The saying ‘old is gold’ is probably right. History teaches us a lot of things and ancient things are evidence of how people lived in the past. A rare handwritten menu from UK’s first Indian restaurant containing dishes like Pineapple Pullaoo’ and ‘Chicken Currey’ has been recently sold for $11,344. The restaurant named Hindoostane Dinner and Hooka Smoking Club was started by Sake Dean Mahomed in 1809 at Portman Square in London. It wasn’t a coffee house but this term was used for many restaurants at the time as drinking coffee had become fashionable.
Mohamed was an Anglo-Indian traveler and businessman who used to live in Bihar before migrating to England. Hindoostane Dinner and Hooka Smoking Club was established by Sake Dean Mahomed in 1809 at Portman Square in London. He decided to serve Indian food to the people of UK but the restaurant didn’t last long as Mahomed was declared bankrupt in 1812.
“There are plenty of printed and manuscript recipes for curries from the 18th century, but this book of receipts is the first known record of a priced menu from Britain’s first Indian restaurant – at a time when printed menus were rarely available from any type of restaurant,”
said Brian Lake, a partner at Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers in London.
The dishes in this manuscript include Makee Pullaoo, Pineapple Pullaoo, Chicken Currey, Lobster Curry, Coolmah of Lamb or Veal, together with pieces of bread, chutneys and other exclusively Indian dishes. It ends with a note that reads “various other dishes too numerous for insertion”
