Curry - A Journey
By Liz Canham, Fri Dec 9th
Due to a childhood in the Middle East, I was practically broughtup on curry. My first memories of it are eating curried goat inthe fire station of Dubai airport in about 1962. My dad was theairport manager and the Chief Fire Officer and his family wereour good friends and neighbours. The firemen cooked for our twofamilies - fiery hot curry for the adults and a much milderversion for us kids. Some of the men were of Arabic origins andsome of Indian so I think the resulting meal was something of amixture. I remember we were offered chairs and cutlery but we preferredto sit on the floor and in the traditional manner, ate only withour right hands. This posed something of a problem for my motheras she was left-handed - she avoided making inexcusable gaffesby sitting on her left hand until the meal was over. We learnt to roll rice into balls and with the aid of chapattis(wheat flour flatbreads), scooped up the curry and popped itinto our mouths without making too much mess. I don't think Iate curry again in that way until many years later when Ivisited Goa and, at a spice plantation, was once again facedwith banana leaf plates and fingers only. Bizarrely, in a nearbyclearing, was a pink porcelain, pedestal hand basin with a hosepipe attached to the tap, fully supplied with soap and handtowels.
During those days of being expatriates in foreign lands, theBritish developed a liking for curry lunch on a Sunday.Doubtless this originated in India in the days of the Raj butstill found its way to the Middle East and Africa. A group offriends would gather either at one of their houses or the localclub. There would be beers or gins and tonics first (cola orfizzy orange for the kids). There wouldn't be a choice ofcurries, as I recall, it was always chicken and no matter wherewe ate it and it always tasted the same. The accompanimentsdidn't
vary much either but we didn't mind. There would bepoppadoms, mango chutney and a variety of sambals - choppedfruits and salad stuff which might include any or all of banana,pineapple, apple, tomato, cucumber, onion, desiccated coconut,peanuts and raisins or sultanas. With luck there would bechapattis too. My next curry experiences were back in England. How different itall was. Indian restaurants furnished in red velvet with flockedwallpaper in gold. All sorts of different curries - not only themain ingredient but the mix of spices and flavourings. Therewere choices of plain or spicy poppadoms, different breads andvegetable curries and dahls as well, no sambals though! On thedown side, these curries were often rather greasy and we alwaysthought of them as being terribly fattening - naughty but oh sonice! The saviour, if conscience got the better of us wasTandoori-cooked meats. These were marinated in yoghurt and spicepaste and cooked in a Tandoor (an earthenware charcoal oven), sowere in effect grilled and much healthier. Change again then when I finally visited India in 1988 anddiscovered that meat curries were the exception rather than therule. Many Indians are vegetarians so paneer (similar to cottagecheese) is popular as are the many dishes made with pulses andvegetables. There was no trace of the greasiness found inrestaurants in the UK and the flavours were quite different too. This voyage of discovery culminated in a determination to learnhow to reproduce Indian food in my own home but more of that inanother article. About the author:Liz Canham: As well as a love of Asian cooking and travel as you can see inher Asian Food and Cookery and Travellers' Tales websites, Liz seeks tohelp newcomers to the world of internet marketing from her Liz-e-Biz.comwebsite. |
