www.freepressjournal.in/weekend/india-inspired-iconic-dishes-from-across-the-globe)

Caribbean Calling!

The twin island nation of Trinidad and Tobago has plenty of ways to immerse oneself into the infectious Caribbean vibe. Raul Dias recently discovered a few…  

In 2015, Bollywood’s Badshah Shah Rukh Khan put the spotlight on the twin island nation of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) by buying out the T&T Red Steel franchise—that he’s now renamed the Trinbago Knight Riders—in the five-seasons-old Caribbean Premier League (CPL). But there’s a whole lot more than cricket on offer in this stunning Caribbean country. Here are a few ways to get the most out of T&T after you’ve had enough of your share of bouncers, yorkers, googlies and those all-important sixers. And yes, we Indian’s don’t even need a visa to go tripping T&T style! Here’s a list of our very own sixers…

1. Get your fill of Port of Spain
Though it may be diminutive in size, T&T’s capital Port of Spain on the main island of Trinidad is full of interesting places to visit. So, once you’ve had enough of the CPL action at the Queens Park Oval Stadium, take a short walk down to the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago on Frederick Street where you can marvel at a large collection of works by local artists. The museum also has a number of exhibits on the cultural history of the islands that will give you a great insight into T&T’s colonial past. Speaking of which, as the last surviving fort form the period of the Spanish occupation of Trinidad, Fort San Andres in the middle of the city should not be missed, as should the lush Royal Botanic Gardens that is home to 700 exotic species of trees, 13 per cent of which are indigenous to this part of the world.

2. ‘Sea’ the beauty!
While Big Brother aka. Trinidad might hold sway as the more ‘happening’ of the two, it is little Tobago, all of 300 sq km, that advertises its title of WATERWORLD in big bold letters, thanks to the plethora of water sport action on offer for the intrepid traveller. From the stand-up paddle boarding, canoeing and windsurfing at Pigeon Point Beach to some breathtaking diving and snorkeling at Buccoo Reef there is no dearth of water sports and activities to indulge in. But save all your awestruck wonder for the Nylon Pool that is a sand bank in the middle of the ocean that is so shallow that the water reaches only up to one’s waist, making wading through its crystal clear, warm waters an unusual treat with the deeper (and darker hued) waters surrounding it in an emerald ring.

3. Enjoy a mélange on your plate
Thanks to its ‘creole’ or mixed culture — right from the African and Amerindian to the Chinese, Caucasian and even Indian origin people — the cuisine of T&T is as diverse as it is divine! From the rather odd-sounding ‘blue food’ made up of tubers like dasheen which is a sort of cassava to a leafy vegetable stew called callaloo and India-inspired ‘doubles’ and rotis stuffed with goat or chicken curry, to crabs and dumplings (a Tobagonian specialty) there is a lot on offer here. A must-not-miss local Tinidadian favourite is ‘bake and shark’ best had at Richard’s Shack at Maracas Bay. Basically composed of a piece of fried shark filet wedged between fried roti dough bread, called ‘bake’, no bake and shark sandwich is complete without dousing it with a virtual cornucopia of condiments featuring among others, the unique shado beni chutney that is made from a leafy Trinidadian herb called shado beni that is a bit like coriander.

4. ‘Lime out’ at a pan yard 
As T&T’s national musical instrument, the steelpan is made from oil drums hammered on one end and divided into grooves and notes. The steelpan also bears the distinction of being the only acoustic musical instrument to be invented in the twentieth century. But what it also does for the local community is that it gives them a chance to hang out and have some unbridled music-enhanced fun. Simply called ‘limein’ in the local parlance, the Trinbagonians (as the denizens of the island nation refer to themselves as) take hanging out very seriously. And the best place for a bit of ‘lime out’ action is an evening spent lost in the music of a pan yard. What this place basically is, is a sort of community centre where steelpan bands practice almost every day, honing their skills for steelpan competitions which are taken very, very seriously in T&T, almost as much as cricket is.

5. Go swamp boating
The Scarlet Ibis is one of the most vividly coloured birds (hence its name!) you will ever have the pleasure of seeing. And as a protective haven for this, the nation’s national bird, the Caroni Swamp Sanctuary, a little out of Port of Spain, is a great place to become one with nature. A boat tour down the meandering swamp shows you glimpses not just into the habitat of the Scarlet Ibis but also into those of others like snakes, spiders and other swamp critters. Under the patronage and stewardship of Winston Nanan who was driven by his love dedication and commitment to this sensitive eco-system, the Caroni Swamp has become an ornithological wonderland with hourly tours departing from the sanctuary’s pier through the day, right up till 4pm.

6. ‘Bean’ there, done that?
A short distance away from Tobago’s fabulous three-tiered Argyle waterfall — that you can trek up to — is a place that is a sort of open air, lush version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The Tobago Cocoa Estate is where you can learn all about how the world’s favourite indulgence — chocolate — gets its start from bean to bar. Here, on his daily tours, Duane Dove who set the estate up in 2005, not only shows you how cocoa beans are grown, but also how they are harvested and processed into some of the finest, organic chocolate you can ever have the pleasure of tasting. And one can even pick up some goodies at the attached shop that does very little to quell your chocolate addiction with its sinful range of goodies on offer.

How to get there?
Although there are no direct flights from India to T&T, one can easily fly in to Port of Spain via New York or London on airlines like Jet Blue and Caribbean Airlines. Travel from Trinidad to Tobago is easy with several air taxi services operating short, hourly 25-minute flights linking the two islands.

(An edited version of this article first appeared in the February 2018 issue of Just Urbane magazine)