How an Indian Stew Shaped the Modern World: From Cleopatra to Queen Elizabeth

[@OTRontheroad]

Locations: Basmati (Punjabi): maps.app.goo.gl/rtuw3FtmUnemDHhe7 Iraqi: maps.app.goo.gl/h2kDzAZ2H3MaBTgz9 Bangladeshi: maps.app.goo.gl/rK55w3fb9piyVtJg7 Kerala: maps.app.goo.gl/pgzhiAE6tD19as4K7 Japanese Curry: maps.app.goo.gl/vjW5jrxcT5wFXnT5A Kate's Place: maps.app.goo.gl/ofHzMTaZGsFZDuUQ9

[@santhoshrider7348]

The word "கறி (Curry)" was used to refer to the Black pepper in Sangam literature of the Tamil language. Later, it referred to the dishes in which pepper was used. That's why கறி started referring to the meaty part of vegetables and meat. Ex: காய்கறி (KāikaRi) meaning Vegetables, ஆட்டுக்கறி (ĀttukkaRi) meaning goat meat, கோழிக்கறி (KōzhikkaRi) meaning Chicken meat, etc. Later, கறி got derived with the meaning of "any gravy that is thick in consistency". Ex: Tamilnadu Saambaar, Punjabi paneer butter masala, Thai curry, Kerala Kadala curry, etc. Kuzhambu (குழம்பு) is also used to refer the Gravy in Modern Tamil language. On the contrary, anything that is of runny or watery consistency is called சாறு (Saaru), literally meaning "juice or extract" in Tamil. Or popularly known with the Sanskrit term Rasam (ரசம்). Ex: Madras Mulligatawny Soup from the colloquial Tamil word "MiLaguthanneeer" for the dish called மிளகு ரசம் (MiLagu Rasam) meaning "Pepper Soup or rasam".

[@Sunil-b473]

Actually I will provide other alternative of word curry. In telugu language in South India. We call the Word Noun Dish as "Kura". What is the Kura today i.e what is the dish today. What is the curry today. So curry is leaf and all is nonsense to me. And it's time to acknowledge it as alternative to word dish.

[@srinivasanpartha3826]

@@Sunil-b473In Tamil we still name our dishes curry, like currykulambu and MaraKari(Vegetables) no other language has direct reference with the exact word Curry

[@Sunil-b473]

@@srinivasanpartha3826 you said the exact same thing that curry is alternative to word "Dish". You are saying "It is potato curry" it is potato dish.etc I have just provided alternative to word curry because Telugu is not some small language. It connects North to South and has more population than Tamil in India. You can't rule out the possibility.

[@srinivasanpartha3826]

@@Sunil-b473 I’m not sure if I understand what you are saying and why you are bringing up population and all, I didn’t mean any thing bad about your comments, I just added that in Tamil we still use them exactly as curry itself, Also when you say dish like potato dish as Potato curry, are you saying that in British terms on how they call every saucy food thing a curry ? Are you saying, Curry is actually a Telugu word and not a Tamil word? I’m not clear, can you clarify?

[@ZOCCOK]

As an Indian, call it whatever you want, make it whichever way you want. But just make it delicious and nourishing, that is what food is all about.

[@BeyondKnowledge-qb5qs]

Indian food reflects the people of India. Rich, nurturing, and warm. As a disinterested 3rd party, I would say Indian people are polar opposite of the British. Then, is it any wonder that British food tastes so awful? hahaha All I am saying is that Indian people are awesome, just like the Indian food.

[@nelsonchinasamy9857]

There are 1.5 million Indians in South Africa, the majority of whom live in the city of Durban. Their curry is called Durban curry. This is totally another taste altogether and delicious. You need to try it to get the difference from the Indian sub continent curry.

[@BornKafir]

​@@nelsonchinasamy9857nobody in the subcontinent eats "curry" except when they have foreign food such as Thai curry or Japanese curry. But if it makes you feel good, sure, call it slop all for I care. But having subcontinent roots, I assure you Indians or Pakistanis or Bangladeshis aren't calling their food "curry".

[@nelsonchinasamy9857]

@@BornKafir thank you for enlightening me on that. I am not from the Sub continent, it is just the place of my origin. I not a every day curry eater but love it whenever I do.

[@BornKafir]

@@nelsonchinasamy9857 You're welcome. Have you ever had any kind of a stew? What's the difference between a stew and curry? Would be nice if we take a moment to appreciate the fact that curry is not what Indians or anyone in subcontinent call their own stews. I'm Canadian of Pakistani background. Curry is something I was introduced to by European Canadians. While growing up, my family fed me lots of delicious stews and not one of them was named curry. They did have individual names such as Nihari, KalaPacha or Nargisi-Kofta etc.

[@jmsuther01]

I’m from the Caribbean. I grew up eating ‘curry’ although I didn’t hear that word until much later in life. My (Indian) grandmother’s cooking always started with onions garlic ginger and turmeric, with the addition of black pepper, bay leaves, anise seeds, cinnamon and other herbs and spices depending on the dish. She cooked everything like this, even lasagna 😂.

[@lasfloresdicen]

Okay 'curry' lasagna sounds fantastic though

[@jmsuther01]

@@lasfloresdicen things I didn’t appreciate as a child but now sound gourmet 🤣

[@zochbuppet448]

@jmsuther01 You wrote =+ I’m from the Caribbean. I grew up eating ‘curry’ although I didn’t hear that word until much later in life += You grew up eating curry but you never knew the word or heard the word "curry" ????????? Also most people with Indo background don't use the ingredients you mentioned. Did your your family moved from India to the Caribbean in recent times. Doesn't matter how Indian someone is "curry " in the Caribbean is extremely simplified and we don't use the extra ingredients they use in India. Its generally a curry powder, and people with actual indo background might add a small amount of a ground masala powder. No one puts cinnamon in Curry in the Caribbean The non curry ingredients like bayleaf is used in many other Caribbean dishes . Kid...where are you getting your information? This is some of the most discombobulated nonsense I have ever read.

[@jmsuther01]

Actually we didn’t buy curry powder ( in the 70’s) as it simply wasn’t available. My grandmother grew turmeric and ginger in the backyard.

[@jmsuther01]

@@zochbuppet448 ok

[@k-map224]

Indian spices and cuisine have had such an impact on most other cuisines across the world but it still bewilders me when the Atlas food survey thinks Indian cuisine is just the 11 th best in the world. There is still a huge misconception of Indian cuisine in the western world as most of the restaurants still generally serve Punjabi or northern cuisine as it's not too spicy and the rest of the country is not represented well or there is still no knowledge about it and hence this poor ranking too could be a result of it's poor research on what constitutes Indian cuisine

[@OTRontheroad]

Ok- I've debated covering this topic in a video, but I've always hesitated because I feel like even acknowledging Taste Atlas gives it credibility. Your opinion (that it's BS and offensive) is EXACTLY what they want. It was literally created as clickbait, a meaningless website based on a made-up "algorithm" that is fully and completely intended to get people to be like, "I can't believe they said this!" and give them attention and shares. It is the worst thing I've ever seen in food journalism, it's an absolute sham and the fact that it's grown so large depresses me to no end. Shame on the people behind TasteAtlas. I hope everyone just ignores it- by using food to make people fight and argue, it makes the world a much worse place and is literally the exact opposite of what this channel stands for. F*** TasteAtlas.

[@anti-leveled142]

Most indian food around the world is changed to accustom the local palette. Hence, not everyone who eat their indian version of the food may like the actual indian food.

[@stever3658]

I think South Asian cuisine would be a better term for what we usually call "Indian food." Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Tibet are all part of the South Asian geographic area. If I overlooked any countries or autonomous regions, I apologize. In an area of this sides regional variations are natural. Dishes that are seen in a number of regions in the South Asian area frequently show these regional variations. Thank you for providing what I see as an important cultural and culinary learning resource.

[@k-map224]

@@stever3658 Please stop using that term for a part of world that is so diverse with people of different ethnicities, religions, cuisines , cultures , languages and traditions as it's just degrading to bucket all these countries from south Asia as one and many people in India and South Asia too wouldn't agree with this term which was made up only to makes it easier for westerners to distinguish is as they usually don't care to learn about a part of the world than just theirs. Every state in India has its own cuisine unique from the other so this type of nomenclature is totally unacceptable

[@ds-48]

​@@k-map224not all western food is the same either, but it's still a valid label. The same could be said for European food.

[@AS-yf4jr]

Thank you, India, for giving me my absolute favorite thing to eat. I can't describe how much i love curry.

[@Anmol34]

As an Indian, I thank you for going to great lengths to put this story together. And 90%+ of the information in this video is new to me as well.

[@krono5el]

We are called Indians too even tho we have never left the Americas or been to Sindia or Bharat : D

[@cosmicwisdom999]

​@krono5el Thanks to Columbus thinking he was in India when, in fact, he was in the West

[@LearTrough]

@@cosmicwisdom999 This word itself was coined by the European explorers and colonizers and then they spread it all around. Earlier called Red Indians (tribes), now the term has changed to Indians and more recently and accurately, Native Americans which distinguishes them from people born in India, a separate country with that name.

[@cosmicwisdom999]

@@LearTrough Trust me, I know the history, but thank you anyway

[@SRJ7798]

​​​@@LearTrough The word actually comes from Greek indicus, which comes from persian Hindush, which comes from Sanskrit Sindhu.

[@ZTTINGS]

I love all curry styles from Indonesian to Japanese to Thai to India to the Maldives. But as a second generation Hungarian growing up in England, I am genuinely surprised Hungarian food did not become as well known and popular. If you like curry styles, look up a few Hungarian recipes and use genuine Hungarian Paprika (not smoked or Spanish). You won't be disappointed. Chicken Paprikás, Beef or Pork Pörkölt, or a real Hungarian Gulyás are so insanely aromatic and flavourful. They are almost made the same way only without the more eastern spices.

[@jimtitt3571]

The use of paprika in Hungary was a latecomer by several canturies, it is a late 19C /20C thing, the rest of Europe was well past that by then.

[@kevinjamesparr552]

I am English and know well Hungarian paprikas as the best of best

[@adamlorenz2027]

🍲

[@emotionalIntelligence2078]

When you have a custom of bathing a fish in the bathtub before the main day of Christmas, why distort history with paprika which was brought by the Romans to the EU region from middle East Arab traders on their voyage to Southern India which got them fashion craze of linen quality cotton textiles too or the spices from the Indo-Greek trade post Buddhist times.

[@KJ-yises]

Gulai is perhaps a version of goulash.

[@yo2trader539]

In Japan's case, it's believed that curry was popularized by the Japanese Navy. Cooks who finished military service would often open restaurants in their local municipality or port cities. It's assumed that Japanese Navy learnt the dish from its interaction with the British Navy in the late 19th century. These days, curry is served every Fridays in the Japanese Navy. Each ship will have its own unique secret recipe, and there is an annual Navy-wide competition to decide the best curry.

[@OTRontheroad]

This is another one of the huge amount of interesting things that didn't make the final draft so this wasn't a five hour video. But yes, this is true as far as I'm aware.

[@jakoblarok]

I cite the mini-arc of One Piece, where the Straw Hats are dropped into a World Navy fortress after their adventures in fake-heaven (Skypeia). As everyone is running around incognito, trying to figure out how to reconnect and plan their escape; the main character, but mostly his cook are roped into a weekly curry contest between fleet admirals and their fleets' "secret recipes". I instinctually knew what you were saying was true. The same actually happened with US military cooks, but not with curry. Basically all the bad yoshoku everyone fawns over (out of politeness?), like meatloaf calling itself Hamburg steak, spaghetti Napolitan, and other instances of cooking heavily with "a ketchup-like sauce"... it all seems to have come from interactions with the US military cooks, who were diligently working with what ingredients were available to them in wartime, and a far cry from the eminent chefs-in-the-making that the modern US military trains today.

[@OTRontheroad]

Watch our video on American Fried Rice. You'll love it@@jakoblarok

[@nickpantalones4606]

@yo2trader539 when I lived in Yokosuka, the cook at the curry house I frequented told me that curry reached Japan around the same time as Buddhism, which was around the 6th century. I suppose he's as good at spinning yarns as he is with cooking because, as you said, existing historical accounts credit the British Navy for introducing curry to Japanese cuisine.

[@DJ_POOP_IT_OUT_FEAT_LIL_WiiWii]

In Japan if you fail your curry you have to commit harakuku.

[@yummychips_]

I was a restaurant manager of a Indian/Manchurian style restaurant. When I started I spent weeks researching the dishes we were doing so I can better do my job. I was blown away by how deep curry culture goes. It was interesting to learn, but I knew I had only learned surface stuff. Your video goes much deeper than I did, and it was great to watch.

[@Saagar_Sahu]

Theres nothing called curry

[@dangelocox1715]

Indian and Manchurian? That's quite the combination, isn't it??!

[@sg82688]

​@@Saagar_Sahu there is a dish called curry/kari/kadhi. The dh is a hard 'r'. Kadhi is a Punjabi yoghurt based dish.

[@AutriBanerjee]

​@@dangelocox1715 indo-Chinese is very common in india. hakka immigrants to chinatown in kolkata created a new fusion cuisine

[@dangelocox1715]

@@AutriBanerjee That's so cool to learn! Thank you so much for teaching me about it!!!

[@sunwukong2959]

It is Kari in Tamil and Malayalam languages where their ancestors had strong trade across South East Asia and West But it was the British who took the Kari@Curry across the whole world. Kari means spiced stew or thick broth or roasted paste in Tamil and Malayalam Kari also means pepper, spice, roasting, veg and non veg. In Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand we know that it was the Tamil traders who brought the dish to South East Asia regions. In our Malaysian history we learned that the western ghat of the present Tamilnadu and Kerala yields abundant amount of the spices for east-west in the past. Till to date the best spice powders are produced by the Malaysian Indians predominantly the Tamils. eg.Babas, Alagappa....brands. Later it was introduced in Korean, Japanese and Chinese Culinaries.

[@mohanlalpremranjannaik107]

In Odisha we call it " Tarakari" May be it was influenced by Tamil "Kari" word. There are a lot of historical connections present in ancient Odisha and Tamilnadu.

[@sunwukong2959]

​​​@@mohanlalpremranjannaik107 kaaikari, marakari means veggies in tamil in telugu and kannada tarkari means veggies only two think remembered from history.... King Kharavela had ransack the pandya kingdom and took away lots of wealth...which is stated in the hathigumpha inscriptions Raja Narendra Choda Ganga was a Chozha and Chalukya mixed blood Peer to the Tamizh Kingdoms the Kalingas had a strong maritime and trading power from north bay of bengal to South East Asia, probably later overthrown by Pallava and Cozhas Apart, not sure what amicable relationship between Tamil Land and Kalingas. But both were indepedent countries of Northern Indian Kingdoms. Till the Ashokas attack.towards Kalinga, which has paralysed their glory.

[@suyashneelambugg]

@@sunwukong2959 In the north the same Kari is called Karhi. And is probably the most widely eaten dish. Made in many different ways but the most common being curd/yoghurt karhi with different things inside like brinjal/aubergine, pakora or even potato.

[@sunwukong2959]

@@suyashneelambugg I know Karhi, Kadhi but they are not same as Kari/curry. Curry has no relation with curd/yogurt at all.

[@academia-x]

I'm from tamilnadu, and Tamils don't say it curry, they call it kolambu, and i think curry is not familiar in tamil culture, thir rice is mostly like sambar sadham, thair sadham, etc. They coock rice with vegetables they don't coock seperate curry. Ithink the curry is north indian origin.

[@ladygem]

My maternal ancestry is from Bengal who came to British Guiana as indentured servants and brought their foods and other cultural traditions. At every holidays we serve a curry dish. It is one of our go to meals

[@18wheels48]

🇮🇳🇬🇾💯🚩🕉

[@imacarguy4065]

A lot of Caribbean Cuisine is based on Indian cuisine. Including, and quite controversially, pelau.

[@mangopudding5979]

No, not from Bengal.

[@mangopudding5979]

​@@imacarguy4065vast majority of the Caribbean cuisine

[@NarendraRajkumar-yz2it]

🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾proud

[@rahulm4490]

The news about the archaeologists finding curry remains at a Harappan site is mind-blowing, because as they said in an interview- the food in that part of India is similar at least in ingredients and cooking techniques to what is still being eaten today. On the other hand, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat (the sites of Harappan/late harappan civilization that fall in India) are largely vegetarian today whereas archaeologists repeatedly found evidence of charred pieces of meat from cattle (possibly Nilgai) cooked in a proto-tandoor....I don't know but food trivia just blows my mind

[@sairamnandikanti3441]

Jainism and Buddhism completely altered the food choices in India. Before these two religions were formed, even Brahmins consumed beef.

[@rootmantra]

Indus valley civilization was not just harappa .. It was actually Indus and saraswati civilization. There are cities now found on the extinct sarawati river that predates atleasst 4000-8000 before Harappa..sites like kunal found in North part of indian state haryana .. Anyways Curry originated from 'Tarkari' or 'Tari' which simply means something oozing with ..or dipping or floating ..the root word is Tar (fulfillment/full) .. BTW onion originated from todays south part of Afghanistan which was also once part of indus civilization and is a key ingredient of any curry .. An ancient text mahabharat mentions of something similar to todays Avial(south indian dish) .. BTW this text Mahabharat is atleast 4000 years old as it has few mentions like drowing of few / star positions etc .. Ashtang hridayam an ancient text on medicines/wellness mentions of many kind of curries that a person can have.. And tandoor is 100% indian which then went on to central asia and then spread to other country

[@datasquids5109]

​@@rootmantra lol literally there is word curry in Tamil, that's means dish made with meat/spices, and your telling it's originated from Hindi/Sanskrit

[@the_number_one]

This is since South Indians are more related to the Harappans than current population of NW India.. In this video too, the host said the same food was found in South India as the original 'Harappan' curry he found in Punjab. Many archaeologists posit that South Indians were the original inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization, which might very well be the truth based on recent genetics as well

[@shirokun4742]

​@@the_number_one you guys are from fantasy land Kumari kandam😂 Why you what credit from Aryan 😂😂

[@sanjaysajeev]

As a Keralite, this reminded me of Aspinwall House. Which was building in Fort Kochi by John H Aspinwall. Which was a godown for the export of spices across the globe. And is now being used as the venue for Kochi Biennale which is an international exhibition of contemporary art. Still spreading influence internationally.

[@tachyonpong]

In Australia, I learned Fijian Indian curry recipe. As a Thai, that broadened my perspective of curry.

[@TheMrinalBanerjee]

I, being Indian, fell in love with Thai curries when I visited Thaailand in 2018. It is amazing how diverse the idea of curry actually is.

[@ChineseKiwi]

Yep, all the siblings' favourite food here is Mum's Cantonese curry chicken. Even my future brother-in-law, who's white, knows how good it is and the siblings flock where they hear the news Mum is cooking it. and she insited that she only used curry powder made in Fiji, as it was far better quality than those in the supermarket and it makes all the difference :) Cantonese curry chicken is more watery than it's Indian origins and often features potato and carrot. The port city influence.

[@jojoanggono3229]

​@@ChineseKiwifrankly I've never know Cantonese style chicken curry. Closest thing is Malayan chicken curry usually served with rice vermicelli, which is delicious. People call this curry a Peranakan cuisine, meaning local dish adapted by migrants (exodus from mainland China).

[@risingsun9064]

Wow, Ancient India was such an amazing and advanced place.

[@induchopra3014]

Indian meat curries ,are the best. So complex. Rest of good ,is bland in comparison. Crave the indian mutton curry,so so good

[@aaradhyarawat7589]

​@@induchopra3014I think many people in foreign countries have started associating every Indian dish with thick brownish saucy texture as Curry as all the Curry(Kādhi) spice paste based Indian dish have thick brownish saucy texture. But not all Indian cuisines with thick brownish sauce texture has Curry into it. For example, Chicken Curry and Chicken Tikka Masala have similar thick brownish sauce texture but both are entirely two different dishes. Calling any Indian cuisine with thick sauce texture as curry is pretty ignorant and disrespectful of the diverse culinary culture present in India. I believe it's because of two things : (1) Popularised Colonialist orientalist's interpretation of Indian culture and cuisines. (2) Indian people's lazy approach of acceptance of popular narrative crafted by foreigners instead of digging up to know their own history. Even now in many Indian states, especially down South, people have started to assume Oriental narrative as their own history because the Colonialist's interpretation has been added into their daily vocabulary from centuries. Well, the period of Colonisation more than 150 years, and it is really a very long time.

[@skippymagrue]

I wrote a paper in one of my college history classes about their plumbing. It's a fascinating history.

[@induchopra3014]

@@skippymagrue just saw an old Indonesian hindu village. So beautiful. With lovely architecture. Lovely old buildings and well organized meticulous drainage system. Hindus knew about hygiene. It was an old village but not in slightest dirty. Like mohenjodaro Well planned

[@Gremlack13]

My wife’s chicken curry is actually my favorite food I’ve ever had. She uses a spice blend from her aunt in southern India. It’s so amazing. I tell her she needs to learn how to make this mix, as her aunt won’t always be able to give her a spice mix from the other side of the planet.

[@livinplakkandavis6223]

Well i am from southern india. And you can buy this by searching kerala chickern curry masala powder

[@plinnytheother6107]

depends on where the aunt is, sometimes variable by the district too

[@mangopudding5979]

Your wife isn't Indian.

[@siddeshnaik2296]

I think you are talking about garam masala, Every Indian mother prepares 2-3 kinds of this masalas in the summer and uses them year around, the reason she does not realise how great this masala is because all her neighbours/community will be preparng this at their homes hence she doesnt think that big of it. Also Indians suck at commericalising things.

[@Suite_annamite]

*@**31:25**:* Believe it or not, *French cuisine had long adapted some Indian food* into their culinary repertoire in several forms: they have Norman curried mussels, "briani", "massalé", and "achards" (their imaginative re-renderings of "biryani", "masala", "achar") from Réunion, as well as even a *Parisian chicken curry* called "cari St-Denis"!

[@drodro7672]

There is also the "Kari Gosse" of Britany (of Lorient more exactly) or Bretagne, which I eard about recently. A "pur breton" spices mix (even named "Curry breton"), which is told to be popular there.

[@perogycook]

Don't forget Vadouvan...

[@LaCheshireChat]

I live an hour north of Lorient. Kari Gosse from Vannes/Lorient (has a tiny bit of heat,) or Curry Breton or Breizh Curry (from a company in Saint Malo in Côtes d'Armor on the north coast,) came over during colonisation and was spread around by privateers. Basically it's composed of: turmeric, coriander seeds, dulse, wakame, sea lettuce, nori, cumin, black pepper, fennel, mustard seeds, fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and green cardamom. I feel the use of our locally sourced seaweed is unique. Curry Breton is an extremely mild blend, with nothing hot like chile pepper, but is lovely with mussels and different seafood such as prawns or a sauce for poached fish. It's pretty essential in Sauce Armoricain, which is a Breton invention (Ar Mor means The Sea in the native language of Breton, Mor Bihan is Little Sea,). Being a former Southern Californian, I often add cayenne, Hatch chile or gochugaru unless I'm cooking for my French friends, then I keep it very mild.

[@debkrishnachakraborty6070]

To those who are trash talking about their food is different from another or sort of like that, you got to admit that "All Hail to The Ancient India" and its treasure "The Spices". There's not a single region in this world which didn't have any influence by Indian Spices and cooking techniques. The Influence can be very restricted but still that influence made a significant impact on other culinary skills. Just to clear, If anyone thinks that I'm Glorifying India, then YES! But not disrespecting anyone.

[@anirudh2704]

The main influence of spices was because the spices by their anti germ property saved the meat from spoiling. So any spices shouldn't not be taken more than reqd.

[@santhoshv3028]

​@@anirudh2704 not only anti germ property but also medicinal values. Many spice has medicinal values and balance the body in many way.

[@asimnawaz9256]

Indian curry has a special place in global food choices. India has been a home of spices for people of other continents. We read stories of spice trade in early Roman history. Obviously, Indian would use those spices in their labor-intensive cooking techniques. House-wives played their role in preparing normal dishes but luxury dishes were introduced by the royal chefs of Kings and Nabobs. Use of onion, ghee, and garam masaala would invariably be used in Indian dishes.This is why British gave it a name, Indian Curry ( Common name for most of the dishes using more or less similar recipe)

[@induchopra3014]

Punjabis have a word, tarry. For the soup in meals

[@SahilSura-yq4ds]

​@@induchopra3014 I'm a haryanvi tarry literally means watery

[@alexmacdonald258]

As a paleoanthropologist/archeologist, I wish I'd had this video when I was teaching. It is the BEST video I've ever seen, connecting the human experience in a way everyone can immediately grasp. We are, and always have been, a travelling people, while at the same time, taking as much of "home" with us, as we can, spreading both the good and the bad across the human landscape. Everyone on the planet, in some way, can relate to food as a "connector" of our beginnings. If one of my grad students had done this work as a thesis, I'd give it my highest marks.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Yesterday my daughers bought me a vegetable curry in a Thai restaurant, and we talked food. I told them of my time at university having a Malaisian roommate, and a group of about 20 Malaysian friends who I met on the soccer field. Soccer is like football, but there is no money in it, so it stinks less. One person would cook and everyone would eat, and then we'd clean up. Never had to clean knives and forks, since they ate with their hands. A delicious time. I learned a lot about cooking from them.

[@Colourmad314]

Thank you…soccer is like football ⚽️ but there’s no money in it 😂😂,

[@m-oc1yr]

I am an Indian by birth...but never seen or heard the story or history of curry... its an amazing story and how all the dots connected. Thanks to your extensive research guys. So there existed a Curry-road before silk-road :)

[@squ34ky]

Funny... there's a 'Curry Road' in Mumbai (Bombay).

[@marna_li]

So a “curry” could apply to a stew made out of any spice blend in the tradition of the ancient spice trade. Awesome. Just sad that my northern European country wasn’t part of it. But perhaps I could invent a Swedish masala in modern times ☺️

[@mushy470]

i think maggi is swiss which is close enough

[@lalkwe7311]

Great idea! Add more variety to the whole curry story.

[@kc4276]

Just please no surstromming.

[@marna_li]

@@kc4276 Hmm. Thanks for the tip! ;P Surströmming is actually not as bad as it smells, at least I think so.

[@janvanrenselaar5998]

@@marna_li Well the opinions about that are devided.😉😂

[@jitengori9268]

Good work on all the research for this video. It's one of the most comprehensive but succinct videos that captures so much history and helps bring it all together. As an Indian, the way we would describe "Curry" is much simpler..... It's really any dish that has a gravy or sauce. It has nothing to do with which spices are used. So an Irish stew or a lebanese lobia stew would be call a curry by an Indian. As you rightly pointed out, the concept of a "curry powder" was invented by the British, which has since pigeon holed all Indian dishes into a "curry" or "that yellow stuff"!! To be clear, when Indians make a dry dish with vegetables or meat but with a blend of spices, ginger, garlic, etc, that is not called a "curry", it's simply for example, a Punjabi or Bengali style veggie or meat. Every Indian household has their own spin on the spices that they use for each dish. It's so cool to learn about how we are all connected by food despite being so diverse culturally. A video to be shared for sure! Good job!! 👏

[@farmdude2020]

Thank you India for bringing such wonderful flavors to the world! I'm making some coconut salmon curry right now as we speak 😋

[@jasneetkaur6782]

I am from Punjab ,India🇮🇳.I am really happy to watch your video.We in India never use a word curry.Our food is so diverse.There is one of our famous dish called "KARHI" it is yogurt (lassi).🙏Thanks for doing such good video.😊❤

[@A.J.906]

Curry is from Tamil Kari meaning exactly that. In Telugu it is Kura.

[@samwienska1703]

​​@@A.J.906 if i am not wrong, Koora in Telugu means spinach like green leaf vegetables, right?! Like Gongura (deformed word) , Thotakoora, Aaku koora, etc.

[@A.J.906]

@@samwienska1703 Kura is just Stew/Curry. A Preparation. Literal meaning of Kuragayalu/Kayakuralu is cookable fruit-pod, which in English translates to vegetables. Similarly, Akukura means leafy vegetable like Palakura, Gongura etc.

[@KilanEatsandDrinks]

Finally, the long-awaited video! 👏 Unlike in our immediate neighboring countries that like to deny their pre-Islamic connections to India, in Indonesia we have to learn about Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa at school although we never learned about their culinary history 😅 It feels somewhat nostalgic for me to read names like Hammurabi and Vasco da Gama in this video 👨‍🏫 It is definitely one of my pet peeves, how white people call everything “curry” when even locals themselves don’t call their dishes that. I like how Indians describe the whole thing as “Curry is an umbrella term popularized by white people who couldn't be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes” 😂 In Indonesia, we would only call a dish _kari_ or _kare_ if it has South Asian or Middle Eastern spice elements in it. Otherwise we would accept it if our many varieties of _gulai_ or _gule_ are categorized under “curry” but definitely not dishes like _rendang_ which is in its own category 😊 I wonder if the sentiment is similar in Thailand, as they have different dishes that white people would just indiscriminately call “curry” other than their many iterations of _kaeng_ 🤔

[@wooyyeah]

I know which immediate neighbouring countries you're talking about. Hahahahaha Your categorising critic of what should fall under curry is great. What a rare and well-educated post in a youtube comment's section.

[@KilanEatsandDrinks]

@@wooyyeahis it because you’re from one of those countries? 😂 Thank you for your kind words, I am just someone who loves to eat! Cheers! 🍻

[@pushslice]

@@KilanEatsandDrinks Please spill the beans…who is it? I’m genuinely curious ; we’re all friends here …pls share ;-)

[@KilanEatsandDrinks]

@@pushslice have you figured it out yet? 😜

[@pushslice]

@@KilanEatsandDrinks Well, I have guesses, but I don’t want to offend anyone especially if I’m wrong lol BTW, I’m Filipino so I am fully prepared to accept in case the answer is….“us” (but I don’t think it is. wish Our kare culture was more prevalent; it’s just a speck…)

[@marin4311]

For my personal taste, the best curry is "Roasted Curry" from south India and Sri Lanka. It is very different from what we call 'Curry'" in Western countries. I'm m a big fan of curry leaves, i use it in Chai masala, with fruits, desserts and even yoghurt.

[@aakarshchaudhary7359]

Roasted style is Chettinad style masala is local to tamil region of south india, the natives of which choya dynasty had kingdom and spread hinduism till indonesia, now indonesian are forcely converting them to locals to islam, google it

[@Sunil-b473]

Actually I will provide other alternative of word curry. In telugu language in South India. We call the Word Noun Dish as "Kura". What is the Kura today i.e what is the dish today. What is the curry today. So curry is leaf and all is nonsense to me. And it's time to acknowledge it as alternative to word dish.

[@senaeco]

Do you use Curry leaves in Chai Masala ? That is really a true innovation. You should launch this as Curry Chai

[@aakarshchaudhary7359]

@@senaeco These white people like something else, coca leaves are meant to be chewed not make concentrate out of it

[@davehenderson6896]

If you want the best curry, I would recommend Sri-Lankan curries they are THE best.

[@baht_and_paid]

The way underrated OTR. I fail to understand why there aren't so many more folks subscribed to the channel.

[@sts0868]

I totally agree. These documentaries could be broadcasted at every TV station

[@Duiker36]

I always find it fascinating that people demonstrate their love for a channel by proudly declaring their own ignorance and unwillingness to think a little about how things work.

[@sts0868]

@@Duiker36 oh - please tell us how things work ?!?

[@brucetidwell7715]

Thank you for this. It's an all round excellent video! I can't wait to watch some of your others. I really appreciated your riff on spices at the end. I have over 30 different herbs, spices, and blends in my pantry and every time I look at them, it is in my mind how unbelievably fortunate we are. Today I was at the International Market near my house where the spice section is a wall of shelves 7 feet tall and well over 15 feet wide. I came home with Masala Pan Bahji because I found that recipe last week and want to try it. The masala tastes amazing! I wouldn't pass up a chance to try some, but that Japanese curry looks very sad next to all of the others.

[@Suntoria236]

My only exposure to curry was Japanese curry for a decade, so you bet I was blown away when I tried all the different kinds of curry from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc when I moved to the US Loved learning about the origin or the common ancestor of all these curries, thanks!

[@srini9653]

OMG, this video is so informative on the spices as much on the history. Thank you very much for all the effort to go through the history of the spices. Being an Indian all that is said here, seems super-accurate!

[@chefKeithSarasin]

Love it!!! Thanks for chatting with me about this topic!!

[@OTRontheroad]

Cheers and great having you on! Look forward to doing it again.

[@zhisu2665]

I wasn't expecting a literal history lesson but I stayed for the literal history lesson. continue pls.

[@siddykay]

In India, the styles of curries change literally household to household, district to district, and state to state. Can never get enough

[@biswabose8577]

Oh that is a fantastic informative documentary☺☺ ! very well researched I must say . Really enjoyed it . May I contribute two interesting points just for reference. 1. Indus valley civilization or Sarasvati Sindhu civilization ( recent term) actually encompasses mainly three regions rather then only Punjab. Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat. It seems Gujarat region has more sites in numbers then the other two. Also Trading with Mesopotamia was mostly conducted from the Gujarat coast . 2. Earlier migrants to Funan , who probably established the Champa civilization was most likely from ancient Kalinga ( modern Orissa, Andhra pradesh) region . Which also has very similar cuisine like Bengali ( West Bengal, Bangladesh) cuisine. Coconut is used in Bengali cuisine also but less prevalent then Kerala cuisine. However later part post 7th century Ad South East Asia started to have more interaction with South India then North East India( Bengal, Orissa) . Hence South Indian influences increased steadily. History is always evolving with newer discoveries 😊😊

[@soumyasanyal9588]

Huge fan here. Love the in-depth research. Food history is truly one of the main pillars around which the modern human socio-economic culture is based. And to think it’s just a collection of seeds, flowers, barks and roots.

[@cringe1660]

It's 20-30% bullshit He should have atleast done consulting of indian historians He low-key seems white supramacist to me

[@martyhandley4456]

Adam and team, your level of research and passion for historical relevancy of food was summed up completely when you said, you can taste the history. Your dedication to the historical data, the way the information travelled and was shared is captivating. The stories are intriguing, and it’s been eye opening and humbling as well. I really enjoy these educational stories and their relation to the foods we enjoy today. Thank you OTR team.

[@OTRontheroad]

Cheers Marty and thanks for all of your longtime support.

[@aakarshchaudhary7359]

@@OTRontheroad I am indian few corrections, south and north indian masalas are different. The south indian choya dynasty had relation and spread hinduism till indonesia, thailand, and you can see different spices. Eithiopia and india had maritime relations, which became more prominent with arrivals of arabs, there were small kingdoms of african kings, generals in western india around 14-19 century, ex janjira, sachin state. Doha, Dubai before discovery of oil, or major arab city ports were known for their indian spice trade. There were many chinese travellers in indian who have written vivid accounts of standard of livings etc in 4-5th century Xuanzang, Faxian, buddism spread to china even before that, buddhism has origin in india, bihar. Ahom kingdowm of north east which existed till 18th century in north east indian had thai ancestory. With the silk trade route, buddism had spread as far as tajikistan in central asia, they have discovered giant buddha statues. Even before islam central asia had indian influence

[@aakarshchaudhary7359]

@@OTRontheroad yes curry is a dumb british popularized word, we don't have such a word a general word for all dishes.. Curry is not malayali word, its is also a dish which has yogurt in it in north

[@OTRontheroad]

Just watch the video man, all of that is explained in there. All of it

[@martyhandley4456]

@@aakarshchaudhary7359 did u watch the video before this comment sir? I don’t think so as all of your comment is addressed in the video.......

[@TheRishijoesanu]

Kerala is the spice garden of India and also home of coconut. No exploration of curry is complete without Kerala and Malabar Coast. In fact the age of exploitation was kicked by Portuguese who found the spice route to Malabar/Kerala which is the origin place of Black Pepper. Every curry/spice lover should visit Kerala once.

[@smegoz]

I'm an Aussie and I will be going back to visit my forefathers in Kerala. I can't wait and almost all of the time will be about reconnecting to history, and food, even after 100 years have passed since.

[@samuellmani]

@@smegoz I hope you enjoy your time over there. kerala has many toddy shops near alleppey (local alcoholic drinks) where you can get some really spicy red gravies for prawns, deep fried small fish (podimeen), semi-dry clams (klams) duck and beef roasts. Roasts will be slightly more sweet because they caramelise onions with slow cooking. There’s also the white gravies (fish Molly or Kerala chicken or veg stew) which has more aroma and a lot of coconut milk which makes the curry kind of sweet. Meanwhile north Indians use cashew paste or cream to make their Curries less spicy.

[@smegoz]

@@samuellmani thanks yes thinking of going there for end of year holidays and appreciate your tips! I understand the coconut makes it sweet and I had a lot of that taste with breakfast as a child in Malaysia (puttu and puttu mayam etc) but most of the rest of the food I had growing up might have been quite influenced by Tamilian food since that is the largest indian cultural influence in Malaysia. Will be quite interesting to reconnect with the actual foods that my forefathers/mothers made and enjoyed.

[@chrismathewjoseph1283]

Still can't believe coconut didn't originate in South India. Theng🥥 illathe malayali illa 😂

[@oldsarj]

A friend of my parents went to Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer and after her first hitch, brought home an African curry made from goat or mutton (my mother insisted on using lamb because the other two were too 'musky' for her). It made a thick, brown stew that was served over rice and then topped with whatever fresh fruit was available, spicy chutney, peanuts and (yuck) dry coconut. It became a family staple for entertaining. The only trouble was that even if you started with only a small scoop of rice, by the time you had worked your way down the buffet, your plate was heaping. As a teenaged boy, this was heaven! I wonder where the recipe went because it is an amazing way to serve a crowd.

[@djweebo]

I am from West Punjab and I although I knew some of our dishes and techniques went back to the IVC and the Vedic times (like the Tandoor), I didn't realize just how similar the food we eat today is to the food of our ancestors 5000 years ago! I thought that a lot of the more complex dishes we eat today were more inventions from the medieval era, but clearly the IVC was even more advanced than was previously expected; makes me hope that eventually more archeological work is done to find out the secrets of a that era, on a similar scale to what's been done in Egypt. I've previously visited Swat and it's museum and some Stupas in the vicinity (If you ever come to Pakistan you should definitely see the area around Swat valley btw, it's gorgeous), and I was planning to see Takshashila as well, but now this video has motivated me to also go and visit Mohenjo-Daro or Harappa, so that's on the bucket list now I guess. Great video, and I love how much effort you put into the each videos and how they've improved over time, the videos where you talk about world culinary history and how different cultures have had an impact on other cuisines around the globe are always extremely interesting. I hope to see more from your channel in the future :)

[@cringe1660]

Satwik food is exactly what our ancestors ate during Vedic age You can still taste the exact history You don't have to find similarities in butter chicken lmao

[@QamruddinKhan-hf4dn]

Tandoor is not Vedic, it's middle eastern, central asian, and armenian

[@GargiSingh-op2je]

True If you want to taste what ancient food might be like I suggest you to implore 55 bhog also known as 56 dishes I'm sure u will love it

[@mangopudding5979]

Danava civilization of India is this planet's and India's first civilization. Indus Valley civilization is India's last Civilization

[@rimurutempest2130]

Tandoor is definitely Indian But the word might be mixed up over centuries as we know today as "Tandoor"

[@lucasbarefski351]

My fav is chettinad crab curry at Sri Ananda Bhavan. The spice is through the roof. The heat is on par with jungle curry. The mud crab so sweet like a lollipop. I still remember the taste like it was yesterday😋

[@SYLFan2008]

Now that's one way to steer clear of the ubiquitous, overly sweetened, orange goop you find in the USA. Well done!

[@aakarshchaudhary7359]

Chettinad style masala is local to tamil region of south india, the natives of which choya dynasty had kingdom and spread hinduism till indonesia, now indonesian are forcely converting them to locals to islam, google it

[@mailmeabhilash]

Chettinadu food open up all the holes in the body.

[@SattickDas2001]

This is pretty much proof that most of the people from the Indian subcontinent can trace some of their lineage to the harappan people. And also, it's recently discovered that the so called "Aryans" or indo-europeans, were only one of many different ethnicities that together resided in Harappan culture. P.S. I'm Bangali. From West Bengal, India. Also, now coconut has become an important part of the bengali cuisine too. A famous Bengali dish called "Chingri Malaikari" literally is a corruption of "Prawn Malay Curry" Thank you for featuring our food.

[@supersaiyan460]

You are living under tha rock Aryan is not a race And rakhigadhi ki older than Harappa in haryana And they all are indian Stop your propaganda

[@SattickDas2001]

@@supersaiyan460 and there is no such thing as a "race", there exists ethnicites, and all genetic boundaries are usually fuzzy and not concrete.

[@mangopudding5979]

Lef tish cl own, so called ar yans never exi sted and they never came to India. Indus valley civilization is the last civilization of India. Danava Civilization of South India is this planet's and India's first civilization. Stop believing in the Western pro paganda and li es.

[@mangopudding5979]

​@@supersaiyan460exactly so called Ar yans never exi sted and never went to India.

[@mangopudding5979]

​@@SattickDas2001ra ce is a reality. So called ar yans never exis ted and they never went to India, stop peddling euro pean supre macist li es. Indus valley civilization is the last civilization of India. Danava Civilization of South India is this planet's and India's first civilization which is at least 30,000 years old. Ge netic boundaries are indeed concrete.

[@nandkuj]

Just some info on South African Indian cuisine, it's more than just Bunny Chow. We have a number of different dishes which we either eat with roti, rice, pap (a local dish similar to polenta but made with white maize) or bread. It's when curry is served inside a hollowed out loaf of bread that you get a Bunny Chow but there is most definitely your Durban Curry outside of that.

[@edwinpillay1409]

What's up Durbanite, tell it like it is,bro from NYC.

[@Saagar_Sahu]

Baniya chow* spot

[@NarendraRajkumar-yz2it]

🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾

[@arunlekha]

You know where you will not find curry powder? India. 😂

[@aaradhyarawat7589]

I think many people in foreign countries have started associating every Indian dish with thick brownish saucy texture as Curry as all the Curry(Kādhi) spice paste based Indian dish have thick brownish saucy texture. But not all Indian cuisines with thick brownish sauce texture has Curry into it. For example, Chicken Curry and Chicken Tikka Masala have similar thick brownish sauce texture but both are entirely two different dishes. Calling any Indian cuisine with thick sauce texture as curry is pretty ignorant and disrespectful of the diverse culinary culture present in India. I believe it's because of two things : (1) Popularised Colonialist orientalist's interpretation of Indian culture and cuisines. (2) Indian people's lazy approach of acceptance of popular narrative crafted by foreigners instead of digging up to know their own history. Even now in many Indian states, especially down South, people have started to assume Oriental narrative as their own history because the Colonialist's interpretation has been added into their daily vocabulary from centuries. Well, the period of Colonisation more than 150 years, and it is really a very long time.

[@renegadepuppy]

@@aaradhyarawat7589I don’t really agree. Curry is an anglicized version of Tamil word meaning sauce or relish. I think it is quite similar to the idea of curry. Also, the narrator clearly mentions that you would see that curry doesn’t really mean a thing as it can be many different things. Also around 30 minutes, he talks to an Indian food historian. It seems you haven’t watched the whole video. The Kari which you mentioned is a later description in Portuguese cookbooks where they restricted the use of curry to a smaller category. Also, we cannot blame the West 75 yrs after our independence if most Indians are completely ignorant of what is a curry, and what is not. Also, most Indians are quite ignorant of Continental food. They say this is all the same. There is widespread ignorance about cuisines of other countries. Are we respectful of the Chinese cuisine in our country ? We are utterly disrespectful.

[@stephaniet9875]

Does garam masala not count? Just curious, not arguing.

[@HumBhiH-v3b]

How much do u want? Even Baba Ram Dev sells curry powder 😂😂😂

[@Rudi_Mentary723]

​​@@renegadepuppy Indians are ignorant of what a curry is ?! Lol. We literally invented curry and it takes various forms across different regions in India. The name, the history, the definition, the ingredients you put in it, no matter whatever style you cook it in, everything comes from the Indian subcontinent. What's funny though is a westerner telling us what a curry is ! 😂

[@aliciaerusan7579]

Thank you for this...very insightful...I am 3rd generation South African Indian.

[@feiryfella]

I have simply no idea why you don't have more subscribers! This channel is amazing!

[@sayajinmamuang]

There's alot of thai haters on here denying history that's why.

[@justtrynalive]

i see many racist people on instagram calling us indians curry eaters or curry cels and they should watch this video lmfao cuz at this point its a praise not an insult. india is definately where anything close to curry originated and now its loved worldwide so imma be taking the currycels as a praise from now on.

[@OTRontheroad]

Love this comment

[@vv6533]

People are missing out this amazing culinary culture in the west. Only few brits could understand its true value.

[@squ34ky]

If you knew where the specialised term 'currycel' comes from, you wouldn't consider it praise. Btw, Korea numba 1.

[@kitkat299]

I mean I’m Indian and it doesn’t really matter. People show disgust for us and will find our culture more palatable with East and Southeast Asians. They show disgust for us, but love them in it. Our food is gross, but they love Japanese and Southeast Asian curries which get more praise. Media representation also loves using them in Indian culture over us. They also get to profit off our culture more than us because they are more palatable.

[@aaradhyarawat7589]

I think many people in foreign countries have started associating every Indian dish with thick brownish saucy texture as Curry as all the Curry(Kādhi) spice paste based Indian dish have thick brownish saucy texture. But not all Indian cuisines with thick brownish sauce texture has Curry into it. For example, Chicken Curry and Chicken Tikka Masala have similar thick brownish sauce texture but both are entirely two different dishes. There are obviously many delicious curries but calling any Indian cuisine with thick sauce texture as curry is pretty ignorant and disrespectful of the diverse culinary culture present in India. I believe it's because of two things : (1) Popularised Colonialist orientalist's interpretation of Indian culture and cuisines. (2) Indian people's lazy approach of acceptance of popular narrative crafted by foreigners instead of digging up to know their own history. Even now in many Indian states, especially down South, people have started to assume Oriental narrative as their own history because the Colonialist's interpretation has been added into their daily vocabulary from centuries. Well, the period of Colonisation more than 150 years, and it is really a very long time.

[@Niksg9424]

Yet another banger from the OTR crew. I watched this for the third time with my mom last night (german immigrant to the US,) and I made some (vegan)currywurst und pummes and we watched it with dinner. Keep it up yall

[@superneenjaa718]

I really appreciate your efforts in investigating deep into the history of the food cultures. Thanks for sharing this knowledge.

[@narayananmmenon339]

Wow. You know most Indian families have their own blends of spices suited to their lifestyle, environment and palette. One thing I always did was to appreciate both my grandmoms cooking. The memory of the food they cooked makes much if not all of the dishes I eat out now pale in comparison to. I only have one of my grandmoms alive now…..she is 84, but she still cooks for me when I visit. I will get to visit her again in 4 more days. Lesson to all children/teens out there. Eat what ur grandparents cook for you…u only get a few years of this luxury.

[@JayKughan]

I love how a Westerner shows up & gives us a lesson in the history of curry/kari. Kudos to you man! Thanks for making the effort to put his together. Love from a Malaysian born Sri Lankan + South Indian mix dude.. 🙏

[@Sunil-b473]

Actually I will provide other alternative of word curry. In telugu language in South India. We call the Word Noun Dish as "Kura". What is the Kura today i.e what is the dish today. What is the curry today. So curry is leaf and all is nonsense to me. And it's time to acknowledge it as alternative to word dish.

[@JayKughan]

@@Sunil-b473 Seeing as we're conversing in English, it would help if you learnt to "type in English" as well. What's this I'ma jibber-jabber while texting as a reply? This ain't WhatsApp bruv. Anywayz, do you have a video about kura and leading to curry just means "a dish" coming up? I mean, though Malaysian, I am of Indian decent, so I get what you're saying & you're right. I think your reply to my comment makes for a great follow-up video to this one. But yea, type in English please. This isn't WhatsApp & truthfully, you come off sounding like a rambling drunk when you respond like that. Go "respond" mode bruv, don't go into "text" mode ✌

[@squ34ky]

@@JayKughan seems like every state in India wants to claim credit for the word 'curry'...

[@JayKughan]

@@squ34ky I bet it'll be the same in Sri Lanka as well. I'm Malaysian, but Indian + Sri Lankan mix. Curry's just synonymous with Indian cuisine.

[@identityloss4428]

kari is curry , kaassu is cash , many😮 words were picked up , as a tamil dint you know that already ?

[@stevenrldenault7451]

For me one of the best helpful explanations on Curry. Love the historical way you are explaining different cuisines. Great work! Thank you, Steve (67yrs) Manitoba

[@kss2257]

Curry with Rice is a match made in Heaven

[@NarendraRajkumar-yz2it]

True🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾🇬🇾

[@RDK325]

The amount of research and effort went into this video is alot, and i appreciate it

[@RG-un2vl]

The Caribbean might have contributed to the western curry concept as well.Since the indentured Indian laborers were far away from home,they probably combined what limited Indian spices that were available to them with a few adoptable local spices to come up with singular ‘curry’ spice mix they could add to everything.This then became the western worlds introduction to Indian food).Curry powder is only available in the west; in the east esp. in India,each prep has its own unique spice mix.

[@ElaBlu3]

No, the British invented curry powder and spread it globally. The video talks about it!

[@sassythesasquatch4425]

@@ElaBlu3no such thing as curry powder. Its called turmeric and it was not invented by the British but stolen.

[@sassythesasquatch4425]

@@ElaBlu3curry powder you might be on about is the fake shit u find in a chippy probably.

[@imacarguy4065]

I'm from the Caribbean. This never happened. Indians bought the curry powder from the British who bought it from Indian merchants. Local Indians in the Caribbean then started making their own powders obviously but based on the same ingredients. If you look at Indian made curry powders, they have every ingredient that a Caribbean curry powder would have and more. It's also way more vibrant in my personal opinion. Ratios are the main difference though. In a spicy curry, you might get some local chilli powder at most. But the base ingredients are the exact same.

[@Wonder-q7n]

​@@imacarguy4065Curry powder is not a traditional spice mixture in India and it is very very rarely found to be used in Indian food.

[@zxcytdfxy256]

Much love from India

[@p5gBand]

Thank you so much OTR, this was the episode that I have been waiting for. Loved it.

[@jesshumphries3745]

Videos keep getting better and better - top quality.... thank you guys 🙂

[@Jango1989]

This was an amazing video! I love all curries and really want to eat some now 🤤

[@kn0bhe4d]

Fantastic video. I think me binging Tasting History with Max Miller made the youtube algorithm send me this video, and I'm glad it did. It was an absolute treat, and I can't wait to watch the rest of your videos.

[@OTRontheroad]

Cheers and glad you found us.

[@sivakumarmohan1612]

Loved the video with many unknown facts about the curry. Proud Tamilian who already knew that curry arose from Tamil word Kari which is confirmed here!!

[@DeathRose96]

awesome video as always, just wanted to say that I'm an archaeobotanist (I study both seeds and starch grains) so I'm used to food history relaying on our discoveries, but I was happily surprised by the guest chef talking about starch grain analysis 🤣

[@ravigovind9587]

The journey is fascinating and we were well informed by the video. One thing is certain, without a good curry, our food is not complete for the day. Thanks.

[@fardinahsan2069]

These videos scratched a itch that no other videos did in a long time. Most of youtube is filled with junk optimized to maintain your attention span.. A calm, yet informative and entertaining documentary is a diamond in the rough.

[@marilynbodasing9393]

A wonderful overview of "curry". I am of Indian descent, living on the East coast of South Africa, where indentured labourers were brought to and where "bunny chow" originated! South African Indian cuisine was from family- derived recipes when I was growing up and included a vast array of cooking methods, with vegetables forming the main ingredient. This has amalgamated into a unique South african Indian cuisine, distinct from India, Thailand and other eastern curries. However, nowadays, a huge blend of world cuisine has been added to our spectrum of recipes.

[@rituskingdom5880]

Beautifully made presentation. A good amount of research went into it.

[@incubusk8r]

There is a restaurant in Delhi called "MALA AKHBARI" that creates historical dishes. that could come as close as tasting IVC dishes.

[@OTRontheroad]

Amazing! I'll add it to my "must-visit" list along with a couple others I have pinned in India that take a similar approach. In this video, there are a couple photos I chose for showing "Harappan Food" which are actually from a pop-up a couple years ago by Chef Saby Gorai serving Indus Valley food at the National Museum in Delhi. Amazing idea.

[@incubusk8r]

@@OTRontheroad I too love Indian food history - So i have read/heard the reason why stews became important way to cook is because ancient IVC people used cow dung to cook, which unlike wood fire, don't give you roaring uneven high flames, but constant low flames for a longer time, which is why stew was the most common way to cook. How true it is, i can't say. Even now in more remotes parts of India people still use cowdung to cook. But sounds like a interesting hypothesis

[@anirudh2704]

​@incubusk8r in south, they prepare old traditional food for ancestors where they don't use red pepper and all.

[@GargiSingh-op2je]

​@@anirudh2704hi I'm from Kashi in varanasi as well we do not use red and green chillies as well as potato and tomato for shraadh. Shraadh is what we call offering to ancestors before sharadiya navratri.

[@TheSamuiman]

As a lover of south as asia, viewing this video makes me drooling...what a wonderful versatile cuisine!

[@leoneldelarosa814]

I'm Mexican. We in what's now the state of Oaxaca created something that can actually fit the qualification of a Masala (a spice blend of that kind, even for a kind of stew): MOLE. It even has a similar technique. The Indigenous peoples in here, unbeknownst to the rest of the world and centuries later from Harappa. Amazing to see how great ancient cultures really were!

[@mangopudding5979]

Yes, the first spice blend and curry originated in India and that too more than 20,000 years ago.

[@DrunkeGeneral]

The production quality of this series is amazing!

[@pannachawangkul585]

OMG, Adam! If you have not had Chickpea curry yet, I highly recommend you to try A Dozen Cousins brand Trini Chickpea Curry when you are back in the states. Sooooooooo......gooooooooood. 😋 I have at least 5 pouches in my pantry at any given time. Pour over steamed rice or baked potato it's a quick tasty healthy satisfying meal for me. The curry recipe are the mixture of Indian immigrants in Trinidad's spices and the locals'. Tastes amazingly like Thai curries. Your story telling is, as always, GRIPPING. This free food history lesson is much appreciate. 🙏

[@zochbuppet448]

Hes a pasty white guy from middle America ...like literally.... midwest. Hes what they call a digital nomad. Half of the younger U.S population is now living either in Mexico or Thailand like him making youtube videos

[@user-zk8ed4kd2b]

I'm going to try to find this. Thanks for the tip.

[@jamesleng6231]

I love this channels. As a history buff and food History lover I adored the content. I would really like to know how he source his facts and research he does. I don't doubt his research but as a fellow history lover I love to see the cited works. I want to be able to explored the histories of cuisine.

[@samuelbarringer715]

Curry was forever changed when tomatoes, corn, chili peppers from the Americas where brought to India by the people from Portugal.

[@ericktellez7632]

Portuguese, Spaniards and the Dutch more specifically

[@siddeshnaik2296]

Europe all together changed from a poor continent to a rich one after trading with India. And no one uses corn in any of our dishes. and it is a very big lie that chilli was introduced by Portuguese there are more variety of chillies in India than anywhere else in the world, chilli is used extensively here than anywhere else, not only that the tolerance of tolerating spicy is more here than anywhere else.

[@justdoit4789]

Curry in India was always good before Tomatoes. Tomatoes just gave birth to a different style of curry

[@justdoit4789]

​@@siddeshnaik2296exactly. Chilli originated in India, corn too.

[@Netro1992]

​@@justdoit4789 Just to be clear, you believe corn and chili peppers were already present in India before the Columbian exchange or is this some language issue?

[@ERICJUANLAVA]

I am a Native of the Philippines...and We have a local party dish made from Oxtail, Beef skin, and beef , slow stewed in a spiced peanut sauce not unlike a Rendang. Amazingly, it is called kare kare.It is colored using anato seeds and thickened with toasted rice flour and coconut milk. A distinct Filipino addition to the Curry process was eaing kare kare with fermented shrimp paste (Bagoong).Kare Kare is mostly eaten during holiday get togethers. Its party grub

[@OTRontheroad]

Exploring Southeast Asia's Most Unappreciated Cuisine kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqiWkIprjZana5Y Here’s the story of Kare Kare!

[@watermainz]

Reading the comments about a video talking about the word curry just makes me shake my head at humanity. Great video.

[@petergomes8788]

SPICY and HOT are two different phenomena. Very often when a dish is HOT (meaning a lot of hot peppers), western people call it SPICY. That is a misnomer. The proper description would be HOT. Any dish can have a combination of a lot of various spices (e.g. Garam Masala) therefore SPICY, but if with little hot pepper it would not be HOT. We in Bangladesh find the dishes in Punjab and South India noticeably HOT. Often at home we use Paprika instead of Hot pepper. SPICY but not HOT.

[@rajendrakumarvarsani4184]

In English culture, the different terms are 'spicy' or 'hot' and 'spiced' or 'well-spiced' 👍🏽🙏🏽

[@randyschwaggins]

Problem is that HOT as a description confuses chilli heat with food temperature...so SPICY has been used as the proxy for chilli heat.

[@RonBhattacharya]

Exactly. And when they finally come to India it's often a shocker for them that Indian cuisine is 'flavourful' (spicy), but generally not very 'hot' (i.e. lots of chillies) across the board.

[@TyyTheFlyGuy]

Great vid. I love curry- a friend of mine owns a Indian/Himalayan restaurant in town and makes me some extra spicy goodness when I stop in. That being said- I definitely eat Thai food more often. My little brother before he passed was into Japanese style curry. Well wishes.

[@squ34ky]

24:08 as per folk etymology, the name of the state "Keralam" means "land of the coconut trees". Yeah, I'd say it's pretty important.

[@podangadubukus]

incorrect! Keralam/Kerala comes from Cheralam ......The land of Chera kings who ruled the land for 3 millenniums. Keralam is poor rewording of Cheralam where K is used for C Example Kat or Cat. The English improperly wrote the word which was followed later.

[@squ34ky]

@@podangadubukus that's why I specifically mentioned *_folk_* etymology.

[@podangadubukus]

@@squ34ky what folk are you referring to ? In neither Tamil or Malayalam keralam doesn’t mean coconuts

[@RajasNadkarni]

English folks😂

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@RajasNadkarni volk?

[@YaFunklord]

I'm just so amazed that I've been eating ALL of these dishes for decades and they are among my favourites. Back then nobody had linked them all in such a way as curries. My favourites among them tend to be the ones I've been eating the least recently which therefore changes with time. I think what makes a curry is years and years of refinement of what is a complex texture of flavour. Nowadays, I know how to cook most of them myself, but I keep learning new things by using the ingredients in different ways and doing the emulsions more properly. I live in northern Europe where some of these spices are still not easily available without a restaurant distributor, so it is still a challenge that I hope information videos like yours will soon help overcome although I also have a flat in Bangkok where I can bring home spices from. Thanks for the great video!

[@subterraneanhomesickalien1344]

South Indian cuisine is so underrated. It’s so delicious but people often overlook it because when thinking of India they only think of the north. Especially, Tamil cuisine is sooo good

[@Anshulhe]

Wells indus valley people mostly migrated towards north west and south of modern India As suggested by genetic research And indus valley people were already trading with Neolithic people of kerala in exchange of goods and spices. But Even today if you look for Harappan genetic dna it's highest frequency can be found in deccan south i.e Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra region and north west indian states of punjab, Haryana, west up and western state of Rajasthan and Gujrat. Harrapan marker though biggest contributor to all indian gene pool but less comparatively in eastern part of india i.e in bengal region.

[@umaryusuf537]

I would assume there genetics are found strongest in Sindh and Pakistans Punjab or no?

[@Anshulhe]

@@umaryusuf537 No Sindh it was third highest after South Indian higher castes like brahmins, then gujrati, then Sindhi and why because as I said most indus people migrated to South and west of India and whoever remained in Sindh intermixed with many ethnicities who invaded from time to time, especially with Turkish and Persian and Arab which replaced some of IVC gene components, whereas Punjab is 4th that too only specific castes, some have very less IVC.

[@umaryusuf537]

@@Anshulhe interesting

[@fung4310]

Very interesting

[@mangopudding5979]

Stop relying on fa ke gene tic reports. Indus Valley civilization is the last civilization of India. India's Danava civilization of South India is this planet's and India's first civilization

[@professorm4171]

The spices were medicinal, I think. The blends of spices balance the humors in the body like Chinese thoughts on balancing of Yin & Yang.

[@Saagar_Sahu]

They preswrvw food

[@vg3971]

Each spice has different effect on human body and it's well described in Ayurveda books. Like black pepper is hot in nature, it increases pitta dosh in human body so should be used lesser. Whereas as Cardemom ( Elaichi ) is Cooling in nature and hence can be used more during hot Summer months. Ayurveda is the Science of Life , literally. Indians were the first to do Plastic Surgery in the world. Sage Shushrut was credited for this. Shushrut Samhita and Charak Samhita , books that one should refer for details on Ayurveda. I started laughing when I read that in USA Europeans were putting cut in the body to reduce fever. It caused several deaths including US president of that time. What a great knowledge they had about human body !

[@andrewwilson7909]

The acidic spices preserve food and are used in the first part of the cooking. Alkaline ones added after to give balance.

[@stefthorman8548]

@@vg3971 you say that, yet Indians can't solve Tuberculosis or Smallpox, must suck being the inventers of everything before everyone else, yet can't solve those simple things.

[@roland3146]

Great video presentation as usual. I love how you are able to give historical value to your food videos. It’s so interesting to get that perspective.

[@cheewinkaewthai8781]

What a great video!! not even once that you guys ever failed to impress me, great job guys!!

[@MrUdi123]

This is wonderful. Thank you for all you hard work. Good luck ❤

[@mylesjude233]

Awesome video mate. Your discussions are always interesting. Hope you do ingredient history videos on the mango and coconut 🥥 🥭 ❤

[@OTRontheroad]

Honestly this came down to the last minute of deciding between doing curry and coconut. Have been researching both for a long time, and look forward to doing a dive into coconuts one of these weeks. Wild story.

[@mylesjude233]

Awesome, can't wait to see you make more 5 star videos ✨️

[@RorysRamblings]

I love this channel so much!

[@OyMongoose]

South African curry is not just bunny chow. There are two distinct types of curry in SA - Durban curry (hot, Indian origin), and Cape Malay curry (milder and sweeter, from Indonesia). Each of these has numerous dishes. Bunny chow is just a popular street food in the Durban curry tradition. Cape Malay cuisine is famous for its briyanis and bobotie.

[@Fun_rakshita]

You deserve a like man... Absolutely food can connect to anyone

[@_narcosis]

My favorite video yet from my new favorite food channel on KZbin. I love history and I feel like I learn something every time I watch one of these. Shout out the Kate's, love that place! Also the random Chandragupta from Civ6 cracked me up.

[@handyman7147]

A mouth watering documentary, I should say. Relished the whole spread. Refreshing ❤

[@tarjei99]

In Norway, curry powder was mainly used with fish balls in white (milk) sauce. It was added to the dish at the table.

[@jackywu2152]

What type of fish balls? In Hong Kong/Guangdong people do practically the same thing with Chinese fish balls and curry sauce. Normally drenched with some combo of chili sauce and hoisin before serving.

[@foodtaliban]

Norsk Curry 🤔

[@tarjei99]

@jackywu2152 Ordinary industrial produced fish balls. The curry might not provide much taste, but it did provide colour.

[@Ajhmee]

When you explain about how Himalayas seperated the food culinary between India and China, I relized that everything you explored about food histories are in Thailand. Then I understand why you stay in this country. If you love to learn about food all around the world Thailand is the best place to do that.

[@cestrell]

Every single time I check out one of your videos, I am awestruck by how thoroughly you research and how impressive the presentation is. I'm personally a fan of hybrids of Bengali and Northern dishes but also Japanese Karikatau and Rendang. As a Native American Indian, I appreciate knowing my people's contribution (chilis and tomato - though I don't like tomatoes in "curry"). Anyway, thank you for yet again, creating a great video. I'm so glad I discovered you through your friends at Chinese Cooking Demystified. All the very best!

[@robertobruselas3952]

Great video content. You made me understand more about the origins of Curry and Spice Blends named Masala. Greetings from Europe BE.

[@salempasangasp]

So coming from Tamil region, the appropriate term for the "curry" Category in tamil eould be kuzhambu (ku- lam-bu) which refers to any dish that is liquidy (all those we call curry) and the meaning itself is something thats liquid. If at all the brits would've taken this exact word from tamil instead of "kari" Which often refers to veggies or meat(it also refers to dishes in some regions) the " Curry" Of today would be "kuzhambu" Which would've made perfect sense since its already referring to a category of dishes. Also in india almost none call them curry. As i said in tamil its either kuzhambu (if its like curry), or rasam (meaning the juice of, its to refer dishes made by grinding a spice paste usually and very watery like soup , an example would be the milgutani soup which is milagu rasam aka pepper rasam), another term used is saaru ( refers to the extract of something). Another fun fact is the term "curry leaves" Are called that way not because they are used in curry. In tamil its called karu-veppilai (meaning black neam), its commonly called as kari-veppilai and thus it transformed into curry leaves.

[@OTRontheroad]

Interesting in how curry leaves got their name!

[@heidilove9643]

Most of the ingredients are found in South Indian.

[@anadventfollower1181]

Also the Indus Valley and the Harappa (Karappa - Black) civilization are predecessors of Tamils. Many of the key places have been modernized for the sake of the current day speakers that have taken refuge in one of the important places where the Ancient Tamilians bloomed. We did not have 'H', starting words, the 'Sh', sound, and so on- or we did but we refined the language to what it is now, very hard to tell becauase of what the brahmani and the british have done.

[@senaeco]

@@OTRontheroad In Tamil Kari = Meat, Kai Kari - Vegetables. When modern Europeans interacted they must have asked for meat when it was served with rice. Obviously, they are going to serve meat stew, which is Kari Kozhambu. Kozhambu with its voiced retro-flex approximant which is ɻ in IPA notation and ழ, in Tamil and Malayalam is a night mare for even Dravidian language speakers, so Kannada and Telugus have removed it from their phonology. The Tamil name for Curry leaves is Karuveppilai, its flavou simply stands out of anything it is cooked with. It is found in almost all savoury dishes from the Dravidian nations. It one of the three most important herbs along with Neem, Tulasi (Holy Basil). Because it is used in Curry and damn Karuveppilai is impossible to pronounce for a just landed sailor or bucccaneer or a missionary from Denmark, it is easy to pronounce Curry leaves. The presiding deity of Venkadam, Lord Venkateshwara divorced his consort Padmavathy as his father in law the Lord of Money missed to bring Curry leaves in the gift hamper for the wedding. Such is theh importance of Curry leaves. Lord Venkateshwara stands on the Tirumala Hills and his Consort Padmavathy below in the plains. You have to note Tamils and Malayalees have been having trade relations with Greeks and Romans for thousands of years.

[@anadventfollower1181]

@@senaeco Very indepth and informative!

[@magic.biabani]

It would be interesting to see the connection between Persian stews to Indian curries, since the Persian spice mix for the stews (turmeric, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, black pepper, cinnamon and ...) and stewing as a cooking technique seems similar to the old Indian curry.

[@mangopudding5979]

You are correct

[@bryanhumphreys940]

I love that almost 4000 years ago somewhere in Babylon, someone inscribed a recipe into a rock for a lamb dish that called for kamunum, or cumin. Like in the video, words and food, some things don't change very much.

[@glf2424]

Just ran across this channel and will have to look at the rest of the postings. Absolutely fascinating and informative. Really opens up the Mind palette :)