I am writing this review somewhat handicapped because: 1) I did not write the review straightaway and 2) I had to reset my kobo and lost all my annotations. So here is a somewhat fuzzy review of this book on curry’s diverse history.

Curry is the tale of how cultures influence food. In this book, Collingham explores the multi-cultural background of several famous dishes: Chicken Tikki Masala, Biryani, Vindaloo, Korma, Chai, and even curry in other countries (like Japan)! We look at how the Mughals spread their preferences in India, how the Portuguese introduced new ingredients, and how the British made chai a national drink.

The book was, generally, a good reminder that it can be hard to classify any one dish as being “purely” of a certain origin. In Chapter 9, Collingham discusses the tensions that arise between the older and newer Indian restaurants in Britain as new waves of immigration and new interest in Indian culture caused the British public to relook their food. This quote at the end of the chapter shows how contentious the issue is even within the community itself:

“There is a surprising level of hostility across the Indian restaurant divide with some of the rebranders of expensive Indian food dismissing the old-style restaurant owners as ‘Pakis and Banglis who are just junglee peasants with rough habits’. The traditional restaurateurs hit back with the retort that ‘These people are all rubbish. They are half castes, the bastard children who don’t know their own fatherlands, think they know better than us because they speak English. Real food is here and it is cheap’.”

And as you can probably tell, the book focuses a lot on Indian cuisine as it is eaten in Britain. There is hence a lot of discussion about how the British ate in India during the time of the British raj and how curry became part of England’s food landscape. So if you’re looking for a book that focuses purely on the development of Indian cuisine within India, you may be disappointed by the way British tastes are centered in the discussion. For example, as someone who grew up in Singapore and not the UK, I was surprised at the omission of dishes like roti prata (introduced by immigrants from the South of India; you can find a short history of the dish here) and Teh Tarik! But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised because the author explicitly omits Malaysian and Thai curries in her narrative.

Overall, I think this was an interesting book. It’s definitely written for a Western, specifically British, audience, as seen in the choice of topics, but I found the history to be fascinating and it’s always interesting to see how various countries and cultures interacted to form the dishes that we know and enjoy today.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva