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The roots of Japan's Indian curry

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Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#141

Post by MichaelZuo »

fakedang wrote: post #103
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.

Cheaper, more diligent, less likely to cause issues.... Well at least these are some of the reasons I've been told. Also Nepalese isn't necessarily Nepali citizens. India and Nepal are so intertwined, both countries citizens have free passage across each other. A significant percentage of Indian citizens in the very highly populated states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal are of Nepalese origin. I would assume the…

Ah that makes more sense, I was thinking it was literally Nepalase citizens or dual citizens staffing most Indian restaurants in India...

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#142

Post by Brajeshwar »

gumby wrote: post #105
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 grew up visiting many Japanese monuments, including the last stand of the INA's holding place in India where Subhas Chandra Bose worked with the Japanese. Rash Behari Bose (the subject of the article) and Subhas Chandra Bose were entirely different people from different generations.

I'm not that aware but reading Wikipedia on Subhas Chandra Bose[1], they have definitely fought and ideated together as part of the INA (Indian National Army). Here is a sentence from Wikipedia -- "In July (1943), at a meeting in Singapore, Rash Behari Bose handed over control of the organisation to Subhas Chandra Bose."

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#143

Post by hannibal529 »

joshuaissac wrote: post #125
kelipso wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That etymology might actually be wrong. The kari for blackened, burnt, etc comes from കരി where the r sound is a dental flap type r sound, while the kari for curry comes from കറി where the r sound is the typical r sound. So it's more likely the etymology is from malakkarry, which means vegetables, meaning than kari from the blackened, burnt, etc meaning.

Perhaps, but the difference is pronunciation is not definitive evidence. For example, curry veppu (curry tree) is pronounced with the regular r sound in the standard dialect, but in some dialects, it is instead kariyaappu with the dental flap r sound (the 't' in American English 'atom'). The kari for 'burnt', 'blackened' is also related to 'karuppu' for 'black', which is pronounced with the regular 'r' (like curry) i…

Regardless of this article’s content and the discussion here, I’m glad to see some fellow mallus in a HN thread :)

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#144

Post by IIsi50MHz »

brigandish wrote: post #20

> So if you are craving for spice in Japan, try one of the two thousand "Indian" restaurants and you will not be disappointed. Erm, if you've had a proper curry recently then you probably will be. Like everywhere else, foreign foods get tailored to their locality or they die. If you fancy a naan filled with sugar and some pretty bland dishes then try an "Indian" restaurant in Japan. Which should come as no surprise,…

In my experience, using scales of 1 through 10 (least to most spicy), a Japanese 10 is an Indian-in-USA 2.

I usually do a 5 to 8 on Japanese scale, though 3 or 4 is fine when eating with more sensitive people. 1 is tooo sweet, even when I was in grammar school, although it's marketed in Japan towards kids. If an Indian restaurant in USA offers only "mild, medium, spicy", I should choose mild because medium will cause about 30 hours of pain along the entirety of my digestive tract.

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#145

Post by seanmcdirmid »

gumby wrote: post #107
nerdponx wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live above a very conventional Indian restaurant in New York, and once in conversation the owner mentioned to me that he was from Bangladesh. I asked him if were any interesting special dishes from Bangladesh that we don't normally see on Indian restaurant menus in America, and he just shrugged and said something to the effect of "meh, it's all the same anyway." I thought that was kind of interesting. The f…

Had a friend who ran a restaurant in Palo Alto. He had been trained in a three Michelin star restaurant in Burgundy. When they opened they had rabbit, squab, and other great dishes, but hardly anyone would order them. Steak and salmon were the most commonly ordered. It wasn’t worth buying what is considered more “exotic” by the clientele — they just couldn’t sell enough. But when they threw a party at home…!

Rabbit isn’t really exotic, I mean, maybe it is just in the USA? You can get rabbit at some Chinese restraints in Seattle, next to frogs and snails and such. I’m guessing there is some demand in the Chinese community for such meat, but it’s weird to hear rabbit considered exotic (like horse meat, both of which often end up in American dog food).

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#146

Post by seanmcdirmid »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #111
TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A lot of chinese restaurants in the more south Bay Area are run by ethnic Chinese from Vietnam. They might go a bit into both cuisines to become a hybrid place that sells pho and Chinese food, actually I’ve seen places like that in Paris as well.

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#147

Post by sizzle »

kizunajp wrote: post #51
anuraj wrote: post #46

"Now to be clear, India has no such dish as a curry. No self-respecting Indian restaurant has a "curry" on their menu. They would have a Palak Paneer or a Malai Kofta or a Murgh Makhani - all of which we lump into "curry" - but no "curry" - This is patently wrong. Curry is a South Indian word referring to vegetables originally (Malakkarry means vegetables). Come to Kerala - you have Moru Curry (Butter Milk Curry) , E…

As I clarified in another comment, I was trying to make the point that curry is a genre of foods (as your examples illustrate). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35400253#35400453

I understood exactly what you meant, no further clarification is needed. Take the parent comment with a grain of salt, it is clearly biased as Kerala might as well be a different country with its unique, southernmost coastal-climate inspired cuisine and dishes not seen in other parts of diverse India.

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#148

Post by seanmcdirmid »

IIsi50MHz wrote: post #144
brigandish wrote: post #20

> So if you are craving for spice in Japan, try one of the two thousand "Indian" restaurants and you will not be disappointed. Erm, if you've had a proper curry recently then you probably will be. Like everywhere else, foreign foods get tailored to their locality or they die. If you fancy a naan filled with sugar and some pretty bland dishes then try an "Indian" restaurant in Japan. Which should come as no surprise,…

In my experience, using scales of 1 through 10 (least to most spicy), a Japanese 10 is an Indian-in-USA 2. I usually do a 5 to 8 on Japanese scale, though 3 or 4 is fine when eating with more sensitive people. 1 is tooo sweet, even when I was in grammar school, although it's marketed in Japan towards kids. If an Indian restaurant in USA offers only "mild, medium, spicy", I should choose mild because medium will cause…

Having eaten at coco yichiban curry house a few times, a 5 is really really spicy, I typically stay at Normal or one pepper, since they charge for it anyways, no point to add on.

https://www.ichibanya.co.jp/english/order.html

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#149

Post by seanmcdirmid »

sowbug wrote: post #33
rjh29 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two different types of curry. The article/image are about Indian restaurants in Japan, which tend to have a large naan and a few small metal bowls of curry. The one you're talking about is usually known as 'curry rice' (カレーライス) or 'Japanese curry' and has its roots in English beef stew, but with spice powder added. It is eaten over regular sticky white rice, often with a pork or chicken cutlet on top. I personally lo…

Co Co Curry in Japan is my favorite of the second kind. It's easy to come close at home, as dole says, but the restaurant lets you pick the exact spice level, and they always get the rice just right: sticky enough to carve out with a spoon, but still porous enough that it absorbs the curry sauce. Go Go Curry is also worth a visit, and their US franchises are reasonably authentic. But it's a slightly different style:…

Coco yichiban as a few stores in the LA area that are pretty on par with Japanese locations. I visited a branch in Beijing often when I lived in China (after eating there on a trip to Tokyo).

Re: The roots of Japan's Indian curry

#150

Post by sowbug »

rawicki wrote: post #122
johnwalkr wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Co Co is great in how much you can customize it. I always go for very spicy curry with potatoes and fried chicken on top. Go Go is funny in that they list the calories of each meal in terms of rice balls. And some are like 10 rice balls! They used to have a world champion curry, limited to a few orders per day per store [1]. 2.5kg! [1] https://14fourteen.jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/b3bb8c6af2d...

For me, my neighbourhood Co Co had completely broken spicyness scale - 3 was not spicy enough, 4 was the most I could eat (and it goes to 10!).

I worked my way up to 5, but I don't think I'll go higher than 4 in the future. Five was nothing but suffering.
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