Curries of the World, Unite!
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| (Original pictures from http://www.clker.com/) |
Chinese is one of India’s favorite cuisines. However, in India, the heavily corn-floured, deep fried, sweet and sour, ketchuppy food we call ‘Chinese’ is a very different species from its parent cuisine. And I’m sure that in other parts of the world too, Chinese food takes on characteristic avatars that vary from country to country.
Just like Chinese, Indian cuisine has made a place for
itself not just in restaurants, but even in home kitchens across the globe (I
am told that at one point, chicken tikka
was actually nominated as Britain’s favorite dish!).
I was talking to an Indian friend who is studying in France,
at a university with quite an ethnically diverse student population. He told me
about a Hungarian friend of his who had made Indian curry for dinner. He
described the curry as tasty, but different from anything he knew as ‘Indian
curry’. He said that various sauces had been used in its making, and it had a
fairly thick consistency. The meal also included ‘Indian flavored rice’ that
had been made by cooking rice mixed with a curry powder!
Another time, I stumbled across kare raisu, a Japanese curry-rice dish popular as comfort food.
Story is, the British took the concept of curry-rice back home with them, and
created several versions of their own. Later, they introduced it to the
Japanese when Japan opened its doors to foreigners.
This whole concept of global migration of foods has
fascinated me for a while.
The back story of Indian cuisine is well known: It is the result
of several global influences -- Mughal, Persian, British and Portuguese, to
name just a few -- on our own indigenous foods over several centuries. And
today, ‘Indian food’ has acquired a unique identity of its own.
The question that now haunts me is: What are the various
avatars that Indian food must be taking on as it migrates to different parts of
the world?
I thought I’d try and document these avatars. And that is
where I need your help: Have you eaten Indian food cooked in the homes of
non-Indians in various parts of the world? And if you have, do you have any
photographs and/or the recipes for what you ate? Or can you get some for me?
Please share these with me on my Facebook page. And don’t
forget to add your own take on the meal :)
Hey Shivani :)
ReplyDeleteCurries are often talked about when you discuss various cuisines, however there is one course which is very rich in flavor and gives a lot about its culture of origin. They are the soups, may it be the petit marmite of france or the chowder of USA or miso from japan or even the bouillabaisse from the french, the make is something that comes down as a tradition. We chefs or "food explorers" can understand a lot through these ;) :P
SO, the form these soups evolve into are fascinating to taste, i made a french onion soup according to the french cuisine recipe in college and back home in vacations has tasted the Indian-french onion soup :P. Similarly Indian food have some classic soups which are replicated all over, eg shorba or the Mulligatawny which is the curry soup from south :)
These could just benefit the study you are on :) taste wise, design wise and eventually the rich flavor it brings to the table :)
Aditya :)
Hi Aditya,
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying your involvement in my blog, thanks for your comments! :)
True, soup is indeed another universal dish that takes on a range of shapes and forms across the world! And it is interesting to see these shapes they take, because they are a direct reflection of the cuisine's flavor palate and cooking methods.
Similarly, pasta is a food that is more universal than we think... i was recently flipping through "Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible" (you should take a look at it if you're interested in the journeys of Indian cuisine). In the book she talks about how while Italy and china have been fighting over the origin of 'pasta'for centuries, India has quietly been feasting on various kinds of pastas (Semia, daal dhokli, etc.) of its own.