interesting that this thread was bumped today.

I was watching Man v. Food yesterday (while on the treadmill) and he did the phaal challenge at brick lane curry house.

http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/01/th...-v-food-video/

I did a search on "curry" and this one popped up as one that I had posted in before...

I guess if you're on the treadmill, that could called "woman vs. food". :D

This thread is making me very hungry!!! :D

I had chicken curry for lunch today. :) ^

I love a good Indian curry -- very lucky to have some very good Indian restaurants here in Vancouver.

I love Indian curry, I steer clear of anything without a good hit of chilli in it, it just doesn't do it for me. Have to say since moving back to Sydney from London it's become a lot harder to find the perfect curry, but I have had some luck.

Japanese curry .....

It seems absolutely horrible (Chinese not much better), but I have heard folks say they like it? :confused:

There really is no such thing as "curry." The unimaginative British, when they ruled India, called everything with gravy by the catchall name of "curry," and it has unfortunately stuck to the extent that even Indians continue to use it.

"Curry powder" is an abomination.

What is called "curry" encompasses so many dishes that the name is nearly useless in trying to anticipate what the dish will taste like.

I hear you -- at Indian restaurants "curried chicken" can be anything from a watery (oily) reddish broth to a thick golden sludge.

Recently, I read a book set in England where the author would reference "Madras chicken (lamb)", which left me no further on except to assume it had some sort of heat (chilis) in it?

I believe I astounded the staff at a restaurant in Chennai by ordering bread and bele bise bath together; they all but refused to serve it. I used to dislike sambar, but now eat it with dosas.

I would be slightly leery of sultanas in curry, but beats apples in Japanese curry I guess? I still cannot believe with their love of ill-fitting English words their popular curry brand is "Vermont", about as non-ethnic a place as it gets.

I love eating bread and rice together. My parents thought I would outgrow the phase, but I never did.

I used to hate sambar, but now I love it. Go figure.

Raisins are quite common in Kashmiri "curries."

Funny - was in a Japanese grocery store in Berkeley yesterday, thought I saw something labeled "Vermont Curry".

I was wondering what the hell it was - a curry from Japan, named "Vermont" - bizarre on so many levels....

All I can say is 'wow'...

Has anyone tried this?

"Britain teaches India about curries"
 

I saw this article yesterday http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...tIwlhA91rgEdDw

I like all kinds of curry. Japanese curry is weird but I like the slightly sweet taste it has.

Some of my Hawaiian friends of the more Japanese sort (nobody you
know of course) swear by Vermont curry.

:cool:

Perhaps I can pick some up on my trip to KOA in a little over a week :D

Haven't seen it in the specialty stores in the ANC area...

Curry !

Put on anything and I'll eat it.

The pure enjoyment of a proper Indian meal can't be described in words.

If you haven't already, you sure need to hit up Faheem's in Newtown. Happy to make a plan of it next time I'm down in SYD :)

The curry there is lip smacking, finger licking good! and cheap too :D

So say a guy gets to London. Where are good curries served there. Or if not London, anybody know about Leicester?

There are probably several hundred Indian restaurants in both of those cities, scattered throughout. It's actually fairly hard to eat bad Indian food in the UK. Sure - there are areas with concentrations of Indian restaurants (e.g. Brick Lane or Drummond St in London) but you absolutely don't have to go there to get good food. I will give a quick shout out to Southall though (short train wide from Paddington) due to its Indian population and hence availability of particularly cheap and good quality food.

There are thousands of curry dishes but...
 

There are thousands of curry dishes and hundreds of books on curry dishes. Yet, you go to an Indian restaurant anywhere in the Western world (or even in far east), all curries taste alike. These are my problems with Indian restaurants:
1. Paucity of names. Again and again Tajmahal, Gandhi, Woodlands, Punjab, New India, Old India, Sarava Bhavan, Shalimar, Udipi, Himalaya, Delhi, Madras (althogh no one remembers Madras anymore) etc. Some not-so main stream names creeped up but .. (Annapurna, adithi, amavasa, madurai kitchen, chettinad, tamil nad etc).
2. All curries taste alike.
3. Generic food-no specialization. You get the same regardless of where you are-alu mattar, palak paneer, alu gobi, channa masala, ...you see one menu, you have seen them all!
4. No one cleans the floor in Indian restaurants. The table scrap is swept off the table and lies on the floor. The patron's foot wear essentially removes the dirt/food from the floor.
5. Fusion restaurants charged a fortune for pathetic Indian food. Most of them had nothing to do with curry.
6. Most of them bought the premises from a previous restaurant owner and didn't spend a dime in restoration/redecoration. Major problems with Indian restaurants is the greed of the owners who never care about decor/hygine/cleanliness and authensity of preparations. They make a ton of money and then move away to a different location.

1) Well, no.
2) Nah.
3) Not really.
4) You cant be serious.
5) Some yes I suppose, some definitely not.
6) Well, no.

They sell it here in Seattle at the Asian superstore Uwajimaya.

Speaking of curry ...

Anyone else a fan of the Indo-Malay dish Roti Canai?

Brick Lane is pretty average, but Southall offers some great options as does Tooting. London also offers some excellent upmarket Indian restaurant options too.

Leicester is grim so best stick to London. ;)

Still tastes bloody good :D

I prefer Roti Telur. Coincidentally, I am ordered it in and am eating it even as I type this.

I <3 Uwajimaya :D Haven't been there for a year- but stock up when I go there :cool:

They operate Waji's in the C concourse too - not bad for airport food :p (can't recall if they have curries though)

What do you mean by "gravy"?

Curry usually means the usual 4 or 5 spices (plus or minus a few), but gravy is an entirely different thing.

Am I missing something?

I think "gravy" refers to the sauces that are so prevalent. Like Rogan Josh has a sauces that is way tasty. Chicken Tikka Masala supposedly was created when some Brit said "where's muh gravy?" In the movies, you always see Tamil people with a big serving of rice, then a small bit of sauce, and massaging it around with the fingers. I can't see Brits eating that way, but I love the sauces, use them for all kinds of things, and can see why the sauces would make Indian food popular.

But no one is talking about sauces.

We're talking about the spices that would make up curry (be it a Gringo invention or not...)

I think this discussion is going awry in that "curry" can refer both the spices and the gravy! The term has taken on the shorthand usage of "Indian food (usually with sauce)", esp in Britain.

Speaking of curry, adding curry powder and a dollop of chutney really perks up egg salad!

Curry and eggs seem made for each other. I also think spinach and curry make a fantastic combination.

From Wikipedia:

Curry is a generic description used throughout European and American culture to describe a general variety of spiced dishes, best known in South Asian cuisines, especially Indian cuisine. Curry is a generic term and although there is no one specific attribute that marks a dish as "curry", some distinctive spices used in many curry dishes include turmeric, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, and red pepper. The word curry is an anglicised version of the Tamil word khari, which is usually understood to mean "gravy" or "sauce" rather than "spices".

I have never come across a so-called curry without a gravy or sauce of some kind. I think you may be confusing "curry" with "curry powder", which is another abomination (sorry, PointsScrounger!).

No self-respecting Indian would use "curry powder" in cooking. To Indians, it is as absurd as throwing some rosemary, oregano, thyme and basil together, bottling the mixture, and calling it "Italian powder," to be used in making pasta, veal and fish alike, as though any dish would become Italian by the use of this mixture.

Hate to tell you, but India is making spice mixes of its own, packaging them, and shipping them to every Indian grocery store where NRI's (do they have no self-respect?) insist on buying for staples for home cooking. I don't think it is regarded as a matter of self-respect that you grind and mix your own curry mixture. And the labels on these packages say "curry powder". Granted, it isn't what Schilling has been selling for a hundred years or more, but it is what India seems to think is the more authentic form of the product.

Not at all. Most Indians won't buy curry powder. They will buy the individual spices and mix and match them according to the requirements of the dish they are preparing. Curry powder is mostly bought by Americans who want to "shop ethnic". India is just catering to this demand. I have no doubt the product is a bit better than Schilling's, but that doesn't make it authentic.

660 Curries: the Gateway to Indian Cooking

Curry is the word that requires more clarification. The Western world regards it as a dish spiced from a jar labeled "curry powder." But Iyer said that curry isn't about spice, but gravy. "To us, it's all about sauces," he said. "No self-respecting Indian kitchen would have curry powder."

Where does garam masala fit in? I've seen that mix for sale in India.

Whatever the definition and no matter the spicing, whether freshly ground, freshly compounded or even (except when aged, and like chewing gum, having lost its flavor on the bedpost overnight) made with "curry powder", in my travels (and at home) I've rarely met a "Curry" I didn't like (although frog legs just don't work for me).

Hottest curry? Back about 1963, some stand-up joint on the "Gut" in Valetta, Malta,
dark red, goat or mutton (elderly), and about double the strength of raw jalapeno with seeds and internal fiber. The "Gut" was so disreputable that you needed a hot curry to protect you from diseases so contagious as to not even require direct contact.

Garam masala is a blend of commonly used Indian spices with many regional variations. Since many Indian dishes contain these spices, it is sometimes used as a cooking shortcut to provide a general spicy base before adding more specific spices. I've rarely seen ready-made garam masala used in Indian homes, except with tea (believe it or not).

I know some people in the grocery business. It would be child's play for me to query whether the customers really live by your dictates. Frankly, I've never seen many non-Indian "Americans" in the stores. There's no way they could be buying up all this stock.

Where are you judging this from?

OK, I see you give NYC as your location. What, Jackson Heights? Maybe the preferences of the immigrants there doesn't match elsewhere. Perhaps the importers provide access to fresh ingredients that are too expensive out in the hinterland.
t
I seriously doubt my NRI neighbors fly to New York to get whole spices to bring back and grind.

If you say so. What do I know? :rolleyes:

Logically, you know what you've seen. The Indians who live in that part of the east coast. But I think you want to paint with a broader brush. The fact is that "curry powder" is in fact sold to Indians outside of New York.