Winner in Colonialism

By Aarthi Aruna

Being the child of Indian immigrants, I’ve always had a muddled perspective of the British. On one hand, they were essential in creating the caste system that still plagues India today but at the same time, my mom has always loved Princess Diana. Not quite equal, I realize. For everything terrible caused by British colonialism, without it, the population of British Indians wouldn’t be blossoming. At the heart of the British Indian population: the best restaurant Indian food I have ever had (note: the best is my mom’s, obviously). To give you an idea of the magnitude of this statement: I come from a family that will always find Indian food no matter where we are, from North Carolina to Switzerland.

Before stepping foot in London, I had heard so much about how good Dishoom was, from London Review alumni and other friends that frequent London. Most of us remember the Wednesday of our trip as the day the tube was down. I regard it as the day we went to Dishoom, by foot. Lucky for us, there is a Dishoom in Kensington, just fifteen minutes away from our hotel. We started the day by meandering in and around Kensington, walking everywhere of course, so we were famished when we got to Dishoom. Our waiter told us that the best way to go about lunch was to order many dishes and share, and so we did. We were a group of ten people, so we ended up splitting up by table into four and six. Grant, Jill, Sammi, and I absolutely feasted. We ordered vegetable samosas, chili cheese toast, two garlic naans, house black daal, paneer tikka, dishoom house chaat, and an order of rice. Every plate was wiped clean. The classics that I always eat, like the samosas and naan, were done perfectly. The chili cheese toast and dishoom house chat, paired unlikely components to create something like never before. Green chillies and cheddar? Potatoes and pomegranates? Chocolate and chai was especially a crowd pleaser. From entering to leaving, the entire experience was perfect. When we walked into Dishoom, like stray puppies who a bit too obviously were not from the area, we were quickly helped. The decor inside combined the chaos and culture of India with the poshness of London. As we were seated, we were asked if we had been to Dishoom before. We all shook our heads no in unison. Our waiter then gave us the rundown of the restaurant, and even said he would stop us if we attempted to order too much food. Each dish came out as soon as it was ready, meaning right as we finished one dish, the next one was coming out.

It’s funny because we did try traditional British food including cheese and bean crumpets, which we were not fans of. Just a bit ironic that the food we loved the most in Britain, whether it was pho from Go Viet or the garlic naan from Dishoom, didn’t originate from Britain. Britain won first in colonialism, and consequently won first in the food (don’t be mistaken - crumpets hurt their score).

Dishoom, as the British would say, absolutely smashed it. As they would say in India, “shabash” (bravo). Although, stay on your own turf, Britain!