Monday, September 05, 2005
Indian Cuisine - A cultural link
I just read a Guardian review of Curry: A Biography by Lizzie Collingham, it got me thinking about - "Indian Cuisine". My Mom and Aunt are planning a trip to Australia and they plan to finance their holiday by making Chappathis and Egg Curry, Dosa and Sambhar. My brother used to work part time at Indian restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, he loved his job being Indian he loved the way the Aussies lap up paneer, rotis and of course “Curry”.
At home in India we hardly use the word “curry”, we have the staple dal, chawal. Curry is a delicacy we have only at restaurants or during a celebration.Curry is mostly Anglo-Indian cuisine - Kofta curry, Mutton curry. But I believe foreigners to Indian cuisine think curry to be authentic Indian. It is of course, but it largely borrows from Portugese and British cooking. Indian cooking is largely influenced by the Persians, think Hyderabadi Biryani, Koftas, Korma etc.
For Indian cuisine, it turns out, has always been a glorious bastard, a repository of whatever bits and pieces come to hand.
To sample another country's cuisine is like adding to your repertoire of worldly knowledge. Have you ever noticed how many immigrants are confidant of making it big elsewhere all because they believe that they can start an “Indian restaurant”. Food is always the safest bet, when no other skill can get you through in a foreign land. Look at the list millionaire Indian restaurateurs!
But it doesn't stop there. In rural Fiji, people who have never travelled out of their village eat Punjabi chapattis made from indigenous coconut milk, a legacy of the island's heavy dependence on indentured Indian labour in the 1870s.
Look at the number of Chinese and Indian takeaways that we hear about all over the world. Look at the swanky Indian restaurants is uptown New York and London.
Food is culture, it binds, you enjoy Dal when another fellow enjoys it with you. The Indian diaspora has taken “Indian Cuisine” to far off lands. Of course we now have Indian masala pasta and chicken tikka pizza. Food travels and its hard to put a good bite down.
There should have been an Indian word for Bon Apetit!
CURRY HOUSE ECONOMICS (Courtesy BBC)
9,000 restaurants in the UK
At least 50,000 employees
Up to 150,000 indirectly supported jobs
Majority Bangladeshi owned
Sources: Various industry estimates
Comments
Cecilia, I answered your question on my blog, I would just like to add a few things regarding the second quotation from this post.
Maybe I'm missing smth, but I didn't really see the connection btwn Punjabi chapattis and indentured labour migration to Fiji... Why? Because most of the Punjabis started coming to Fiji from the beginning of the 20th c. and they came as free labourers, not under indenture. The great majority of people coming under indenture were from NWP, Oudh, Bihar and south India, only 828 people were Punjabis (out of around 65,000). So unless the writer is talking about these 800 Punjabis making chapattis in Fiji...
Also, I'm not sure what's the difference btwn chapatti and roti or whether they're the same thing, but I never heard people in Fiji saying chapatti, they always say roti. This and puri are their main types of breads as far as I can tell.
Sorry for the long comment :(
Yes, roti an chapathi are terms used interchangeably. The quote was from the review of the book, guess the chapattis were named "Punjabi", but not made by the Punjabis themselves. Well futher research needs be done.
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