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The roots of Japan's Indian curry

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Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#111

Post by mytailorisrich »

TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #53
Brajeshwar wrote: post #28

I'm not much into food. I'm kinda the "I eat because I have to." My disclaimer is that I'm not an expert but here are a few interesting stories that might be relevant to this story. I come from a place where there is a huge influence of the Japanese and grew up in folklores punctuated with Japanese stories. I got to know a tad more, when one of my school-friend took a keen interest in digging up British and Japanese…

In Ireland, I'm used to the idea that Indian restaurants are run by Pakistani men, and Chinese restaurants are run by Malaysian women.

There are a significant ethnic Chinese minority in Malaysia and ethnic Chinese are the vast majority in Singapore.

So they can possibly be "Malaysian women" and also ethnic Chinese.

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#112

Post by jrochkind1 »

gumby wrote: post #106
MichaelZuo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, most Indian Restaurants in India, if not owned, are pretty much run (cooks, etc.) by Nepalese. Really? There must be some odd social dynamics behind that because it sounds so implausible going from demographics alone.

This kind of phenomenon is pretty common, basically due to network effects. Consider how many small town motels in the US are owned by Patels. Or those “Chinese” (definition and style changes in every country) restaurants: regardless of the cuisine written on the window (Sechuan, Hunan, Cantonese, Shanghaiese…) what is the ethnicity of the owner likely to be (depending on what country you live in)?

Or the USA "greek diner" phenomenon of the 20th century.

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#113

Post by dagmx »

unmole wrote: post #90
dagmx wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India was colonized. Whether they specifically colonized an area or not is irrelevant. Indian regions don’t exist in isolation. Kari in telugu is not the same as curry. The colloquial use of it as such is an artifact of British rule. You dont exist in a bubble. Kura is not the same as a generic curry. Not all things that are considered a “curry” are Kura or Kari

> Indian regions don’t exist in isolation. Hyderabad existed as a politically and culturally separate entity. The ramifications of these historical distinctions play out in politics to this day. See Telangana statehood for an example. > Kari in telugu You keep bringing it up but to the best of my knowledge there's no kari in Telugu. > The colloquial use of it as such is an artifact of British rule. Do you have a sour…

Sorry I meant Tamil Not Telugu. But the point remains the same. Curry in the British sense is not curry in any Indian sense. Kari doesnt imply a specific gravy dish, it implies a spiced sauce component. Saying you want a curry dish is like saying you want a cream dish when you order murgh makhani. It’s incongruent and a conflation of modern colloquial use vs the actual dish. Just like not ever meat dish is a ragu in Italy.

And Hyderabad may have been politically separate. It’s not culturally separate. Unless you purposefully deny any migration.

Hyderabad is not some unique snowflake among the Indian diaspora.

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#114

Post by rippercushions »

bobthepanda wrote: post #69
sho wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> spicy foods here are a) not spicy Ha. Can confirm. Lived there 2 years and while I love the food, as far as I can tell there is no food available anywhere in Japan, at all, that the average south east asian would recognise as even mildly spicy. And outside the home islands I have observed Japanese people reacting hilariously to the actually spicy local food. My favourite was a co-worker who literally collapsed to t…

How is the Korean food in Japan? Korean food is pretty up there in spice level.

Not by Thai or Sichuan standards it isn't. But to answer your question, denatured Korean food (esp. yakiniku BBQ) is widely available, and more authentic versions can be found if you head to the Koreatowns found in every major city (Okubo in Tokyo, Tsuruhashi in Osaka, etc).

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#115

Post by _shantaram »

hzay wrote: post #44
Brajeshwar wrote: post #28

I'm not much into food. I'm kinda the "I eat because I have to." My disclaimer is that I'm not an expert but here are a few interesting stories that might be relevant to this story. I come from a place where there is a huge influence of the Japanese and grew up in folklores punctuated with Japanese stories. I got to know a tad more, when one of my school-friend took a keen interest in digging up British and Japanese…

I appreciate your account but > Also, most Indian Restaurants in India, if not owned, are pretty much run (cooks, etc.) by Nepalese. Nope. Never seen a Nepalese cook in Chennai or bangalore?

Yeah, here in Chennai, Odia and Bihari cooks are much more common :P

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#117

Post by dEnigma »

dfxm12 wrote: post #80
kizunajp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Half the comments are about that one statement. You might be on to something here..

FWIW, I understood exactly what you meant on first reading. Now to be clear, India has no such dish as a curry. The wording "no such dish as a curry" is a little ambiguous here as to if you mean a single menu item called "curry" or items from the genre of curry. This might be were people are tripping up. However , you make yourself crystal clear with the following sentences: No self-respecting Indian restaurant has a…

I don't agree that this point is crystal clear. If they'd written "They would have a Palak Paneer, or a Moru Curry, or...." and at least included one dish with "curry" in the name, then there would've been no such confusion. But as it stands it sounds to me like it's claiming there is no actual Indian dish that contains the word "curry".

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#119

Post by _shantaram »

thesalsabear wrote: post #118
_shantaram wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it's as deep as you think it is. The author found an interesting story to tell and told it.

I was talking about the comment section.

Ah, well, even in that case there's still a lot of things Indian people don't know about Indian food. Just by virtue of being Indian we do not learn everything there is to know about Indian people / food / culture.
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