Is Curry “Western” Food? Three recipes.
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Curry: a dish that belongs to everywhere, and nowhere. In China and Japan, it’s served alongside Western food like Steak and …
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Hey guys, a few notes:
1. Because we’re not overly familiar with the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent… it was quite difficult to parse the extent of their usage of curry powder. Madhur Jaffrey speaks so forcefully that I’m inclined to just go with her opinion, as I’m certainly not one to contradict Madhur Jaffrey. But in researching, there was also more than a couple voices like this https://myannoyingopinions.com/2019/07/31/35817/ And in the Indian grocers in Thailand, there’s more than a couple ‘Curry Masalas’ (although maybe that’s a Thai-Indian thing? I don’t know!)
2. So for those of you that grew up with an Indian cuisine, do you ever use Curry Masala? Let us know, we’re super curious!
3. If you can’t find Hong Kong curry paste, a Malaysian product like this would hit similar notes: https://ayam.com/products/meal-pastes/curry-pastes/product/malaysian-nyonya-curry-paste-185g
4. The Japanese curry was inspired by Japanese Naval Curry – the broad strokes coming from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LUZxmKrieY We don’t know enough about Japanese food to state definitively whether ours would count as an authentic naval curry or not, but it has a lot of the same elements 🙂
5. Apologies, in the narration I forgot a couple elements of the seasoning for the Thai Curry Powder Seafood. They’re up on the screen and in the accompanying written recipe, of course.
6. Speaking of which, the Shaoxing wine in that sauce is optional, and was because we were specifically going off of the recipe from the vendor that we showed in the video. Likely as a result of his spending time in Hong Kong, his shop features a seasoned soy sauce that he uses in everything – components being Water, Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce, Kikkoman soy sauce, Japanese Mirin, Thai Bouillon Powder (Rot Dee). Shaoxing wine (plus some extra sugar) was our substitute for his use of Mirin, as we figured most of you watching would have it on hand. Speaking in the broadest of generalities, Shaoxing wine is not a common ingredient in Thai cooking, generally only making an appearance in Thai-Chinese cuisine and to a lesser extent Thai-Chinese derived dishes.
7. His shop is here, if you’d like to check it out: https://maps.app.goo.gl/yobiv2NKgYE7C2Gn9
8. I’m a bit worried that I overstated the extent of ‘country captain’ in the United States with the wording ‘national obsession’. Country Captain could be found in the United States outside of South Carolina (where it’s usually associated with), and was reportedly FDR’s favorite dish, but ‘obsession’ was probably too strong of a word. Apologies.
9. Also, sorry for not uploading for a bit, we need to move our old apartment in China to another place (lease's up), so that took a hectic week packing and moving.
That’s all for now, might edit some more notes in in a bit 🙂
Southeast Asian curries are entirely different beasts. Instead of dried spice seeds, we use mostly fresh herbal roots and dried leaves. Like galangal, ginger, lemongrass, turmeric, chili peppers, shallots, garlic, dried lime leaves, dried bay leaves, fresh pandan leaves, fresh thai basil, etc.
And most importantly, we don't use dairy. We rarely have dairy culture here, a large percentage of us are lactose intolerant because of it, so we use coconut milk. Meats are also expensive, so curries are ways for us to slow and long cook cheap tough cuts, feet, and organ meats.
Hong Kong China 🫣
Sounds like the masala fried seafood could come up more in Thai places along with the varieties of curried dishes found in Macanese food (a seriously underrated kind of Chinese food, alongside other aspects of Macanese culture such as the history & arts plus music). On a related note, don't forget that Korea's counterpart 'western' known as yangsik also has its own kind of curries, albeit based from a masala powder. On a note, might curry powder be due for a new name like Commonwealth Masala or turmeric masala (referring to history & spread for former & the main fixing for the latter) seeing as curry is a cooking style & not a dish just as a stir-fry is, complete with different moisture levels (for both, with sauté being most like a semi-wet/semi-dry kind of stir-frying) & versatility involved?
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Chapter : Wait, isn't curry Indian?
Me : Wait, isn't India not Western?
So my only complaint with this is the Japanese curry recipe— your chop style completely ignored rangiri cut on the vegetable prep. The large vegetable chunk style is integral to Japanese curry and to dismiss it for your version of sliced kind of takes away from both the texture and experience.. (sorry)..
Omg your title screen is one of my favorites movies as a kid, Contract Killers with Jet Li!
Love the history, as always! As a Bengali, we don't have anything called curry masala. The word curry or kari when used in Bengal usually refers to the curry leaf plant, while the word for gravy is jhol, jhal etc (depending on the dish, cooking technique, region of Bengal, and so on).
My great grandfather has curry paste shop buisness. He definitely Teochew. My grandmother said she grew up in Guangdong, not Fujian. May be this is why.
For eastern indian its more like we have stir fry vegetables and gravy vegetables its because of eating with rice for flavour, there is no concept of curry , its process how u make a vegetable , meat or fish
Nowadays I think of curry powder as a British ingredient.
7:52 THE ONE PIECE IS REAL 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥
Country Captain Chicken was an MRE when I was in the Army back in the early 00s.
I liked the thai yellow curry and had no idea that what they use in there is just regular ol' 'western' curry powder.
pretty sad when they have to refer to the three countries as Japan, Thailand and "Hong Kong, China". This only happens when they want to add the suffix and if that's what they want to emphasise, which is something that I don't remember recalling from their channel previously…
wait, i was told the british dont eat spices, which means they couldnt possibly like curry, or even export it anywhere. are you saying those people are LYING?
Growing up my northern Chinese mom used to make a chicken and potato stew with curry powder dish that she called, in Mandarin, something that sounded like "ga li ji" or "curry" chicken … and for some reason you saying "kari" in Thai reminded me of this and it's interesting that the pronunciation for "curry"/"ga li" is so similar.
We love curry in the UK and this was massively influenced by the influx of Indian nationals to our country in the seventies. Shows by cooks like Madhur Jaffrey really had a cultural impact
Further studies on the Forme of Cury.
One of your best videos! Thanks for all the great recipes
The Country Captain Chicken reference is fascinating to me, as I'm always interested in finding new regionalized dishes in America. I had never come across this one before. It appears to be a low country South Carolina one. Looking up recipes, it's also interesting to me to see how often curry powder is paired with raisins and/or nuts in older American cookbooks (and sometimes apple, too.) For example, the 4/19/54 issue of Life Magazine has a recipe for "Curried Lamb" that includes both raisins and walnuts. There's also an "Indian Curry" recipe that includes apple. All use "curry powder," of course. I wonder how often these combinations are used on the subcontinent. I don't recall seeing raisins or apples often in savory dishes, but the cuisine of the subcontinent is very diverse.
Love the history lesson before, and as always the great cooking portion, very educational and awesome vid!!!
pretty sure a roux is french, not british
Britain has two separate curry traditions: the older roux-based Anglo-Indian cuisine, which originated with the British Empire, and the onion-based British Indian Restaurant cuisine, which originated with Bangladeshi immigrants (it's called "Indian" for marketing reasons). The most famous British curry dishes, such as chicken tikka masala, are British Indian Restaurant cuisine. The most common Anglo-Indian curry is the curry sauce often served with fish and chips.
Chili peppers and potatoes were native to the americas, so I think a lot of curry wouldn’t be the same without colonization and trade spreading food around. It is very similar to a stew as well. Anyway, I like it in all its varieties.
I find different versions of curry very interesting as they are, generally, all bastardizations of brittish bastardization of indian food meaning you can see one and instantly get that they're curry but they show so much of the local way of making food.
Here in the Philippines, we have our curry with coconut milk. And there's the Kare-Kare, which is an oxtail peanut stew.
Having flour as an ingredient in curry is not new. Many mughlai cuisines use that roux in india before the british. The word curry comes from the word kadhi which is a dish made from tangy curd mixed with gram flour or besan. Its a famous Gujarati dish known as kadhi pakora. Its a type of dish you rarely see outside india.
I don't remember when I fell in love with Japanese-style curry, but it's become one of my favorite dishes to cook for a long time now. There are so many ways to customize it, and I'm still learning of new variations here. I think I might've even eaten Japanese curry before curry from anywhere else in the world, as it's what I picture first whenever I use the word "curry" by itself.
I think the Thai word "keang" is the same as the Khmer word "krueng" which means a sauce made from a mixed and pounded blend of herbs and spices. The Thai and Khmer word for curry came from traders who then influenced the local language and food. Anyway, nice history lesson and the food looks amazing.
Hong Kong best
I have had HK, Japanese, Thai and Indian curry dishes before. I like all of them. In general terms, Thai and Indian ones tend to be spicier, with a liquid sauce, while Japanese curry is gloopier because of the roux. HK curry is in the middle for sauce consistency. If I've got coconut cream at hand I would usually make a Thai curry. I like the strong spices. Oh and when I was in high school back in China, we had a weird version of curry dishes on campus. Basically any stir-fry (most often with beef) but the chef would add "curry sauce" to make it curry. The curry sauce is just curry powder cooked in water. I'm sure it's not a real thing anywhere else, but it was quick and delicious and a lot of students lined up to get it.
The egg in the Thai curry… That's so ingenious. I wonder what other cuisines I can use that technique in too! Thank you as always for your insightful videos
Ahh, the English Colonial History…who says it isn’t still confusing the world and all our kitchens even today. 🧐
The German "Berliner Curry-Wurst" (Berlin curry fried sausage) has been the standard lunch diet in Germany since at least the 196ties. It is usually devoured with chips (french fries, Pommes Frites) with a tablespoon of mayonnaise on top (Currywurst-Pommes-Mayo, short CPM).
Not sure how china looks at HK chaa chaan teng but any hong konger by default knows any sort of curry is either south east Asian to south Asian. I wouldn't bat an eye if they assume all curry contains coconut milk in the curry due to SE asian influence. Calling it western is a stretch. I saw the double quote mark for curry and western hoping there's some twist like how salmon sushi is not a Japanese invention
Hi I love watching your videos. I am from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu the word curry comes from the Tamil word Kari which means meat. Which was misappropriated by the British. Spice merchants that time use to sell Kari podi or kulumbu podi which is what the curry powder refers to. Tamil Nadu at that time was called madras by the British . Hence the kind of popular madras curry powder, which was used by the British and was introduced to various parts of east Asia. The original Japanese curry uses madras curry powder. The dish in entirety is actually called kulumbu, and if you come to Tamil Nadu and ask to put Kari they put the meat from the dish on to your plate but if you want the liquid you ask them to poor the kulumbu. To this day Kari podi, kulumbu podi or Kari masala is still used in Tamil cuisine to make various types of kulumbu.
When I was young I could taste curry. I loved it. It was delicious. But then in my thirties I couldn't anymore. I don't know why, but its flavor became completely muted, even more than the other flavors in other foods. I still ate it because it's healthy and most everything had a turned down flavor, not just the curry, but I could never taste it. Then, in my forties, when COVID quarantines happened and all the restaurants closed, I could taste curry again. I could taste it vividly for around six months, and not only curry but all the flavors in all the food were turned up to how it was when I was younger, and I could smell my own food, which I don't think had ever happened before because I'm usually only ever able to smell other people's food and not the food I'm making for myself or other people. Eventually the flavor disappeared again, the curry especially again and the other flavors were turned down though not as much as the curry. It's not 'getting old' that lessens perception of flavors and scents. It's something else. Something social blocks some people from perceiving these things as we get older. I know this because I had my senses come back in my forties for a limited time. Maybe it's because during COVID all the restaurants had to close that made all the flavors and all the food smells temporarily come back, but I saw you enjoying your curry and being able to discern the flavors between the various kinds and I know I wouldn't be able to do this at the moment because the damper's been put back, but I'm glad where you are at least doesn't seem to have this problem when cooking at home.
I'm from Sri Lanka, and the food here is very similar to south Indian food, and curry powder is very much a thing here. we call it "thuna paha". comes in roasted and unroasted variants. But we generally use other whole/powdered spices with it. And the curry base is almost always coconut milk.
Brisket curry is a must whenever I'm in Hong kong