Curry and all its meanings...

[smittenbyu]

A long time ago, I had a FAQ of questions I get about my country of birth (mostly out of amusement). I should add this one: What's your favourite Indian curry?

I never know how to answer this one. I absolutely love curry - you know the impression the British Raj had of South Asian food and spread across the world. Absolutely delicious. This generic spice mix they make a gravy of and then put different meats and call it curry? Tikka-Masala - oh yum!

But I also understand that for many they believe curry is all that we eat in India. But that's an impression of food from one state in India - Punjab. Personally, I don't take offense. I guess the Punjabis should, because I have tried their home made versions and boy are we missing out! I just don't know how to answer that question. Because, well, like many of us born and raised in India, we never would have heard the term curry being used.

So, next time you see someone from India, don't ask them about their favourite curry...or don't get puzzled at their hesitation of giving an answer.

ETA: This post is more of humour than anything. A lot of our food has great influences from the Moguls brought over from what is today Middle East/Persia... so yeah.

Comments

[amygooglegirl.livejournal.com]

Most "Indian" restaurants in Manchester are run by people from Pakistan. I'm sure it's not really typical food but some of it is very tasty!

[smittenbyu]

oh lots of restaurants here have staff from Nepal and Bangladesh. The food still is rather Punjabi. I enjoyed the food in the UK. Don't blame them though... I remember in the 80s, we had to make do with whatever spices we got locally in Rome (especially when we ran out of the stock we would bring) and it would taste like the "curry" today. Restaurants also had to make do as regular spices imported were sooooo expensive! So, I do enjoy the rendition, it brings back lots of memories. "Curry" was a word Brits brought back and a lot of Indian restaurants never corrected it. Customer is King, no?! :)

I still remember the Gujarati place by Leeds (I think) that did a Gujarati inspired recipes with local vegetables. Absolutely delicious!

But at least in this part of the US, the awareness comes about regional differences. So, I think that's why the use of "curry" throws me off, as it's a rarer occurrence.

And the British Curry is very popular in India now!! :)