Ever wondered why you can get such good curry in London?
So I have heard a lot about how British culture and style hast left its marks on the Indian culture and style but I was wondering if it is the other way round as well?
In 1947, India became independent from Great Britain. Until then only about 3.000 Indians lived in Great Britain. The number increased after World War II when the English recruited thousands of workers from India. In 2015, roughly 1.7 million Indians lived in the UK.
Nowadays you can find popular Indian authors, music artist, politicians and so on among the English culture.
The probably most evident factor of Indian culture in Great Britain, has its roots in the time when the first officers returned from India and took their cooks with them to England. The English officers got so used to the Indian cuisine that they did not want to eat “Fish’n’Chips all the time” anymore. Indian food became so popular that as time went by, the English created Anglo-Indian meals such as Potatoe-Vindaloo, Jalfrezi or Chicken Madras. The most popular meal probably is Chicken Tikka Masala, which is also known as CTM. CTM is probably the most-known Indian meal of the world.
Indian cuisine plays such an important role in England, it even brings important members of the British society together. Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch has become a yearly tradition in London. This charity event, a buffet style lunch, brings together soldiers, veterans, charity beneficiaries, senior members of the British Army and business leaders from across London. This year, the Royal Guest of Honour was Prince Harry, who is not widely keen on curry in contrast to his father Charles.
Indias traces in England have become most obvious in London. When walking down streets in big cities in India you can feel like visiting Britain, but the same applies when you walk down the streets in Southall, Wembley or Tooting, the real Indian districts of London.
London continually holds its Indian culture in high regards. You can find Hindi Cinemas; the musical “Bombay Dreams” has been showing; the Victoria&Albert museum has exhibited Bollywood-posters, -trailers and –art before; there is the Nehru Centre of the embassy; in the course of the “Indian Summer” festival and the Notting Hill Carnival and in 2002, the Trafalgar Square was turned into a Bangladeshi-Market.
So if you as a European want to eat good Indian meals you do not have to travel far, just go to London. If you want to have real Indian meals, you might have to go to India or find yourself an Indian friend.
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