In South Asia, the word curry doesn’t really describe much, but is rather an anglicised version of an indigenous word which doesn’t mean ‘curry’.
Curry is inextricably linked with the Indian Subcontinent, or South Asia. The word was invented by the British however, when India was under colonial rule. According to one account, ‘Curry’ is the anglicised version of the Tamil word ‘kari’, which means a sauce or gravy, instead of a spice.
Nowadays, curry has come to mean any number of things to the English-speaking world. Lentil soup, chicken cooked in a creamy sauce, even spiced sauteed potatoes, are all referred to as curries. In the subcontinent though, you’d be hard pressed to find any of these dishes referred to in this way.
For people who grew up with the original cuisine, this may be off-putting. The English usage of curry is not far in meaning from the word ‘Masala’, meaning a mix of ground spices. In its modern usage, curry is probably best compared to ‘salaan’ in Urdu and Hindi, which means ‘gravy’.
Apocryphal tales suggest that the common yellow curry powder we consider as curry today, was actually invented by Indian spice merchants who sold a less hot version of ‘Garam masala’, or spice mix to returning British colonials.
In South Asia, ‘Karhi patta’ or curry leaves, form a crucial ingredient in innumerable dishes, and are particularly essential to dishes like ‘Karhi’ or ‘Kadhi’. Often consumed with rice, the gravy-heavy dish features vegetables, gram chickpea flour-based sauce, and yoghurt.
Garam means warm or hot, while masala means a ground mixture of spices. There is no fixed recipe for garam masala within any South Asian country, with tastes varying from family to family, and between different regions.
In her book, Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, food historian Lizzie Collingham relates the earliest misunderstanding that gave rise to the modern-day understanding of ‘curry’.
In the early 1500s, when the Portuguese first captured Goa, in southern India, they inquired about food being eaten by the locals. They were told something that sounded like “Khari” or “Caril”. Collingham says that at the time, the word likely referred to both the spice and the sauce.
How did dishes like Biryani and vindaloo go from being local delicacies, to high-demand dishes around the world?
When the East India Company (known as the British East India Company after 1707) came to India around 1600, the British Empire was introduced to Indian cuisine by local cooks. Sticking the vague label “curry” on the dishes, they would eventually appropriate it and make it more palatable – or from an Indian perspective, more bland – before sending it home.
Two hundred years later, curry was a landmark of the British diet, regularly featured in cookbooks at the time. For instance, an 1861 bestseller, called Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, instructs its users to make a cream-heavy stew with apples, meat and pre-packaged curry powder.
For Indians today, this was a form of cultural appropriation at best, and deep economic exploitation at worst. India, they believe, could have headed its own spice empire with the incredible variety and diversity in food it has always enjoyed.
In a peer-reviewed article published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Susan Zlotnick argues that the British empire took away one of India’s most valuable assets, possibly in order to “neutralise the threat of the Other by naturalising the products of foreign lands” for Victorian women.
In the process, a lot of the cultural nuances and diversity that came with it were lost. For much of history, curry was as spicy as local peppers. In some ways, that helped the dish.
For instance, when the Portuguese arrived in India, they brought peppers with them from the Americas, which were a big hit. Since then, South Indian food has traditionally been much more spicy than north Indian cuisine. In Kashmir for instance, a sweeter and milder native pepper is used.
But this form of cultural transfer was not always peaceful, and sometimes it came at a heavy cost. For instance, after the British Empire ended the practice of slavery in 1833, they had to contend with major labour shortages throughout their plantations worldwide.
While initially freeing over 800,000 African slaves with the abolition of slavery, the British Empire would go on to press nearly 1.5 million South Asians into indentured labour in the Caribbean islands and South Africa.
In spite of this dark episode of history, each of these regions has come up with their own take on ‘curry’, giving rise to new delicious foods and a richer culture.
In the Caribbean today, one of the most popular dishes is goat meat and chickpea curry, served with roti (flatbread). Even today, their curry still uses a mix of ginger and coriander, while incorporating allspice for a Caribbean unique twist.
How did dishes like Biryani and vindaloo go from being local delicacies, to high-demand dishes around the world?
Apocryphal tales suggest that the common yellow curry powder we consider as curry today, was actually invented by Indian spice merchants who sold a less hot version of ‘Garam masala’, or spice mix to returning British colonials.
For Indians today, this was a form of cultural appropriation at best, and deep economic exploitation at worst. India, they believe, could have headed its own spice empire with the incredible variety and diversity in food it has always enjoyed.
In South Asia, ‘Karhi patta’ or curry leaves, form a crucial ingredient in innumerable dishes, and are particularly essential to dishes like ‘Karhi’ or ‘Kadhi’. Often consumed with rice, the gravy-heavy dish features vegetables, gram chickpea flour-based sauce, and yoghurt.
Nowadays, curry has come to mean any number of things to the English-speaking world. Lentil soup, chicken cooked in a creamy sauce, even spiced sauteed potatoes, are all referred to as curries. In the subcontinent though, you’d be hard pressed to find any of these dishes referred to in this way.
As the Nabobs completed their posts in India and moved back to Britain, they brought this cuisine back. After the coronation of Queen Victoria, India sent a servant to the queen as a gift, which influenced her apparent love for curry. A fascination with mimicking what the queen ate led to the explosion of Indian food across Britain. In the late 1700s, the first Indian restaurant opened in Britain, called Hindustani Coffee House, to appease expats that returned from India.
The introduction of pepper into Indian cuisine was coupled with another significant moment in India’s history: Queen Elizabeths establishment of the British East India Company to counter the expansion of the Portuguese and Dutch companies. At the height of this, there were about 250,000 members of the British army residing in India, and after the 1857 Great Indian Mutiny, British bureaucrats came to India to live of their own will and were identified as Nabobs. Their love for Indian food, access to spices and adaptation of local dishes altered to fit their palates gave birth to the modern style curry dishes that we know today.
Kajeri, a popular British egg dish of rice and smoked salmon turned into a vegetarian dish made with lentils and rice, called kitchari. Mulligantany, a Tamil word meaning pepper water, was originally used to cure digestion issues and then adopted by Indian cooks for a soup with vegetables and spices for the British. These were some of the trademark dishes that were served at elegant dinner parties. As the Nabobs moved around India, they took their cooks with them and spread the Indian-inspired dishes fit for British flavor profiles. This is how “curry cuisine” evolved.
At the end of the 18th century, the British officially formalized spice blends known as curry powders to recreate their favorite dishes consistently in the absence of their cooks. The first recipes for curry powder appeared in print in an English cookbook by Hannah Glasse. The availability of curry powder led to a homogenization of 20 to 30 dishes in the newly formed curry cuisine.
The origins of curry began before the British arrived in the subcontinent of India in 1608. In fact, to understand the full history, you have to go further back in the colonization timeline to when the Portuguese arrived in India in 1498 and introduced chili. Then came the Dutch in 1605, followed by the French who arrived in South India in 1664, and the new classification of Indian food for non-Indians was defined — it evolved and transformed throughout time. Colonization not only played a critical role in transporting Indian food out of India, it reclassified classic dishes that took on their own cuisine.
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When did Indian curry become a ‘curry’?
But with typical insensitivity and willful ignorance, they replaced the varied recipes and diverse eating cultures with a homogenous notion of an Indian ‘curry’. In 1747, Hannah Glasse published the first curry recipe in English under the title of ‘To Make a Currey The Indian Way’.
What is the issue in human body if one has a combination of curd and fish curry?
The only reason to avoid eating fish and curd together is an allergic reaction. Therefore, if you are allergic to any of these food items, then it is better to avoid it altogether. The nutrient values of both fish and curd are quite high. The individual use of these food items is usually to speed up recovery from ailments. This means that the only reason that you will get a reaction is if you have a seafood allergy. Another probable reason is that you are intolerant to dairy products. Other than these reasons, there is no scientific fact to avoid fish and curd together.
When was Curry first introduced to Japan?
Curry has a long history in the country, thought to have been introduced by British officers and merchants in the 1800s. “At the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) Japanese ports were first opened to foreigners,” explains Sen.
When was the first curry restaurant opened?
The first curry restaurants were opened at the beginning of 1900 in London. The first luxury Indian restaurant was opened in 1926 by Edward Palmer and became a famous eating establishment with notable clients such as the Prince of Wales, Winston Churchil and Charlie Chaplin. Curry has not yet established itself in British cuisine.