the.com/curry
a colonial misnomer for thousands of unrelated dishes the British couldn't be bothered to distinguish
means A dish of meat, vegetables, or other ingredients cooked in a spiced, often sauce-heavy gravy — or the blend of spices used to make it.
from From the Tamil word 'kari,' meaning a sauce or relish eaten over rice. British traders and colonists in India scooped up this single word and flattened an entire subcontinent's worth of distinct dishes under it, eventually packaging the idea as 'curry powder' for export — a spice mix that scarcely exists in Indian kitchens themselves. The verb 'curry,' as in 'curry favor,' is unrelated: it comes from an Old French word for grooming a horse.
- name origin
- From Tamil 'kari,' meaning sauce or relish
- no such thing
- Indian cooks rarely use one generic 'curry powder'
- chili plot twist
- Chilies came from the Americas, post-Columbus
- national mascot
- Chicken tikka masala is hailed as British
- sweat science
- Capsaicin tricks nerves into reporting heat damage
vindaloo — fiery indian dish with portuguese origins, typically 8-10 on heat scale
butter chicken — creamy tomato-based curry from delhi, india's most globally popular variant
thai green curry — coconut-based dish from thailand using green chilies and thai basil
jamaican curry goat — caribbean adaptation using scotch bonnet peppers and goat meat, popular in jamaica since colonial era