RTN. Tara Deshpande Talks About Food And Culinary Traditions During Colonial India

Four important projects took place that contributed to the evolution of Bombay to the Mumbai we know it as today. These were the Hornby Vellard project, major migration, explosion in population and international political events. These changed the way people ate, lived, dined, and entertained.

There are few known eating establishments. All restaurants and café culture dates to 10th century in Europe. Not only was eating out unheard of India, but it was also discouraged by many religions. The only places to get food while out was at churches, ashrams, dharamshalas and mosques. Madhav Ashram in Girgaon, established in 1918, is one of the few remaining prototypes of lodging and boarding-style establishments that existed in 19th century. You paid with tokens, slept the night in common room and left at 7 am. Before the Vellard project was completed, most English officers lived in the Fort area. It was only after the creation of Byculla that things began to change rapidly in Bombay’s culinary scene.

HORNBY VELLARD: This was a project to build a causeway uniting all seven islands of Bombay into a single island with a deep natural harbour. The project was started by Governor William Hornby in 1782 and all islands were linked by 1838. It eventually took over 150 years to join the original seven islands of Mumbai. The original island of Bombay was only 24 km long and 4 km wide from Dongri to Malabar Hill and the other six were Colaba, Old Woman’s island, Mahim, Parel, Worli, Mazgaon.

During the late 18th century, Byculla was an extension of Mazagaon, one of the seven islands that originally formed the city of Mumbai. The area was low-lying flats which were inundated during the high tide through the Great Breach at Mahalaxmi. However, the breach was closed by the Hornby Vellard project in 1784, which joined all seven islands of Bombay into a single island. This was followed by the construction of the Bellasis Road Causeway in 1793. Thereafter, the area saw habitation as Europeans living in the Mazagaon and Fort area started shifting here. The famous Byculla Club was opened in 1833.

Bombay’s population trebled between 1812 and 1891 and the culinary scene changed dramatically after the Hornby Vellard project – a huge number of gymkhanas, hotels, clubs, and samajs opened up.

TO NAME A FEW
Oriental Cricket Club 1848
Bombay Club 1846
Hindu Union Club/Hindu Gymkhana
Parsi Club 1877
Ripon 1884
Parsi Gymkhana 1888
Wilson College Gymkhana 1905
Princess Victoria Gymkhana 1909
Taj Ice Cream 1887
Victoria Hotel 1837 No 1 Esplanade Near V.T
Waverly Hotel Rampart Row
Ladies Gymkhana Malabar Hill
Punchram Puriwala Near Cst 1840
Cafe Leopold 1871 Colaba
Bhagat Tarachand 1895
Joshi Halwewala Mahim 1820

MIGRATIONS: Whenever wars and partitions took place, and communities started to migrate into Mumbai, the culinary scene began to change. Everyone thinks that fish koliwada or prawns koliwada is a Koli dish. But it is Amritsari tikka which the Sikhs got with them, and which got named fish koliwada. Most Udipi restaurants opened in ’60s because of the migration of Mangaloreans and Goan Catholics into Mumbai at that time.

Between 1812 and 1891, Bombay’s population trebled. As soon as there were more foreign visitors and migrant labours, facilities were needed for them to eat and sleep. Many Baghdadi Jews migrated to Bombay, led by Sir David Sassoon.

ELECTRICITY came to Bombay in 1882. In 1865, Pallonji’s introduced India’s first carbonated beverage, a flavoured soda, followed by Duke and Sons in 1889. The Princess Dock opened in 1885 and shipments of ice and imported goods flooded the market. Bird’s custard became so popular that even today many Indians think that it is actually real custard. Canned coffee, an extract of chicory and dried coffee beans, was introduced to India for the first time. The first dabba delivery service by Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started in 1890. Tinned Asparagus and Margarine invented by a French chemist in 1869 were also introduced to India in the 19th century.

At the same time, the rest of India suffered catastrophic famines. The Great Famine of 1876–1878 in Bengal and Orissa claimed close to 100 million lives in less than 75 years. While some parts of Bombay Presidency suffered in that period, the Bombay as we know it today, escaped largely because it was such an important port of trade.

As soon as this road was built, transport was possible, building was possible, and everything exploded on the scene. So, David Sassoon built his mansion which is now, in part, Masina Hospital. All the big and senior level officers moved here and the Mazagaon Docks were completed in 1790. All the families of Wadia, Jeejeebhoy, Maneckjis moved out of Mazagaon and bought these properties in Byculla and Malabar Hill. The British armoury also moved to Fort from Gun-Powder Lane and Byculla in 1760. By 1840, Byculla was the place to be.

The migration of so many influential people necessitated a club for officials and visiting royalty. One of India’s earliest, the Byculla Club flourished in the times of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII and finally closed its door during the reign of King George V in 1920. The Times of India dated November 30th, 1883, reports: Lord Dufferin, Lord Curzon and Governor of Bombay Philip E Wodehouse were all lavishly entertained at the Byculla Club. At the dinner for Sir Philip, a relative of the author PG Wodehouse, 150 guests were served a 15-course meal including potage of green turtle (now endangered), various cuts of beef (now banned), and Pâté De Foie Gras which is also banned. 1875 was a very big year for Bombay because Crawford Market was established. It was the first formal covert market place in Bombay with proper sewage water and zoning. It was also the first building in Bombay to be electrified in India in 1882 that changed the culinary scene of India in many ways. The first café house called Butler’s Café opened of course for the staff of English only but it was, for the first time, that coffee, sandwiches and breakfast were served at an establishment. The first white and Anglo-Indian women vendors were seen selling baked goods and, for the first time, many types of provisions were available.

There is a wonderful book called Maclean’s Guide to Bombay that covers Bombay and outskirts of Bombay. It is also a book that tells you how Bombay people were eating and shopped (reading a few excerpts):

“To the right stretches a masonry wing, 150 ft. by 100, = an area of 15,000 Bq. feet, which is reserved for fruit and flowers; and to the left an iron wing 350 ft. by 100, = an area of 35,000 sq. ft, which is appropriated to stalls for vegetables, spices. So, the centre, including the gateways, covers 16,000 sq. ft.”

“Several stalls are devoted almost entirely to the sale of pan soparee, the favourite luxury of all natives. The pan is a green aromatic vine-leaf, which is spread with lime and wrapped round a bit of betel-nut.”

“A fruit the plantain, or banana, in all its varieties, of which the small delicate yellow one is the best for eating.”

The reason why this is interesting is because it stands true even today.

Then we have pummelos, of which the best grow in and about Bombay. The pummelo is a less insipid kind of melon, with a slightly bitter flavour; it is a delightful fruit to eat in the morning after a long walk or drive. Melons and pumpkins abound and are much used by the natives. Excellent oranges come from Nagpore; those grown nearer the sea have not much flavour. Fine black and white grapes are supplied by Aurangabad, and a good many baskets come all the way from Cabul, which has always been celebrated for fruits, and from which Bombay also gets walnuts, pistachio nuts, dried peaches, and apples. Nectarines and peaches of good quality are grown at Bangalore, but it is only occasionally that they find their way into the Bombay market. Occasionally, a basket or two of strawberries find their way down from Mahabaleshwar, where this delicious fruit grows in perfection.”

“The best pines are grown down in the Southern Concan and are brought up to Bombay in country boats. The chickoo, a fruit like the medlar, but of a better flavour, is esteemed a great delicacy. The fruit, however, for which Bombay is deservedly most famous is the mango, which comes into season in May. The afoos mango of Mazagon is the best.”

This is interesting, did you know hapoos aam grow in Mazagaon at one point? I didn’t know that and how he describes it says more about the totapuri type than hapoos.

It is pear-shaped and can be distinguished from other mangoes by a little lump or horn at the narrow end. Of vegetables, also, which a hundred years ago were very scarce in Bombay, there is now an endless variety. The onion of Bombay maintains its character of being “celebrated all over the East, and good celery and cucumbers are also grown in the neighbourhood.”

“Both the beef and mutton sold in Bombay are good, as a rule, though of course the meat is small and lean as compared with what one gets in England. Venison can occasionally be purchased in the market.”

He also talks at length about turtles being brought from Karachi; I think it was a very popular ingredient those days and, of course, as a result they are all endangered now.

“The Byculla Club has great prestige, but its situation is very much against it. It is now nearly surrounded by mills and other buildings, and it gets the full benefit of the Main Drain along with the sea breeze.”

This Club, originally a Sporting Club (it still borders on the racecourse, and its broad balcony is used as the grandstand at the race meeting in February), now consists of several hundred members of the civil and military services, merchants, bankers, lawyers, and others.

The Byculla Club sort of began to decline once the Bombay Yacht Club came into being. The famous Watson Hotel, 1867, had a grand atrium at the top. And you can see the entire Bay of Bombay from there and it was the place to dine in 1800s. It has changed hands many times now. We also have the Adelphy Hotel, the Victoria Hotel and many hotels opened in 1800s. Ads were placed in Macleans’ book for the English men and visitors. One of the significant aspects of people in 1800s was that people were drinking more than eating. European alcohol flooded India leading India to serious temperance issues that ultimately led to prohibition in independent India.

Atkinson’s Curry and Rice in 40 plates is a wonderful book. It illustrates that on an average an English officer in India had 12 full-time house staff, there was a sarkaar or accountant, the khansama or a butler, the khidmadgar or table servant, the bawarchi or cook, dhobi, bishti or water carrier, halalkur or sweeper, harkara or messenger, darji, darbaan, potter, garewan or coach man, saichi or horse keeper and others including a tent pitcher, a hookah setter, a pankha puller, attending female servants like Aaya or nanny, amma, or vet nurse as well. Entertaining at home with a 6-8 meal course was the norm.

This is the original Byculla soufflé recipe which was the signature dish of the Byculla Club. Served on silver salvers by liveried stewards to exalted guests in Bombay, this frothy French dessert was all the rage in the late 1800’s made possible in hot and humid Mumbai by expensive shipments of ice from Boston, Ma.

S.T. Sheppard divulges the club’s original recipe for the soufflé in a book ‘The Byculla Club’. Recipes are often telling of their times.

“Take the yolks of six eggs, add three tablespoons of good white sugar, beat well till dry and keep aside. Take half a seer of cream and also beat till dry, now take half a packet of Isinglass well soaked, add one liqueur glass each of Kummel, Chartreuse, Curacao, and Benedictine. Mix the whole well together, then put into a mold, on the top put crumbs of mixed biscuit and keep in ice until wanted.”

In those days, it was expected that women should know how to cook. All the recipes of the 1800s had no separation between ingredients and instructions, and they are all this short. In India as well, if you look at the early recipes, they are very short.

The reason this recipe is so telling of its time is this: take the “add three tablespoons of good white sugar,” Why white sugar? In recipes today they will tell you brown sugar, jaggery and all, but you very rarely hear white sugar.

The reason they emphasised it was because it was not available in India. For centuries, we have been extracting sugar from sugarcane but it was jaggery. In India we didn’t know how to refine sugar so, if you wanted to buy white sugar, the British would have to import it from their colonies Barbados and Jamaica. So, sugar was made in cones, distilled and they took a cone shave, the sugar merchant used a nib to cut the sugar. The top was the brownest and the cheapest and the bottom was the whitest and most expensive. If you put all of this together, the Byculla soufflé was an exorbitantly dish to make.

Take half a seer of cream – seer is a very different measure, we don’t use it anymore. One seer is equivalent to 0.93 kilos and it was only used around 1875 or so. The recipe is thus placed in a certain time period. I think in some part of rural Afghanistan or Pakistan they still use it but this measure is totally disappeared.

And, also, beat till dry. Now take half a packet of Isinglass – it has a very interesting story. It is fish scales, but it is made specifically made from a particular kind of fish and this fish is sturgeon, the same fish which delivers caviar. So, the Russians had monopoly over Isinglass and it was exorbitantly expensive and why? Because in the medieval period, you made gelatine by boiling pigs in large waters, and it was laborious and limited to savoury dishes. So, Isinglass was like a papad that you could dissolve in water and mix with cream or milk. But in the late 1700s, a British chemist discovered how to extract it from cod which was a common fish. Thus, the monopoly was broken.

Add one liqueur glass each of Kummel, Chartreuse, Curacao, and Benedictine. These are not ordinary liqueurs; these are very specific and expensive French liqueurs. Boozy desserts were very common in 1800s and early 1900s in gymkhanas and clubs. In 1860, during the reign of Napolean III, England and France signed the Cobden-Chevalier treaty and tariffs on goods including alcohol was lower and French liqueur like these became much more affordable so everyone started to order and drink them. A ship found a faster way to get around the Suez Canal. Clubs in India were at the forefront to import liqueur from around the world. In 1897, Bangalore Club placed an order of 65 casks of whiskey, gin, brandy and others from England. They did those four times a year.

“Mix the whole well together, then put into a mold, on the top put crumbs of mixed biscuit and keep in ice until wanted.” Refrigerators did not arrive until after 1911, so, how did the ice get here? The other fact is that it called soufflé; soufflé is for dishes that are hot. How is this chilled dish called so? Actually, it is mousse, but the word was appropriated well into the 1900s and we didn’t use the word in India at all.

So, if you look at culinary cultures across India, you will find that soufflé was used for cold dishes. It is a funny peculiarity.

So, how did the ice come in? The Bombay Times in 1839 reported that Captain Ward of an American vessel agreed with the members of the Byculla Club to bring 40 tonnes of ice with them for which they have to pay Rs 300 per tonne. That is approx. Rs 3 lakh a tonne in today’s time. Sir Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy was the first to offer ice cream at a large public reception. Guests gorged on them. A few days later, the Bombay Samachar newspaper reported that the hosts and the guests had since been besieged with colds.

Did you notice that the recipe misses an important ingredient? What do we put in a recipe with eggs? Vanilla. We are so used to adding it that we don’t know that all the recipes prior to 1920s that had eggs in it tasted of egg.

The Byculla soufflé was feasted by everyone from Prince of Wales to the Dukes.

It has been recorded that the 1900s was a heavy drinking period in the sub-continent because alcohol was cheap and easily available but worse it was considered cure for both physical and mental illnesses including depression. The situation became so bad that post 1860 the crown encouraged wives of officers to join them in India in the hope that they would drink less; sadly when some wives showed up, they just drank more.

French food was the toast of Europe. All British clubs had French foods. In India it was fused with British and Indian food resulting into dishes like chicken curry in white sauce or cari de poulet à la madras. You also have an intriguing dessert called carpet pudding. Biscuits were lined up with cream, so they looked like a carpet; it has disappeared from menus.

ROTARIANS ASK

Did the British teach the Indians?
They used to bring in chefs from England and France, there were interesting chefs who had written books in English to show how people were cooking in India. As I said there was the alcohol problem and the wives started coming in. Once that started, they started teaching their own cooks at home and it picked up from there.

I heard Bombay Duck has nothing Bombay about it and nothing duck about it.
It is actually lizard fish, and it was often called bummalo, I think there are myths about it. One of the reasons it was called Bombay Duck because the Bombay daak train used to carry large, dried fish and the smell was so strong that they named it Bombay Duck.

Is the Byculla Soufflé still available?
I have been trying to get chefs to make it even if it is a novelty. We did serve it at the Bombay Gymkhana for a week.

What has come in place of the Byculla Club today?
Actually, there is a mill there, a pretty open field. It is all gone now. With the Taj opening up, it went all down. The competition became tough and the bubonic plague hit Byculla, so, people just started leaving. It was sold off in 1920 for an exorbitant sum of money. I have the interest in colonial periods and I collect old recipe books from US and India.