Friendly reminder that even though say, Thailand is fairly nearby, the Japanese conception of “curry” is a native take on a German take on a British take on Indian food, and is something like a thick, spiced beef stew served over rice
It is the result of the influence of British naval cuisine, disseminated across Asia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to British military presence. It originally incorporated the quintessential Anglo-Indian invention, curry powder, into the traditional curry paste (chiles, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, cilantro roots, galanga).
Huh!
and ultimately all these spicy curries only date to the introduction of chillies from the Americas, presumably by the Portuguese?
All curries are beautiful, because everyone who encountered Indian food though, “I gotta make this at home!” and then they did and everyone has their own take on it and they’re all good.
(In case you were too lazy to click that link: Vermont Curry is an apple cider vinegar and honey flavored curry invented in Japan. It’s named “Vermont” after a Vermont homeopathy guy who thought apple cider vinegar and honey could cure anything.)
OH THIS THING!! Weirdly enough this was a childhood staple, I have no idea where my mom heard of it or why she liked it so much but she made it pretty often growing up.
And thank you for the explanation b/c i’ve wondered about the, like cultural origins of it for a long time… the box is pretty confusing :P
Vermont curry sounds delicious.
every culture will see a food and, when trying to incorporate it into their own cusine, see it through the lens of how they already cook
the english saw indian food and assumed it should be cooked as a gravy rather then the way people cook in india, because most english dishes are very reliant on gravy
germans saw english curry and assumed that it should be cooked the way germans make gravy, which includes more sour notes like vinegar and is more of a pepper sauce to simmer/marinade then a proper gravy, ‘currywurst’ is in fact quite popular in germany and its closer to remrouladen then it is with anything from india
japanese see curry and assume it must be cooked as a side to a pile of steamed white shortgrain rice as opposed to the seasoned long grain rice thats fully incorporated
and yeah, that ‘vermont’ curry would be true to the japanese mindset as they often incorporate fruit juice into a curry to make it sweeter, for example to make it more palatable to children as japan has a very strong notion of what flavors are appropriate for what age groups and adults are supposed to have sour/bitter flavors as sweet is a childish flavor
