Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

A lot of the non-fiction that I've been reading lately has been about food and "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" by Lizzie Collingham is the latest in that trend. It describes the history of Indian food and how it was influenced by various invaders and immigrants. Collingham makes the argument that "authentic" Indian food has never really existed and shows the evolution of various Indian cuisines, both in cooking styles and use of ingredients.I thought that this book would have a lot of speculation and conjecture, but it is actually meticulously researched - almost every paragraph contains a citation or two. Consequently, the book is a little bit prosaic, although it flows quite well and the wealth of information that it contains certainly makes the dryness excusable. The book starts off with a description of Indian cooking as described in early Ayurvedic texts, and then talks about how the Mughals, Portuguese and British, in particular, changed these methods.It's amazing to think about how many common Indian foods (potatoes, tomatoes, cauliflower, corn, custard apples, pineapples, chillies) are from the New World or Europe and were introduced to India in the seventeenth century or even later. I was especially surprised that chillies weren't always part of Indian cuisine (although apparently chillies were adopted by Indians so quickly, that by the time they spread to some parts of Europe - Germany, Hungary etc. - they were believed to be indigenous to India.)Another thing I found astonishing that the British had to set up a marketing campaign to get Indians to drink tea, given that India is currently the world's largest producer and consumer of tea. They set up an Indian Tea Association, that among other things, went door-to-door demonstrating the proper preparation of tea, and during the Second World War, had "tea-vans" that provided Indian soldiers with tea and letter writers to keep in touch with their families while at war.The book also details the culinary lives of the British living in India ("Anglo-Indians") and to a lesser extent, other cultures. I found the change in British fashions absolutely fascinating - from authentically prepared curry, to the excesses of burra khana, to tinned salmon. The influence of Indian food all over the world (the West Indies, Pacific Islands, Japan) was also something I didn't know much about, and I am glad it was included.A couple of minor nitpicks - the notion of not eating food prepared by (or even come into contact with) an "impure" person (i.e. of a lower caste/different religion) seems incredibly archaic to me, but seems to have been pretty prevalent, according to Collingham. As an Indian, I would've liked it if she had been clearer that it is a relic of the past. Perhaps I'm just being too touchy, considering that this is a book dealing with history.I also found the mention of the British divide-and-rule policy annoying, since it was only talked about in one paragraph, and I would have liked to hear more about the "apparently benign acts of cultural accommodation" by the British with regards to segregating food service by religion.

As a friend of mine once remarked, the measure of a culture is in the complexity & variety of its cuisine. Lizzie Collingham's book is a look into the development of this complexity & variety through centuries of conquests of the Indian mainland, & the consequent assimilation of societies, customs & spices.From the Moghuls to the Potuguese & finally to the British, the Indian subcontinent's cuisine has been in a millenia-long flux. This book is the story of this flux. Sure, there is a huge plurality of cuisines, particularly regional, that aren't a part of this book, but, for me, what this book might/could/should have been is nearly not as important as what the book is.As Collingham talks about the cuisines, she also documents a great deal of history & nuances often not part of text-book history. You'd find the Moghuls becoming "Indian" with Akbar, the Portuguese marrying Indian women & the consequent Indianization of the Portuguese househlds, & in the late 19th century, "...as Victorian Britain was enthusiastically embracing the idea of empire, & curry was becoming a favoured dish among the middle classes, Anglo-Indians were busily eradicating as many traces of India as possible from their culture."Of course, there are recipes in this book. A mere handful of them. But they're all captured in the minutest of details. Unlike the 4 to 5 step Biriyani making process that you'd find on the web, this book's Biryani recipe is two & a half pages long - so that if you follow it well enough, you may be able to soften up an emperor enough to get a grant of 10 acres of prime real estate or some such royal favour.

The development of India cuisine, not unlike the evolution of the Indian nation is not without many twist, turns and unexpected developments. In "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors: Lizzie Collingham begins with the premise that India developed a national cuisine that was warped beyond all recognition by western imitators and ends up with a totally different conclusion, that as a living thing, Indian food has evolved over the years, taking on new influences from the Persia, Central Asia, Portugal, the British (both in India and later in the United Kingdom) and finally America. Purists of all stripes maybe appalled at the central thesis, but proponents of the strength of pluralism will rejoice.To begin with there is no single type of food that typifies Indian cuisine. It is a country of serveral different climates, range of foods, and ethnic traditions. Food from Kashmir is different from that from the Punjab, from that of the Bengal region. In many respects, Indian food resembles in its range and array of influences, both foreign and domestic that of the United States. ,The first significant influence to affect Indian food came from the Mughals who brought a Central Asian palate and a Persian sensibility to food. While this influence had an affect on all aspects of Indian food, perhaps the greatest impact was in the attitude the Mughals had toward food, as a source of unalloyed pleasure.This attitude puzzled and shocked the next great influence on Indian food, the Portuguese, who from their trading port of Goa provided New World ingredients like chilies and tomatoes to the range of possibilities in Indian cooking. Vanderloos, long the staple of late night drinking sessions in the UK and elsewhere could not be possible without the range of ingredients provided from the Western Hemisphere.The impact of the British was both lasting and profound. First, during the period prior to the 1858 Indian Mutiny of 1858, the members of the East India Company tended to go native, take Indian mistresses, and adapt to local customs and local food. After 1858, when the British sought to demonstrate exceptionalism, the colonial officials tried desperately to pretend they were still in rural Kent or Suffolk or the Midlands by their actions and food choices. English food and especially tinned food was preferable because though tasteless, demonstrated the Britishness of the colonial officials who lived very separate lives from the native population. Some of these ingredients were incorporated into Indian cuisine. Back in Britain, an appetite for the exotic tastes and smells of the Raj influenced the way the British prepared food, leading to the creation of Indian restaurants throughout the larger cities at first (mainly by people from what eventually became Bangladesh) until it became possible to buy curry in any local pub.While the impact of Indian food has been most profoundly felt in Britain, post World War II America, where other Bangladeshi immigrants brought the experience of Indian food to the United States.Ms. Collingham's book is both informative and entertaining and provides much in the way of understanding. She does include a number of recipes, some old and difficult to follow due to the arcane units of measurement employed. The lack of modern equivalents are one of this book's few faults, limiting the adventurous cook to roughly half the recipes listed. However the story told is an interesting one and the author does her best to keep her narrative both lively and fascinating.

Interesting read. Well written with some useful recipes interspersed with the text.

I liked this book, parts of it are even very good. In my view the author failed to explore the depth, complexity, originality and influence of Indian cooking. I write this as someone who cooks myriad Indian dishes from across that large country's varied styles and flavours. There is a possibility that my feelings arise from the book having been pitched, in my view, too low. That said having read it initially and then put it away and thought about it, I have just picked it up again to re-read it. Perhaps it really is rather good.