Culture And Memory

The heritage and origins, present, and future of Bangladeshi Cuisine in the UK

We would like to explore and bring to light the history of growing, cooking, and eating Bengali food in Birmingham. South Asian or “Indian” food has of course become one of the most popular cuisines in the UK across the past 50 years, and Tikka Masala has become a true national dish. A great deal of this “Indian” food is actually Bengali/Bangladeshi in origin. This is an interesting, but also relatively well understood part of modern British food heritage. We want to explore deeper into Bengali food heritage, and the relations between those people who arrived with rural Bangladeshi roots, and modern British-Bengali’s, typically from urban areas and without any connection to the land. We want to go deeper into the story about where this food came from, and how it is now evolving in the UK, helping to illuminate much further the story of Bangladeshi food in Britain.