More on Curry

After reading a rather brilliantly written article on Sepia Mutiny, I decided to revisit the topic of curry. Although curry is not as familiar to Americans as it is to the British, which was discussed in my earlier article, there are still some misconceptions. Most notably that curry is not one spice, although there are curry powders which were developed during the British Raj to make preparing Indian dishes easier.

In his article Manish points out that curry is one specific dish in India, and that it would be like, "calling all American food Jell-O." However, curry has become synonymous with Indian food in Britain. Manish also points out that in Hindi Chai means tea, so saying chai tea is saying, "tea tea". Similarly Caffe Latte means coffee with milk, just asking for a latte is just asking for milk, this is all part of the evolutionary process of language. Just look at Old English and you will get the idea.