Curry

Curry (from Tamil: கறி) is the English description of any of a general variety of spicy dishes, best-known in Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Chinese and other South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines, though curry has been adopted into all of the mainstream cuisines of the Asia-Pacific region. Along with tea, curry is one of the few dishes or drinks that is truly "Pan-Asian", but specifically, its roots come from India. The concept of curry was later brought to the West by British colonialists in India from the 18th century. Dishes that are often classified as curries in Europe and America are rarely considered curries in their native countries.

Curries around the world

The term curry is most likely an anglicized name for Kari derived from the usage of "Kari" in the South Indian languages to connotate some of the secondary dishes eaten with rice[citation needed]. In addition, curry leaves, known as karivēpāku in Telugu, karibevu in Kannada, kariveppila in Malyalam and 'Karuvapillai' in Tamil literally means black/dark leaf, and is used in various kinds of dishes common in South India. The term is now used more broadly, especially in the Western world, to refer to almost any spiced, sauce-based dishes cooked in various south and southeast Asian styles. Though each curry has a specific name, generically any wet side dish made out of vegetable and/or meat is historically referred to as a 'curry'--especially those yellow, Indian-inspired powders and sauces with high proportions of turmeric. The dishes are given specific names that indicate the meat and/or vegetable, method of cooking, or the particular spices used. Not all curries are made from curry powder; in India the word curry is heavily used in the southern part of India in languages like Tamil which is analogous to "sabji" in the north. The spice mixes are called as "masala" in the south and Garam masala in Hindi and Nepali. Most dishes involving lentils or dried beans are called dal in the north, or are referred to by a name specific to the spices used in the preparation. There is a particular north Indian and Pakistani dish which is given the name kadi and utilizes yoghurt, ghee, and besan. In Northern India and Pakistan, the word "curry" usually means "gravy," likely because it sounds similar to the word "tari" (which means "gravy" in many North Indian and Pakistani languages and comes from root Tur which means wet in Urdu/Frasi)[1]. Bengali dishes called "Torkari" or vegetables stewed/dry in gravy is another potential source for the anglicized "curry" since the British occupation of India started in Bengal before Madras. Another theory is the root word for curry is "Kadhi" which derives from the term "Kadhna" meaning "to simmer" or "Karahi" denoting the cooking vessel used in Indian kitchens.