by NINAD JOG
An East Asian colleague chanced upon me when I was having breakfast in the office kitchen. "What's that curry smell?" he asked.
I told him it was lentil soup. I wasn't sure if he was thirsting for more detail, or else I'd have told him it was a mixture of Gujarati Dal and Latin style black bean soup, into which I was dipping a single slice of bread slathered with peanut butter minus the jelly (Yummy!)
When I was having lunch in the same kitchen a few hours latter, he happened upon me yet again. He looked at what I was eating, and exclaimed: "You're eating the same thing! Curry for breakfast, curry for lunch!"
Before I could respond he stormed out of the kitchen. Otherwise I'd have told him that I was having spicy mixed vegetables with steamed tofu and cooked Korean 12-grain rice and barley. The two meals had nothing in common other than a few spices that gave the curry smell. To me they were poles apart; to him they were one and the same.
I wasn't altogether surprised, for I've often heard this refrain from my East Asian (and Southeast Asian) friends, "You eat nothing but curry!" Methinks they may be largely unaware of the variety of Indian foods - to them it's all the same dish as long as it has curry flavor.
Maybe I should try to enlighten them - which I will gladly do as long as I don't have to curry any favor.
An East Asian colleague chanced upon me when I was having breakfast in the office kitchen. "What's that curry smell?" he asked.
I told him it was lentil soup. I wasn't sure if he was thirsting for more detail, or else I'd have told him it was a mixture of Gujarati Dal and Latin style black bean soup, into which I was dipping a single slice of bread slathered with peanut butter minus the jelly (Yummy!)
When I was having lunch in the same kitchen a few hours latter, he happened upon me yet again. He looked at what I was eating, and exclaimed: "You're eating the same thing! Curry for breakfast, curry for lunch!"
Before I could respond he stormed out of the kitchen. Otherwise I'd have told him that I was having spicy mixed vegetables with steamed tofu and cooked Korean 12-grain rice and barley. The two meals had nothing in common other than a few spices that gave the curry smell. To me they were poles apart; to him they were one and the same.
I wasn't altogether surprised, for I've often heard this refrain from my East Asian (and Southeast Asian) friends, "You eat nothing but curry!" Methinks they may be largely unaware of the variety of Indian foods - to them it's all the same dish as long as it has curry flavor.
Maybe I should try to enlighten them - which I will gladly do as long as I don't have to curry any favor.
No comments:
Post a Comment