Six Underrated Dishes at Well-Known London Restaurants
What to order at St. John, Tasty Jerk, Veeraswamy and more.
Hello and welcome back to Vittles Restaurants. In this week’s twist on Six of One, Sejal Sukhadwala, Jonathan Nunn, Gavin Cleaver, Feroz Gajia, Nick Bramham and Simran Hans all laud the underrated and unheralded dishes they love at some of London’s most celebrated restaurants, from St. John to Tasty Jerk.
Also, some news! We will be reading at the ‘Independent Magazines on Stage’ event organised by Stack next Tuesday 17th June, along with The Fence, Offal, and The Paper. John Merrick and K Biswas will be joining Vittles founder Jonathan Nunn for readings from their essays on Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver. It should be a fun evening, including some of our favourite magazines in the UK, and you can buy tickets here.
1. Anglo-Indian mulligatawny soup at Veeraswamy
In the UK, mulligatawny soup is only seen occasionally on the menus of old-school Bangladeshi-owned ‘curry houses’. Along with omelette and fish and chips, I always thought it was aimed at those who find Indian food too spicy, and is perhaps a well-meaning attempt to offer a starter in a cuisine that mostly doesn’t follow that tradition.
Mulligatawny is, in fact, an Anglo-Indian dish created in British India in the 18th century. Once considered highly fashionable, it was so ubiquitous it became a staple in central London’s coffee houses a century later – an Anglicised adaptation of ‘milagu thani’ (Tamil for ‘pepper water’). Originally made only from chicken or mutton stock, spices, tamarind and onions, over time, butter, flour, coconut milk, lentils, rice and chicken or mutton have been added.
At Veeraswamy, the ‘Anglo-Indian mulligatawny soup’, given its full name, is poured at the table in a tureen lined with finely chopped apples and chives, creating a bit of drama and a sense of anticipation. It has a warming, mustardy hue and a wonderful depth of flavour: just the right balance of spicy and tangy, with judicious amounts of black peppercorns and lemon juice, and a slightly sweet backnote.
But when there are so many other enticing starters on the menu, why choose it? Because, apart from being truly delicious, it’s of historic interest: Veeraswamy is the UK’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant, set up in 1926 by retired Anglo-Indian British Army officer, aristocrat and entrepreneur Edward Palmer. It’s changed hands a few times over the years and was acquired in 1997 by what is now known as The India Collection group.
Mulligatawny is one of only two items from the original 1926 menu. To clarify, it’s not the original recipe made from toor dal (split pigeon peas), which may have been based on one of the many variations in Palmer’s own 1915 cookbook, Indian Cookery (authored as EP Veeraswamy, his family name adapted for his food business). It’s been tweaked by the current chefs to create a more complex flavour, with the addition of a greater variety of yellow dals, cinnamon, coriander stems, curry leaves and curry powder of the Ship brand, which was originally used to make mulligatawny in Madras in the 1920s.
The significance here is that the soup was on the original menu, and it was this menu that was widely copied by London’s early Indian/Bangladeshi restaurants. The contemporary ‘curry house’ menus, with their kormas and biryanis, are based on the one at Veeraswamy in 1926. We don’t know how long the restaurant will be around for, though, as it’s facing a threat of closure from its landlord, the Crown Estate.
And if it goes, an essential part of London’s Indian restaurant history – the very template on which the UK’s Indian dining scene is moulded – could disappear forever. Sejal Sukhadwala
Victory House, 99 Regent St, W1B 4RS
Behind the paywall: Jonathan Nunn on one perfect dish at St. John; Drummond Street’s best-kept secret by Nick Bramham; Feroz Gajia on one of his favourite dishes at Miga; Simran Hans on London salads; and the thing more people should order at Tasty Jerk, by Gavin Cleaver.