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[Kagus]

Doesn't curry specifically refer to a sauce with yoghurt?

Nope! Although that's probably one of the most popular example styles in the west, it's not an exclusive distinction. Plenty of light, more savory curries out there (but I'd hazard a guess that most do at least use ghee, because ghee is magic and one of the four basic food groups along with curd, rice, and salt).

Salsa is just sauce, but Curry is either from Old English for Cuisine, or Tamil (Kari) for charcoal. Neither of those tells anyone anything, so you have to go with the understood meaning as opposed to defined meaning.

The split comes when the defined meaning in Europe/America is different and more specific than the defined meaning in India (or Thailand for that matter, but I don't know anything about that). In India, curry just means sauce. No, it doesn't tell anyone anything. Neither does "masala", which means "mix (of ingredients/spices)". You're still going to be offered masala dosa or thali with multiple curries. Which curries? What masala? Pffft, fuck you, eat it and find out!

We'd regularly eat lunch at a place that served rice with curry, masala, dal, fry, pickle, and sweet. "Dal" is the most descriptive of any of those, since it infers that the food article will contain lentils of some form. Details beyond that are guesswork. Fry means anything that's been fried. Pickle is... Pickle is pickle. I don't really know how to describe it offhand. Sweet is, you guessed it, some kind of dessert.

Everything changed wildly on a daily basis, but they still fit within the bounds of those categories... Because those categories are nebulous as fuck and aren't really even expected to tell you anything about what you're gonna eat.

[Jimmy]

Also note there are plenty of Asian curries, such as found in Thai or Japanese cuisine. Indian style curry is just one of a variety of options out there. Also, curry powder is usually made of a mix of turmeric, chilli powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground ginger and pepper. There's so much variation in curry, you could eat a different kind every day of the week for a month and not have scratched the surface.

[delphonso]

Fun fact (might not be factual):
Japanese curry was brought with English navy officers who stayed and wanted 'a taste of home', referring to the Indian curry served in the UK. That's why Japanese curry is basically a gravy. It's also why Japanese curry is fucking awful.

Also, I'd kill for a masala dosa right now.

[Kagus]

Also, I'd kill for a masala dosa right now.

Wouldn't we all, brother... Wouldn't we all.

[delphonso]

Last time I was in Hong Kong, I bypassed all the Cantonese food for dosa in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Anyway, here's a recipe for mapodoufu, which is sort of like tofu in curry. Not sure where you'll get doubanjiang, but if you can this is a solid easy meal. I skip the pork since I'm veg. Sichuan peppercorns (花椒 huājiāo) are hard to cook with. They make your mouth tingle, but have an excellent tart flavor comporable to pine. If you do it right, it brings out all the other spices. If you do it wrong, your tongue feels tingly. Still not bad.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/260112/mapo-doufu/

[Iduno]

Could also go in the drunk thread, but it's food chemistry-related so I'm putting it here.

I bought Abuelita (I couldn't find Ibarra) chocolate and canned coconut milk (it's thicker than the bottled stuff for whatever reason). Tomorrow night I'll have non-dairy hot chocolate, with a bit of spiced rum to thin it out.

Also, I'd kill for a masala dosa right now.

Well, we do have a good south Indian place here that serves them. This is a joke, I don't need someone killed.

[Kagus]

I don't. I have yet to find a single decent tiffins place in Norway... There was, miraculously, a tiny little south Indian place just across town, but the guy who owned the place went to work in another restaurant's kitchen so they closed down...

Sadface.

EDIT: And I just checked the menu of the new place he's working at... $20 for a single serving (only $17 for veggie dishes!), and they don't even have chole bhatura... Which was kinda the whole reason I went to the old place.

[delphonso]

I live in Southwestern China, so I can find decent Indian food whenever I travel (All of SEA is within a few hours by flight, and hell - India itself isn't that far) but it's shocking to me that there's only one Indian restaurant in my city. Hell, everywhere else I've lived has had at least 3 within the city.

[Jimmy]

Given the inherent tensions between the two nations and China's policy of spreading Han Chinese influence into their outer territories, I'm not too surprised by that observation.

Then again, this isn't the politics thread, and I don't have first-hand experience, so instead I'm simply going to say that I'm really enjoying green coffee kombucha recently instead of instant coffee. Great buzz, slower tail, doesn't seem to give you the coffee shits an hour later.

[§k]

Southwestern China has arguably the best chili and spice in the country. Other food that relies on chili and spice might not stand out much. Japanese food, on the opposite of spice and chili, is somewhat popular there among foreign restaurants.

[Iduno]

Could also go in the drunk thread, but it's food chemistry-related so I'm putting it here.

I bought Abuelita (I couldn't find Ibarra) chocolate and canned coconut milk (it's thicker than the bottled stuff for whatever reason). Tomorrow night I'll have non-dairy hot chocolate, with a bit of spiced rum to thin it out.

Trip Report:
First try was done entirely in the double-boiler (a pot that sits on another pot, the lower pot only has water boiling in it to heat up the upper pot). It was gritty, and settled out. Pretty good, though.
Second try was me warming the chocolate to soften it in the double-boiler, then adding the coconut milk and simmering it on the burner directly. This was a major improvement in the texture. The extra heat is necessary.

Also, depending on how spiced your spiced rum is (and with what flavors), added cinnamon, ground cloves, and chili powder (enough that you notice it was added, but not enough to quite taste it) is a good idea.

Southwestern China has arguably the best chili and spice in the country. Other food that relies on chili and spice might not stand out much. Japanese food, on the opposite of spice and chili, is somewhat popular there among foreign restaurants.

Thai Curry, being made from coconut and as much spice as is reasonable, is the best curry. I'm saying that as someone planning on going to one of the Indian restaurants nearby in a few hours.


Edit: I also made my hot chocolate with boxed (dried) coconut cream for completeness. You know how everyone loves gritty drinks that go down like sandpaper? Powdered coconut cream is like canned coconut milk, except more effort and more grittiness/sandpaper mouthfeel. Fuck that shit if you're not making curry.

[Iduno]

Poptarts full of nacho cheese. The end.

[fqllve]

Isn't that just a Hot Pocket?

[Iduno]

Isn't that just a Hot Pocket?

Huh. That does sound like a flat hot pocket. One way to find out. Except, the weird canned nacho cheese instead of peanut butter.

[Rolan7]

Southwestern China has arguably the best chili and spice in the country. Other food that relies on chili and spice might not stand out much. Japanese food, on the opposite of spice and chili, is somewhat popular there among foreign restaurants.

Thai Curry, being made from coconut and as much spice as is reasonable, is the best curry. I'm saying that as someone planning on going to one of the Indian restaurants nearby in a few hours.

Yes this is correct.  Subjective but correct.