Right, let's get this sorted out.

[spudtater]

"Chinese curry". This seems to be incredibly popular here; thus the fact that you can walk into a chinese takeaway, order chips with curry sauce, and feel that you are "having Chinese". (No offence, galaxy_girl00¹). But what the hell is it?

Well, let us examine the evidence. In my kitchen there are two 'concentrated chinese curry sauce' products. (Neither mine, I hastily point out.) One is "Goldfish brand", the other is "Maysan" brand. Both are made in the UK, both have 'curry powder' as a main ingredient. A Google search for 'chinese-curry' reveals a bunch of recipes, all making heavy use of curry powder, and a disproportionate amount hosted on .co.uk domains.

Consulting Wikipedia about curry powder, I am told: "Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition developed by the British during their colonial rule of India as a means of approximating the taste of Indian cuisine at home."

Aha! So ultimately, this is a British dish. How did it come to take the label 'chinese', then? Well, look at where you find it. A large proportion of chinese takeaways, particularly in Britain, are run by Hong Kong chinese. Hong Kong was a british colony. Colonial brits, we are told, invented curry powder. I think you can see where I am going here.

Now, I used to live in Hong Kong. I did, in fact, taste the vile travesty that is sometimes labeled 'curry' there; several times via the school tuck shop, and other times in places with about the same level of cuisine. Nowhere, however, was it ever insinuated that it was a 'chinese' dish. It was just what it was: a pale imitation of indian curry.

So if it was the Hong Kongers to blame for the attribution of 'chinese' to curry sauce, then it was specifically those Hong Kong chinese living in Britain. They opened up restaurants, they cooked whatever they know how to cook, and this is all then labelled, by them or by other Brits, "Chinese food". Hence 'chinese' curry.

Does anybody else know anything about this dish sin against nature?

[1] Who has indeed been known to order this combination, but hardly considers herself to be "eating chinese" after doing so.

Comments

[feorag.livejournal.com]

Japanese curry is similar to Chinese and came via the British, so I suspect that Chinese curry is also the British keg curry rendered edible. I don't really think the Chinese curry is a sin against nature, especially when you compare it to the British institutional curry which really is disgusting.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

"keg curry"?

[feorag.livejournal.com]

The British institutional curry - a CAMRA term which I picked up while working at a beer festival held at a university where this substance was on offer in the staff canteen. It's an analogy with keg beer, as opposed to proper cask beer - it is but a pale shadow of what curry should be.

[stormsearch.livejournal.com]

The curry sauce products of which you speak (the ones in your kitchen) were both bought in Authentic Chinese Supermarkets. I can vouch for that.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

From Real Authentic Chinese Manufacturers; one in Surrey, and one in Newcastle.   8^)

[galaxy-girl00.livejournal.com]

*hides head in shame*

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Awww... I wasn't getting at you personally! Honest!

*Cannot resist puppy eyes*
*Feels guilty*

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

I know that there's a strange French thing called a l'indienne, if that helps. Was pretty good, involved a yoghurt / cumin / asafoetida marinade and coriander / black pepper toasted in oil.

Also, I know vindaloo as a British Bangladeshi lamb variation on a South Indian pork variation on a Portuguese pork dish. Quite possibly the same dish that turned into Mexican chorizo. I have recipes for all four of these things. (Hell, I have a recipe for rabbit vindaloo somewhere... acid marinades are pretty good for wild game.)

Also, I had a smoked salmon and caper pizza for supper. I like capers.