Whose curry is it anyway?

The British curry tradition dates back to 1747 and has little to do with ours. As for Japanese curry? Revolting!

Indians have a complicated relationship with the word ‘curry’? At one level, we resent the way in which it has come to define our cuisine. There is, we confidently assure foreigners, no such word as curry in any Indian language. We never even refer to gravy dishes as curries. We prefer a variety of terms, derived from Indian languages: Korma, gassi or whatever.

Indians are keen to claim ownership of curries, wherever in the world we find them(Shutterstock)

Thai curry is different from Indian, but we usually regard it as being no more than a regional variant (iStockphoto)

Chicken tikka masala is a British-Indian dish made with canned tomato soup (Shutterstock)

I guess there are two curries. There is ours. And then sadly enough, there is the British version

Japanese curry is one of the most popular dishes in Japan today (Shutterstock)