Monday, November 27, 2006

The Great Curry Debate


What came first the curry or the chicken?

When asked what they are having for lunch:

An Indian person will reply, Green/Red/Butter Chicken Curry
A West Indian Person will reply: Curry Chicken

My Trini Friends reasoning is: (And I Quote) “It’s called CURRY CHICKEN.....not chicken curry.....u don’t chicken a curry....u curry a chicken.....”

My Reasoning: When the West Indians got on the boat from India, and on their passage learnt to wine. They Wine all day and all night and eventually all they remember was one curry recipe, they then applied to chicken and meat. Hence they call every thing ‘curry chicken’ because there’s only one kind of curry, whereas for the rest of us who got left behind in the mother land, we were forced to remember all 3000 curry recipes. Also we usually have names that go in front of the chicken curry, to describe, which specific curry it is e.g. butter chicken. Curry is not an adjective for Indians it’s a noun, a thing we make.

What say you, Chicken Curry or Curry Chicken?

16 comments:

Dee said...

depends on the restaurant
but if I cook it
curry tofu
curry chicken
curry goat
vs
green curry
red curry
and once I put one over on the folks at the church potluck and called it "Indian Curry"

bitsandgiggles said...

Chicken curry....but what do I know? I live in a country that elected Bush twice.

-_- said...

Curry chicken iyah--mi mudda and fadda from yard (Jamaica)!!!

In fac, mi mudda a mek some fi me tonight!!

Jdid said...

curry chicken no chicken curry. let me tell you how it sounds to me. curry chicken sounds like you take the chicken and you curry it. chicken curry sound to me like the curry make out of chicken like its a curry sauce with some chicken bits in it some sort of curry gravy with chicken bits. thats what i envision anyways.

Marika said...

Chicken curry. It's not important that it's curry, it's what's IN the curry that's important. Or something like that.

Now I'm hungry for saag...

Crankyputz said...

I guess the difference is that WI's see curry as an adjective, describes what's being done to the meat, whereas others see it as a noun, there in lies the difference....

Island Spice said...

CHICKEN CURRY!! and then some CURRY CHICKEN. :) I understand ur quandry.. my paternal grandmother got frustrated trying to teach us that dhal was not curry.. but curried peas. To us it was jus grandma's curry.. had no sense of the exquisite indo-caribbean cuisine we were being exposed to. Hell, I still have no sense.. but i do so love my CURRY!! :)

Cali J said...

I call it good food and fear little the consequence of calling it one thing vs the other. As to your comment, I have not called her because I fear what I might say

Unknown said...

Neither. Curried chicken.

Stephen A. Bess said...

All I know is that I like curry on everything and I am straight out of North Carolina. :)
I've only seen the yellow, brown, and red curry. I need to find out about the rest!

Crankyputz said...

Ok I just had to let you guys know that I just had the most amazing butter chicken and nan. If you haven't tried butter chicken run out and get some.

Aaron, you have to call her and cuss her out, that was sneaky and low.

Abeni said...

curry chicken but them am West indian:)

Anonymous said...

Leon, you just had to go out on a limb don't it. I'm right out there with you though ... curried chicken.

-_- said...

I love butter chicken - tried it for the FIRST TIME this past August (I know, isn't that terrible? And I come from Markham, of all places).

MMMMMMMMMMM-MMMMMMM!

Linds said...

Butter Chicken. Mmmm. I had that for lunch and spinach paneer. So good. *licks her lips*

Miz JJ said...

Obviously curry chicken. Why don't Indian people say chicken butter if it is chicken curry?