PRAISE FOR 'INDIAN-JEWISH FOOD'

India was home to three Jewish communities, including one which originated in Iraq: the Baghdadi Jews. By incorporating Indian spices into traditional Iraqi dishes and following the Jewish dietary laws – which prohibit the mixing of meat and dairy – India’s Baghdadi Jews created a delicious cuisine that isn’t quite typical Indian.

Baghdadi Jews from India, mostly Bombay and Calcutta, began arriving in Australia in the late 1940s. Many settled in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, especially Bondi. This was well before the end of the White Australia Policy, well before the first trickle of Indian immigrants to Australia in the 1960s.

Indian-Jewish Food: A Book of Recipes and Stories from the Back Streets of Bondi captures the spectacular – but little-known – cuisine of India’s Baghdadi Jews who immigrated to Australia in the 1950s and 60s. 

The collection of recipes is divided into five sections: Sides, Vegetarian, Fish & Chicken, Meat, and Sweet. Recipes include chakla bakla (pickled vegetables), cheese samoosas (cheese-filled pastries), chittarnee (tomato-based chicken curry) and chatpatay (chickpeas and potatoes in tamarind sauce). 

The book also tells the story of Eze Moses’ legendary Bondi spice shop. Eze Moses was a Baghdadi Jew from India, and for many years, his shop was the only place fresh spices could be bought in Sydney, making it a magnet for all Indian immigrants – Jewish and otherwise.