• adam_y@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Dunno, have you ever had a curry in Birmingham on the mile?

    I went with two American colleagues and one of them couldn’t finish his ‘medium’ heat dish because they said it was too spicy.

    • RupeThereItIs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s almost like, in such a huge country, there exist people with different tastes.

      I, an American, went to India once. The hotel restaurant had a breakfast buffet. On one side was a glorious Indian spread. The other was some nauseating English breakfast spread, with like baked beans (that’s for summer BBQs not breakfast!).

      Anyway me and my buddy head straight to the good side, when the hotel staff woman came running over to warn us that it was too spicy. She gently walked us to the gross English food. We confirmed with her, numerous times, that the Indian food was very spicy. We then dug in on the eatible food (the Indian side) and made a friend with the hotel staff lady.

      It was somewhat spicy, but amazing.

      Some Americans think black pepper is too spicy, some eat ghost peppers as a light snack, I am in between.

    • Raz@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      That may be so, but curry isn’t exactly a real British dish. It’s Indian food.

      • adam_y@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Careful, that’s like saying that the guy who made it, who was born in the UK isn’t really British either.

        Pretty much all food is imported.

        As someone else mentioned. The Tikka Masala was invented in Britain.

        Italian pizza, the most Italian of dishes, didn’t exist until America was ‘discovered’ and tomatoes brought back from the new world.

        Same with the Irish and potatoes.

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Careful, that’s like saying that the guy who made it, who was born in the UK isn’t really British either.

          Umm what so you mean by ‘the guy who made it’? Curry has existed in Indian subcontinent, in various varieties, for hundreds of years. It wasn’t first concocted in UK in 1960s.

          • adam_y@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I think you misunderstand.

            What I mean is the man who cooked the curry and served it to me and my two companions. He’s of Asian heritage but was born and raised in the UK.

            Does that mean that he’s not really British?

            What if he sees himself as British. Is he then culturally appropriating Asian food?

            Because that’s the argument being used about the food too. That dish was cooked in a kitchen in Birmingham. It has Asian heritage too. But is it not the British food?

            • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Oh great, pedantry!

              When people say that’s not a British dish, they are talking about origin of the dish. Not where it was made today.

              There are thousands of restaurants serving pizza in India. I’m still not going to call pizza an Indian dish.

              • adam_y@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Oh fuck off.

                I’m making a point about the international nature of food, and the way in which it relates to identity, and you seem determined to take it in bad faith to truss up your own weak argument.

                Ok, here, have a win. You’re right. You are so totally right. Well done. Enjoy the glory.

      • lugal
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        1 year ago

        We are talking about importing spices to use them in the country. It doesn’t even matter where the cook is from. Even the most Indian guy can’t prepare an Indian meal without the ingredients

      • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Most curries you can get in the UK were invented there.

        As a quick rule of thumb, if it looks like it has gravy or thick sauce someone from India wouldn’t recognise it

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What?

          Mate, we’ve been making gravys and thick sauces before the Brits came along. Especially people in coastal regions who use coconut in nearly everything.

          • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I think British people have a very different definition of gravy - more like meat juice thickened with flour and optionally some other stuff like caramel and onions. As I understand, they don’t put vegetables, herbs or spices.