Damn right. I used to live there - I’ve eaten curries far and wide across the country, and Bradford wins hands down. If your ever there, check out the Bengal Brasserie by Lister Park. Best curry ever.
And whats wrong with tomatoes in the curry? Makes sense to me, and I use them when I scratch build my own.
By the way, barbecue would be a better analogy than chili as it is also a sauce, a cooking style, and a dish that’s served in dozens of completely different ways.
But swede and muchy processed peas do!
“Tomatoes don’t go in curry”??? I don’t even know what dish you mean, because so many use tomatoes.
There’s a plant that in the US is usually called the “curry plant” (Helichrysum italicum / angustifolium) that smells kind of like curry (I grew it when I lived in Texas) but isn’t actually used in making curry because it also smells kind of like mugwort. The tree that’s the source of the “curry leaf” is Murraya koenigii, and it is used in making curry in Southern India – I guess the British and American recipies leave it out because it’s a tropical plant and the leaves don’t keep their flavor when dried. I bought a bunch of these leaves once in a grocery in Jersey City’s Little India, and I don’t remember them having much of a curry aroma at all. But then again I’m Irish, and any kitchen advice you get from me needs to be taken with a grain of Tabasco.
Jjimm’s cited site (that, um, I sighted) notes that “kari” is the Tamil word for soup or sauce. So it’s a broad term that keeps popping up in a number of different contexts. I can see how someone unfamiliar with food in the US wondering how consommé and lobster bisque are both “soup.”
Here at last! I never look in cafe society usually as you’re all bleating on about tosh like Rush. (RUSH for god’s sake) or whether Buffy has jumped the shark. It’s worse than Red Dwarf convention in here most of the time. But if you’re going to start talking about rubies - I’m in! (have I mentioned that I don’t like Rush?)
Most of the posters have covered what a ruby is - a spicey tasty stew, usually quite hot. However what hasn’t really been covered is the full “going for a ruby” post pub experience - to be seen in EVERY town in Britain at 11.30 most nights.
Also a “curry” as understood by your average Brit is an Indian - there are other spicy things that have the temerity to call themselves curry - but we need not concern ourselves with those imposters here (BTW ex pat Brits call that japanese abomination “slurry” as it tastes of sod-all)
And just to confuse matters even more - most “Indian” restaurants are actually run by Bangladeshis.
There are a variety of reasons why this is so popular. Firstly the food is just fab after a few (or a lot) of pints. Secondly curry-houses sell beer by the pint and aren’t shy about it - so you can carry on drinking. Thirdly it’s pretty cheap. Forthly there’s not much else to do in the average British town after 11, other than a ruby, kebab or poxy nightclub.
So this is how it goes after the last bell (11pm). Someone will suggest a ruby - and off we will travel to the curry house. These always have very exotic names -Taj Mahal, star of bengal etc. They tend to follow a generic look - usually have dark (often furry) wallpaper, lurid tapestries of tigers and it seems to be the law that there has to be at least one picture of the Taj Mahal on the wall (try this test - ask the staff if they’ve ever been to the Taj Mahal - they never have - most of them haven’t even been to India).
The waiters (who either are 16 or 85) know the deal and before they bother with menus they get the drinks order in.
Next up come the poppadoms (these are like big crisps). These come with a sauce made of yoghurt cucumber and mint (which is proper lovely), an onion salad (which will never stay on your poppodom), lime pickle and invariably something else which is a colour that does not appear in nature - not even on poisonous tree frogs.
You are then handed a menu with at least 100 items on it (this is not an exaggeration). You then selct your starter. Here is the menu from my local take away which is pretty typical - this is the starter selection:
http://www.spicyworld.net/appetisers.html
By now it’s time for another brittney.
Round two is your main course. There wil be at least 50 varients of “curry” on offer together with brianis (does anyone ever order these?). The strength varies for Kormas (ladies and those prepared to have their sexuality questioned only) all the way up to vindallo (which I really like - but it’s a real ring-stinger the next day) to the loony strenth Phal (which is only ordered by 20 year old pissed boys to impress their mates - it burns harder than nitric acid).
It’s about time for another brittney.
Curry houses do offer deserts but again these are for ladies and those chaps who are good-with-colours. Blokes have a brittney for pudding.
The bill for that lot will be around £25.
Now you have to go and select which cab you are going to throw up in the back of.
Hell, yeah!
£25? You need to get out of west London and into Brick Lane. 
Besides, the night doesn’t end after the bill. Proper curry night out should then involve a mass stumble to the nearest crap nightclub, more drinks and suchlike, a dash to the loos for an explosive dizzy e-poo, crap dancing, a tussle with the bouncers, then an argument with mini-cab drivers over how much it’s gonna cost to get you home. Possibly the same mini-cab drivers who cooked your meal.
How long before someone asks what a Brittney is, you reckon.
Ah, the lager selection in Curry Houses! Cobra, Kingfisher, Tiger - less gassy lagers that go down like a dream with a good john. 660ml bottles of Tiger are a particular fav of mine.
Prawn Puri for starters, after the Poppadoms (I love lime pickle), some kind of medium hot Massala or Dopiaza, we’re laughing.
Online scatology??
What is/was the bright red main dish I can’t remember the name of? I’ve looked through five dial-a-curry menus in the local paper and I can’t see a single entry. Maybe they can’t get the isotopes any more?
I’d say Tikka Masala and Bhuna are the common ones where they go for dangerous levels of food colouring just to satisfy the drunks, if that’s any help?
Unless you’re buying them for a bet (always a possibility in a curry house), I have to say that they are a sure sign that you probably have Judy Garland records in your house
Not the ones I’ve had in Manchester. They were seriously firey.
You though you were joking, I thought I was joking. Here’s what Google turned up. :eek: doesn’t do justice. :eek: [sup]2[/sup]
Quite an insight into East London life there folks - and don’t forget that this is where they’re planning to hold the Olympics!
Brick Lane is the mutt’s nuts. Spend the evening watching boilers getting their thruppenies out in the Old Axe, fight your way past the big issue sellers and jack-the-ripper tours and get in a place that looks like an advert for imodium, and then get the most wonderful rubies (unfortunately the bestest places tend to be brittney free but some of the others (tiger tapestries etc) do have briittney on tap - I like a Uri Geller with a ruby)
While I certainly love Indian curries, if it were not for Thai curries life would not be worth living.
–Cliffy
I suppose it depends where you are, but here, I don’t think I’ve met anyone whose had a Japanese curry, yet Thai curries are all the rage.
Re: Curry leaves vs curry plant. Just want to chime in to agree with Ichbin. Curry leaves are not used in all Indian cooking, but they are a common herb. They are useless in dried form. Interestingly enough, there’s a compound in curry leaves which seem to help control diabetes. Scientsts are looking in the matter.
Curry plants, meanwhile, are a European herb, so-called because of their strong curry scent. On Margaret Island in Budapest, there was a section of the part covered with these plants. It smelled like you were walking past a curry house. Anyhow, these are not used in Indian cooking, but are edible and can be chopped up and mixed with mayo for a really nice potato salad dressing.
A typical Indian curry masala (spice mix) starts with toasted coriander seeds and to this, spices such as cumin, ginger, fenugreek, cardamom, cassia, cloves, pepper, aniseed, turmeric, mustard seeds, etc are added depending on what variety of curry you’re making. Coriander seed tends to be the predominant spice, with cumin running close behind, but this is not always the case. Turmeric lends the familiar yellow color (but is not necessary and, IMHO, way overdone) of most American and continental European curry powders. It also supposedly aids the digestion.
These curry spices are normally mixed with oil and added to a base of onions, possibly ginger, and sometimes tomatoes. Some curries will also have yoghurt, cream (north India), or coconut milk (South India) added.
Thai curries, meanwhile, are usually heavily coconut-based. They often start with a paste made of lemongrass, lime leaves, chile peppers, galangal, garlic, and dried shrimp. Occassionally you will also find tamarind paste (in sour curries and masaman curry, as well as in northern Malaysian curries) included. This paste is cooked in oil, then meat and coconut milk are added.
Here is my own understanding from my own efforts in learning how to cook Indian cuisine.
“Curry” isn’t a term the native Indian cooks used. A lot of what is called “curry” or “curried” is just an approximation of foods with native names like “Masala” “Tandoori” or “Bhindi”. A long overview of the history of the word “curry” and why it is so damn hard to pin down exactly what a curry is can be found here.
Curry is indeed a tropical leaf and produces a very spicy dish. “Curry leaves are widely used in southern Indian dishes. The leaves are usually fried first in a little oil or ghee. Since the cuisine of southern India is predominantly vegetarian, curry leaves are most often used to flavour lentil and vegetable dishes. However, they are also used in chutneys, pickles and samosa fillings, and in Sri Lanka are included in chicken or beef curries.” It does not store or travel well however. When the British came to India they enjoyed the food and tried to take it home but the Curry leaf didn’t travel. There were other spice mixtures which DID travel well and could approximate the flavor of the Curry leaf. These spices were also widely used within Indian cooking because harvesting fresh Curry leaves was not practical. Cardamon, Cumin, Coriander, Tumeric, Ginger, Garlic, Cloves, all kinds of spices can be mixed and matched to get similar flavors. Actual curry leaves are quite rare in cooking, even now that they can be sealed in plastic and retain their moisture long enough to transport them.
So “curry” is essentially “anything that tastes like curry”. Spicy, almost always with a sauce, and that’s about as far as a general definition goes.
Enjoy,
Steven