Customer Reviews

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is more than a history of Indian cuisine. It is a history of India as reflected in its food. Each chapter is ostensibly the history of a certain dish (biryani, vindaloo, korma, curry), but it is also a history of a certain era in Indian history and how Indian food changed in that era.

Collingham argues that there is no such thing as "authentic" Indian cooking. Indian cooking has developed largely through the influence of outside powers invading the subcontinent and bringing a new set of ingredients or tastebuds with it. These new ingredients and tastes mixed with what was already there, adding a new layer to Indian cookery. Mughal tastes led to the invention of biryani. The Portuguese brought peppers from the New World and their Indian chefs created vindaloo. Cooks for the British essentially invented curry to suit British tastes.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book--and one overlooked by most reviewers--is its sources. Collingham has read dozens of historic accounts of travel through India. Some Mughal, some British, some French. These travelogues from the Middle Ages through the 19th century provide a fascinating window into Indian life and food at the time. These are complemented by contemporaneous recipes (and modern ones) for dishes from a given era.

You will learn how Indian cuisine developed and you will learn how India developed, and you will discover that both were the result of new influences meeting with the old India over centuries.

Collingham's book, while quite well-written and easy to read, is also a substantial piece of scholarship. Among other things, Collingham is excellent in her de-bunking of the myth of an "authentic" Indian food. Any historian of medieval and early modern India knows that what we now think of as distinctively Indian is a hybrid of numerous cultures. After all, the chili pepper, potatoes, and tomatoes only arrived in India with the Portuguese starting in the 16th century!

Her chai recipe is also quite good. (Why would you ever buy the pre-mixed stuff from the store?)

Well-written, exhaustively researched, and with a very interesting topi, this is an intriguing book. I enjoyed reading it, and getting an overall perspective on curry, to go with my exhaustive eating experiences both in the US and in India.

If there were more recipes, I'd have given it 5 stars. If there were no recipes, I'd have given it 5 stars. I found in inclusion of only a few recipes distracting, hence the 4 stars.

If your first taste of India was in a high school world history class, where you struggled to engorge and disgorge the indigestible names and exploits of Mughals, rajahs, and viceroys, this book will cleanse your palate. Dr. Cunningham uses the story of the development of diverse modern Indian cuisine as a savory entree into the religious, ethnic, and political history of the subcontinent, much as Jules Tygiel uses baseball as a lens for studying America in his book "Baseball As History." Curry is indeed a compelling synecdoche for pan-Indian culture. And Dr. Cunningham seasons her prose as skillfully as any chef, even to the point of including some artful recipes as illustrations of her basically scholarly narrative.

This book covers the different groups that invaded India, and covers the specific foods, and attitudes towards food, that the invaders brought with them. The attitude towards food is particularly interesting. One example:

The British who were there in the first half of the 1800's, the East India Company men, revelled in Indian food. But, after the rebellion, when the British in India were dominated by the Civil Service types, the attitude became one of condescension towards Indian food. Every effort was made to eat British.

This isn't a cookbook, but there are some recipes included, which I thought well chosen. They are included for illustrative purposes. Some are not intended to be cooked, but some are.

A final example: Vindaloo is a variation on a Portugese dish. The name means vinegar and garlic. If you find that sort of item interesting, you'll enjoy this book.

I found myself using my Indian and Portugese cookbooks as references as I was reading. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a very long time.

This is just the kind of book that's serialised in the Sunday Times (the one printed in England).

A potted history of India following the development of its culture and cuisine, hilariously brief in many parts.

Rather than being a history of Indian cooking, it is more a history of the inrtoduction of Indian cuisine in English culture and the acceptance and development of Indian restaurant in England.

Yes, the author does look into the evolution of the various schools of gastronomy in India, but it is all leading up to the focus on England and it's food culture. In all fairness the many interesting vignettes she comes up with, are quite interesting, but a history it is not.

The recipes are interesting and I am sure to try them.

Do not read this, expecting a serious history of Indian food.

This remarkably entertaining account of history of Indian cuisine surprised me....having grown up in India and essentially having 'Indian' food every meal, this book was sort of an eye-opener. Most readers familiar with India probably knew about its rich cultural, religious, and lingual diversity. The extent of how well different ethnic groups have amalgamated in India over time is perhaps best illustrated in the evolution of her cuisine. To that extent, the book is more of a historical account of India, narrated from the point of view of food. May be all historians should try this approach!

The book is organized into several 'independent' delicious chapters (with some recipes at the end of each one), each focusing on one main dish/region/time period. The extensive research associated with the book is evident from the notes and citations. Written in a very easy-going narrative style, this book is a must-have.

Entertaining read about the many different cultural influences brought to bear on Indian cuisine and the converse, its influence on other cultures. It is intersting to learn of the introduction of New World foods (potatoes, tomatoes,chili peppers!) to India by the Portugese and Spainiards. The profound effect it had on the British Isles where Chicken Tikka Masala was recently declared the national dish of Britain(which, although derided as nonauthentic, I liked). This book inspired me to try more Indian recipes, which the author provided in abundance.

Eating Indian food may be one of the most intense culinary experiences in the world. This book delves into the history of what we consider to be Indian food. Surprise! What we eat in the west may be unrecognizable by Indians as Indian food. Needless to say, the restaurants in the west have adjusted Indian dishes to make them a little easier to eat for western palates unused to more authentic dishes.

Even more interesting, in this book we learn that Dishes that are considered to be traditional Indian food were only invented after contact with the Mughals, who brought influences from Islamic cooking, and the Europeans, who brought various new ingredients from the Americas. For example, can you imagine Indian food without red chilis? Chilis were unknown in India until they arrived on Portuguese ships.

This book will appeal not only to foodies, but also to those who are interested in Indian history and culture. I fully recommend this book.

Much more than a cookbook, this is a delicious historical travelogue of one of the world's favourite cuisines, nicely subdivided into sections describing the various influences visited on the Subcontinent from its various conquerors who were in turn seduced by the indigenous wonder that is Indian spice blends and cooking techniques. The author delightfully uses various well-known dishes as examples of the two-way flow of development and carefully compares original recipes with later variations (and adulterations!). You'll never look at an Indian menu the same way again!