Photo: Assorted fresh-baked bagels, via Unsplash
The intersection of Indian Jewish cuisine and the broader modern food world occasionally produces inventive fusions that would have surprised the original communities but make perfect sense once you taste them. The Indian Jewish bagel mashup is one such creation: a dish that takes the Eastern European Jewish bagel and fills or tops it with the flavors of Indian Jewish cooking, creating something that speaks to the diaspora experience of communities navigating multiple culinary identities at once.
The concept pairs a classic boiled-and-baked bagel with toppings or fillings drawn from Indian Jewish tradition. Cream cheese might be replaced with a coconut-based spread or a fresh chutney. The smoked fish of an Ashkenazi bagel spread gives way to spiced Bene Israel-style fish preparations flavored with green chilies, coriander, and kokum. A schmear of matbucha (a cooked tomato and pepper spread common in Sephardic cooking) is swapped for a tomato-based Indian masala. The result is a dish that wears both traditions openly and without apology.
The name “Babu Ji’s” is a nod to the Bene Israel and Baghdadi Jewish experience in India, where the honorific “Babu” was commonly used in the social and business world of colonial Bombay and Calcutta. Jewish men active in commerce were often called Babu this or Babu that by colleagues and customers, and the term carries both affection and a trace of colonial history. Using it in the name of a fusion dish is a way of acknowledging the community’s Indian identity without erasing the Jewish layer.
Food fusions like this one are increasingly common as Indian Jewish diaspora communities in Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia explore what it means to maintain a hyphenated identity. Cooking is one of the most accessible ways to hold two cultures in one’s hands at the same time. The Indian Jewish bagel mashup is less about being culinary innovation for its own sake and more about the simple act of asking what you get when you put these two things together and whether the answer tastes like home.
For those who want to try the concept at home, start with a plain or sesame bagel, a spread of fresh coriander-coconut chutney, and a topping of spiced, pan-fried fish prepared in a Bene Israel green masala. The combination is fresh, aromatic, and genuinely satisfying.
Source: Behold: Babu Ji’s Indian Jewish Bagel Mashup
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A Living Culinary Heritage
Food has served as one of the most durable carriers of Indian Jewish identity across centuries of diaspora and migration. As communities moved from India to Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, they carried their recipes with them — adjusting for ingredient availability but preserving the essential character of dishes refined over generations.
In the Jewish communities of India, the act of cooking traditional dishes is understood as a form of cultural continuity. It connects the present generation to grandmothers who stood at similar stoves, worked with similar spices, and fed families who observed the same Shabbat and celebrated the same holidays. The kitchen becomes a space of memory and identity, where the full complexity of Indian Jewish experience can be tasted in a single dish.
Preserving the Recipe, Preserving the Culture
The documentation of Indian Jewish recipes has become an urgent priority as the communities that created them continue to shrink. In 1948, before the establishment of the State of Israel, there were an estimated 30,000 Jews living in India. Today, fewer than 5,000 remain, most of them elderly. The younger generations have largely emigrated to Israel, where they maintain some connection to their Indian heritage while integrating into Israeli society.
Cookbooks, food blogs, and community archives have played a crucial role in preserving these recipes. Works like “Bene Appetit: The Cuisine of Indian Jews” and various community-produced recipe collections represent efforts by Indian Jewish families to document their culinary traditions before they are lost. Food writers and ethnographers have also contributed by interviewing elderly community members and recording not just the recipes but the stories and memories surrounding them.
For the Indian Jewish diaspora, cooking these dishes is an act of cultural maintenance — a way of honoring ancestors and transmitting identity to children who may have grown up in Tel Aviv, New York, or London, far from Mumbai, Cochin, or Kolkata where their grandparents lived. The food becomes a bridge between generations and across geographies, carrying the taste of a world that is gradually disappearing but whose flavors refuse to be forgotten.