Cooking beyond curry

The time has come to reassert that there is more to Indian food than just the curry, writes Pavan K Varma.

If there is one thing which is unmistakably and pervasively an export from India to England, it is curry. I am told there are nine thousand curry restaurants in the United Kingdom, and curry has become one of the most popular foods in this country.

Considering that people of Indian origin are just over a million or so, and constitute less than two per cent of the population, curry has undoubtedly acquired a disproportionately important profile in the culinary pursuits of the British.

This, of course, is not a bad thing at all. However, I am not sure if everything that goes under the name of curry is good. The putting together of a few spices to create some kind of liquid, accompanied by grotesque orange looking pieces of chicken, are not the best advertisements of the glorious legacy of Indian food. It is, of course, a reassuring sight for anyone from India to see the number of Indian restaurants dotting the cities, but I am left with a nagging thought that the happily growing bonds between our two countries may sometime be sorely tested by what is served inside these eateries.

Indian food has evolved in the crucible of time. Like many other aspects of Indian culture and way of life, food too is animated by an underlying philosophy. Nothing is random in Indian aesthetics.