What a wonderful and informative article, thank you! I was discussing the same subject with a dear friend and fabulous cook from Sri Lanka. She said that in her country they consider "curry" a cooking method and not an ingredient which makes a lot of sense as each family has their own spice mixes. Interestingly enough, the use of spices mixes was quite prevalent in Europe from the early Middle ages to the 17th century after which it was slowly forgotten in favour of herbs and other condiments. Fascinating history.
Jun 3·edited Jun 3Liked by Chinese Cooking Demystified
::Madhur Jaffrey jokes in An Invitation to Indian Cooking that she images the [curry powder] origin story a bit like this:::
I don't think that's a joke, really—I'm pretty sure that's how it actually happened.
The Imperial Officer played by David Niven, meanwhile, is also getting rich off of his very Anglo, and less spicy and piquant, version of the "curry powder" his cook threw together! Only difference is, Niven's is called "ENGLAND'S Best Curry Powder", and people buy Khansamah's version for a more "authentic" experience....
...kind of like how I make tacos using a jar of store-bought salsa, a couple pounds of hamburger, garlic powder, chopped onion, simmer for an hour, serve with warmed-up store-bought "hard taco shells", shredded iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, and sour cream! It's the recipe I learned from my Mom who learned it from Grandma, and the only difference between their and mine is that she used to have to fry her own tortillas—until she taught us kids how to do it!
For the record, my Mom and Grandma were Scots/Irish, and Grandma moved to California as a little girl over a century ago. She's cooking "Mexican food" as White people of the early/mid 20th Century Southwest did, and which can be found at any Taco Bell—which was unsurprisingly founded in a town between Los Angeles and San Diego called "Downey" in the 1950s by Glen Bell (though it didn't get the "Taco Bell" name until 1962!).
What a wonderful and informative article, thank you! I was discussing the same subject with a dear friend and fabulous cook from Sri Lanka. She said that in her country they consider "curry" a cooking method and not an ingredient which makes a lot of sense as each family has their own spice mixes. Interestingly enough, the use of spices mixes was quite prevalent in Europe from the early Middle ages to the 17th century after which it was slowly forgotten in favour of herbs and other condiments. Fascinating history.
::Madhur Jaffrey jokes in An Invitation to Indian Cooking that she images the [curry powder] origin story a bit like this:::
I don't think that's a joke, really—I'm pretty sure that's how it actually happened.
The Imperial Officer played by David Niven, meanwhile, is also getting rich off of his very Anglo, and less spicy and piquant, version of the "curry powder" his cook threw together! Only difference is, Niven's is called "ENGLAND'S Best Curry Powder", and people buy Khansamah's version for a more "authentic" experience....
...kind of like how I make tacos using a jar of store-bought salsa, a couple pounds of hamburger, garlic powder, chopped onion, simmer for an hour, serve with warmed-up store-bought "hard taco shells", shredded iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, and sour cream! It's the recipe I learned from my Mom who learned it from Grandma, and the only difference between their and mine is that she used to have to fry her own tortillas—until she taught us kids how to do it!
For the record, my Mom and Grandma were Scots/Irish, and Grandma moved to California as a little girl over a century ago. She's cooking "Mexican food" as White people of the early/mid 20th Century Southwest did, and which can be found at any Taco Bell—which was unsurprisingly founded in a town between Los Angeles and San Diego called "Downey" in the 1950s by Glen Bell (though it didn't get the "Taco Bell" name until 1962!).