Friday
I love this story:
Historians have found that Britain's first Indian restaurant was opened in 1809, in the midst of the Napoleonic wars and during the period in which Austen set Pride and Prejudice.
The Hindoostane Coffee House was established by Sake Dean Mahomed, an Indian-born entrepreneur, as a purveyor of Oriental food of the "highest perfection" in Marylebone, London, which at the time was a residential district for the well-off.
In my area of Pimlico, central London, there is an Indian restaurant right near my flat (aaahhh!) - said to be one of the oldest in London, dating back to the 1950s. But it appears that this now-established feature of culinary life has been going on since the age of Nelson, Wellington and William Wordsworth. An early example, in fact, of culinary globalization. It is not, in fact, all that surprising, since the desire for eastern spices and foodstuffs was an important economic incentive behind much of global trade at that time.
I can imagine how this story is going to change all those costume dramas set in the early 19th Century: "Pray excuse me sir X, but I am in urgent need of a chicken korma."
Where in Marylebone? In its current epicurean fit the Howard de Walden Estate might be persuaded to spring for a plaque.
Posted by guy herbert at September 30, 2005 06:54 PM
I'm amazed that this first Curry house didn't go bankrupt. Lager beer wasn't invented until the 1830's.
Posted by John East at September 30, 2005 06:56 PM
John East - v funny!
It's a wonderful story, but we probably shouldn't be surprised. Why shouldn't the spicy, subtle, nourishing food of India have appealed as much to those who were the first to go out to work for the E India company as those expats who came later and came home craving curry?
Posted by Verity at September 30, 2005 11:01 PM
Guy, according to this, it was on George Street.
The owner had joined the E India Company as a lad.
Posted by Verity at September 30, 2005 11:06 PM
Without checking online but didn't that same gentlemen end up running a massage service, or something akin to that, for the Prince Regent in Brighton? I seem to recall that name ages ago in Brighton for some odd reason.
Posted by Julian Taylor at October 1, 2005 12:56 AM
I presume that this [LINK] is indeed the same individual referenced in this article
Posted by Julian Taylor at October 1, 2005 01:02 AM
Julian Taylor - Thank you for that link!
This agenda-laden entry says it all: "Sake Dean Mahomed moved to London, where he opened the first Indian take away restaurant in England."
Maybe they could amend their entry to include a learned discussion of why he didn't take up a McDonald's franchise instead.
Posted by Verity at October 1, 2005 01:40 AM
How do they know it was a take-away? I suspect that's a prefabricated phrase.
The point about early restaurants was that you could sit down for a hot meal even if you didn't have a kitchen or if it was the cook's day off. There wasn't anywhere to take things away to, limited ways of keeping them hot (bring your own chafing dish) and not much transport to take them in.
Posted by guy herbert at October 1, 2005 07:26 AM
Guy Herbert - It is a phrase bathed in depressing ignorance. The writer knows no history and thinks 1805 was just sometime before 1950. They probably drove older cars back then, with no air-conditioning. Needless to say, he/she has no historical frame in which to place it. A disheartening product of the Za-NuLab school system.
If he/she was interested enough to read about this enterprising man and instead of just knocking off a chippy piece of "black history" (a wannabee phrase from America, where there is genuine black history) - to prove a point, they would have known that his restaurant was opulent and designed for "the quality". His idea was that the rich Indians (and people who had lived in India) living in London would have English or Irish cooks who didn't know how to cook Indian food, so would enjoy coming to his restaurant. The English had already developed a keen interest in kedgeree and Mulligatawny soup.
"Takeaway", in 1805. I ask you! The limitations of this writer in every way! This just depresses me.
Posted by Verity at October 1, 2005 02:15 PM
Nice to see curry houses have been stinking up London streets for so long. I think horse dung is a preferable smell to the ghastly smells eminating from curry houses.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at October 1, 2005 02:44 PM
Hrm, he lived to a ripe old age, too. 1759-1851. Not bad for the 19th century.
Posted by James Waterton at October 1, 2005 04:25 PM
Julian Taylor - Yes, he could do those ayurvedic medical things - like the massage. It's widely practised medical treatment in India, even today, alongside whizzbang medical technology.
Posted by Verity at October 1, 2005 05:33 PM
James Waterton - a lot of them lived to a ripe old age. I think it was because only the very strong survived infancy and childhood.
Posted by Verity at October 1, 2005 06:40 PM
Well, this is all very interesting but by far the very best curry in London is to be had here
Posted by Tuscan Tony at October 1, 2005 08:24 PM
The oldest extant Indian Restaurant in London is usually said to be Veeraswamy (est.1926, now I look it up, though I had been under the impression it was Edwardian). Never been there, so I can't report on the food.
Posted by guy herbert at October 2, 2005 06:26 AM
For some reason I have in my memory a description of eating Indian food in the UK published in the novel 'Vanity Fair'. My copy is, naturally, not immediately available to check this thought ...
Pi.
Posted by Pi. at October 2, 2005 01:00 PM
Pi - Well, well, after reading this (Link) I don't doubt it! Thackeray was born in India!
Posted by Verity at October 2, 2005 08:07 PM
He was born in Calcutta, in 1811! His father worked for the East India Company! Who knew?
Posted by Verity at October 2, 2005 08:11 PM
Yes I knew.
Er, the East India Company here.
When does the little sod get back from lunch?
Posted by RAB at October 3, 2005 12:38 AM
