Response to the Dawg Regarding Curry

Since we moved to India in 1959, I cannot speak to the usage or non-usage of the word "curry" during the pre British Empire or British Commonwealth period. According to Wikipedia:
"Curry (play /ˈkʌri/) (plural, Curries) is a generic term primarily employed in Western culture to denote a wide variety of dishes originating in Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southern and Southeastern Asian cuisines, as well as New World cuisines influenced by them such as Trinidadian or Fijian. Their common feature is the incorporation of more or less complex combinations of spices and/or herbs, usually (but not invariably) including fresh or dried hot chillies.

In the original traditional cuisines, the precise selection of spices for each dish is a matter of national or regional cultural tradition, religious practice, and, to some extent, family preference. Such dishes are called by specific names that refer to their ingredients, spicing, and cooking methods.[1]

Traditionally, spices are used both whole and ground; cooked or raw; and they may be added at different times during the cooking process to produce different results.

So-called "curry powder," denoting a commercially prepared mixture of spices, is largely a Western notion, dating to the 18th century. Such mixtures are commonly thought to have first been prepared by Indian merchants for sale to members of the British Colonial government and army returning to Britain.

Dishes called "curry" may contain meat, poultry, fish, or shellfish, either alone or in combination with vegetables. They may instead be entirely vegetarian, especially among those for whom there are religious proscriptions against eating meat or seafood.

Curries may be either "wet" or "dry." Wet curries contain significant amounts of sauce or gravy based on yoghurt, coconut milk, legume purée (dal), or stock. Dry curries are cooked with very little liquid which is allowed to evaporate, leaving the other ingredients coated with the spice mixture......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry

I can assure you that the word "curry" was commonly used not only in Bombay but also in Delhi, in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, and many other cities that I traveled to throughout India. In fact, my mother was well known throughout the International Community of Bombay for her Sunday afternoon "curry extravaganzas" complete with "Pink Gins". If your forehead wasn't pouring sweat, she had blown the recipe!

Certainly I was oversimplifying the vegetarian thing! Even though 80% of the Country claims to be Hindu, there are numerous sub sects that do allow consumption of the 13 year old beef. Like bootleg booze, one could find "bootleg beef" but whether you were dealing with this or water buffalo or 13 year old, even extended marinating in illegal potato or beet wine wouldn't improve the flavor, texture or final product. BBQ in India when we lived there consisted of chicken, corn, some naans and the occasional mutton kabob.

Well, Neil, I don´t see where anything you say above and I said in a previous post on another thread are at odds including whether or not the word "curry" when referring to food was widely used in the "international community" in India in the 60s or today. As I wrote earlier, I do not recall hearing the word curry during the six months I was in India in 1969 but then, the somewhat marginal international community I was running with in those days was collectively less interested in what you called various dishes and more interested in the flavor enhancements to many types of East Indian and Nepalese foods brought about by the ingestion of certain mind-altering chemicals just prior to the meal. I just wish we had known about and wrangled invitations to yo mama´s "curry extravaganzas" back then. Our foreheads would have been pouring sweat just at the thought of one of those feasts and we may have never known whether or not she had blown the recipe.

It is good you moved these comments out of Big Daddy´s thread, Neil. Now Dawg´s gonna hafta go to the Monday market and buy some of BD´s curried (kofta) meatballs just to placate the big guy but I don´t mind since I luv meatballs..

So true Dawg! What you may have missed was my quite subtle question of maybe you were in a differing time warp dating back to pre British Empire? Even though we moved their when I was age 12 and I went through most of high school, I refrained from the use of mind altering substances!

On the other hand, my ex-Marine father got caught by my sister and I smoking a local brand of cigarettes that we knew to be 1/2 pot when he ran out of his Pall Malls or Chesterfields!

[quote="CheenaGringo"]So true Dawg! What you may have missed was my quite subtle question of maybe you were in a differing time warp dating back to pre British Empire? Even though we moved their when I was age 12 and I went through most of high school, I refrained from the use of mind altering substances!

On the other hand, my ex-Marine father got caught by my sister and I smoking a local brand of cigarettes that we knew to be 1/2 pot when he ran out of his Pall Malls or Chesterfields![/quote]

Well, Neil, I did note your not-so-subtle question as to whether or not I was in India back in "pre-British Empire" days but, although Dawg is a genuine geezer, I am not ancient enough to have been in India prior to the mid-19th Century (1858) when the British Raj was established. I was vagabonding about India and Nepal in 1969 and staying in Salvation Army hostels and YMCA facilities or inexpensive hotels catering to an Indian clientele in dormitory-style rooms where free breakfasts invariably consisted of strong tea served with steaming hot milk and loads of sugar always served at about 6:00AM thereby precipitating animated and loud conversations among my Indian roommates which precluded any notion of sleeping in ´til mid-morning. This strong tea really got one going in the morning and that was the first "mind-altering" substance of each day followed by more exotic offerings later in the day.

Salvation Army hostels and YMCA hotels in India and East Africa were occupied in those days, generally speaking, with locals and young foreign guests prone to the ingestion of mind-altering substances and a pleasant communal spirit prevailed most of the time during my travels. However, my favorite places for consuming mind-altering substances were the oatmeal cafes of Kathmandu, Nepal where, in 1969 at least, very strong marijuana and hashish were totally legal substances sold in bowls of oatmeal for pennies and a modest meal of this oatmeal was known to alter one´s daily experience altogether and, usually, although not always, for the better. This stuff was so strong that it could easily induce a sense of paranoia at times and I still remember the night I returned to my Kathmandu hotel room alone in an advanced stage of chemically-induced insecurity when, as I entered the bathroom in my hotel, a giant rat was, at that moment, crawling out of the toilet. While this was not such an unusual sight in Kathmandu in the 1960s, the timing of that particular incident freaked Dawg out to the point that I was out of Nepal and pulling into Darjeeling before I slowed down. A "feets don´t fail me now" experience unlike any since Scatman Carruthers died.

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I have unfortunately never visited India, however developed a real taste for Indian food after having the good fortune to employ a nanny who lived in 5 days a week, spoiling us beyond all repair back in the 70's.

Every monday she brought in her selected spice mixtures, and without benefit of any special equipment, made the most incredible roti I have ever tasted prior to or since the day she returned to South Africa for good. A sad day!

While in Canada, we managed to pick up a rather large quantity of Indian spices, plus wonder of wonders, chick pea flour. Onion Bhaji here we come as soon as it cools down enough to operate the deep fryer.

We make our own chutney especially when mango's are in season, and cheap as chips.