Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published January 15, 2007 Click here for the current edition Curry Every time I recommend a dish that had the word "curry" in its name, I feel I have to attach a long explanation to the effect that few curries have the flavor of curry powder. That's a flavor many people profess not to like--including many who have never actually tasted it. In fact, the word "curry" comes from an Indian word that means "cooked." So almost anything in an Indian restaurant could be called a curry. And the vast variety of different dishes that are found under the name have such a wide spread of flavors that it's hard to characterize them as the same dish. A good Indian restaurant will have eight or more curries, each including different ingredients in the sauce. The reason for this is that, while certain ingredients (notably cumin and cardomam) turn up in many kinds of curries, the actual spice blend for each different curry dish is different. In a way it's like Creole cooking: you know it when you eat it, but it's hard to explain what exactly it is that makes a dish a curry. Beyond that, you find curries in cuisines other than Indian. Thai curries, for example, have their own wide variety of tastes, yet all of them are different from Indian curries, to such a point that onme wonders why they're even called by the same name. So much for definitions, and on to the pleasure aspect. Those who love curry will tell you that one of its most unusual properties is that it's habit-forming. This is not merely because we like the flavor. There's scientific evidence that the spices in curry are literally addictive. It's a very benign addiction, however. The spices in curry all seem to be good for you. My hope today is that enough other fans of curry dishes will come forward and say a few words about it, so that those with erroneous ideas about the dish will try it. I'll start with mine. Rogan josh is a lamb curry (although it can also be made with other meats or vegetables) that is rich, powerfully spicy, and marvelously aromatic. If I were looking for it here, I think I'd go to Taj Mahal. I had some on the cruise ship I left yesterday. (For some reason, all of Carnival's chefs are where most of the cooks are Indians.) I was hungry for it for days after. But that worked out well. We spent a week in the eastern Caribbean, where Indian food has long been a part of the local cuisines on many of the islands. I had a curry envie going on, and on succeeding days my lunches included curried goat, a sweet seafood curry with rice, a powerfully hot vegetable curry, and a chicken curry served in a poppadum. All good, all dramatically different from one another, but all curries. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com