The Raj at Table:
A Culinary History of the British in India
David Burton, 1993
256 pages
Read in 2026.07
Check the synopsis and details on amazon.com
🔽 Summary and quick note 🔽
✔ What and how the British ate in the Raj?
✔ Full of diaries and recipes so it feels more real and funny
★★★★★ Polite? British? At some point apparently there was this silly trend of making pellets out of bread and throw at each other at dinner and some gentlemen did take it seriously and stabbed the thrower... really, guys? Full of funny anecdotes and some weird recipes.
🔽 Book review 🔽
What was it like to be a British in India during the Raj period, what did they eat and how?
We tend to think British as polite, but in Raj they were rather barbarians and that's how they have managed to conquer India, and it's funny you can also see that on the table, too.
At some point apparently there was this silly trend of making pellets out of bread and throw at each other at dinner (seriously? are they 8 year olds?) and some gentlemen did take it seriously and stabbed the thrower... really, guys?
They couldn't find turkeys so they ate peacock, they were desperate for European vegetables so instead of eating fresh ones that grow locally, they proudly ate canned old vegetables... seriously?
And don't forget, until the 17th century English didn't use forks, so they ate with hands - just like the locals.
The more you read the funnier it gets.
When they first arrived in India, they ate local food and wore light clothing like locals, until, they decided that they must act like proud British and started to wear wool jackets.
There was not much to do so they drank from the morning, ate enormous amount of meat, but European food quickly gets bad because of the heat... They really, really tried!
But they (largely thanks to Portuguese) brought many new vegetables and fruits to Indian tables.
It's thanks to them that Indian cuisine now has chilly, tomato, potatoes etc, and British did bring many other things, like egg dishes (so true I ate a lot of omelet there), beer, or chai.
And although it's true that, instead, India had less influence on Britain, there is one thing we cannot avoid, "British Indian food", it has always been the favourite food of Britain ever since.
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🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽
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The Raj at Table: A Culinary History of the British in India
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