Saffron Spices

Curry is a spice or a dish. Where it came from, who coined it as an Indian dish, is a known unknown fact. It’s like a mirage. First everyone says curry when they think of Indian cuisine and then, in every book, every article, every dictionary, you see there is no curry in Indian cuisine.

Why do we say curry? If you want to know more about curry, here are some borrowed quotes from other sources.

The Oxford Champion of Food, Alan Davidson
“Curry a term adopted into the English language from India, has changed its meaning in migrating and has become ubiquitous as a menu word. It now denotes various kinds of dish in numerous different parts of the world; but all are savoury and all spiced.”

The Origins of ‘Curry’ (Is it really English?), Menumagazine.co.uk
“Most people in the world today know what a curry is – or at least think they do. In Britain the term ‘curry’ has come to mean almost any Indian dish, whilst most people from the sub-continent would say it is not a word they use, but if they did it would mean a meat, vegetable or fish dish with spicy sauce and rice or bread.”

The OED on Curry, www.oxfordonline.com
According to the OED Online, “curry” derives from the Tamil word “kari,” meaning “sauce, relish for rice.” The full etymological entry: “a. Tamil kari sauce, relish for rice, Canarese karil, whence Pg. caril, and earlier Eng. and Fr. forms; mod.F. is cari.

I believe the word curry is adopted in many different cuisines of the world, just to get out of the hassle of explaining “what curry is,” and end up using curry, as Alan Davidson wrote, ”just a menu word.” All of the above are just examples to satisfy your appetite for the meaning of curry. As far as I’m concerned, let’s go beyond curry, with all due respect, “Don’t Say Curry.”