Curry Goes Global: The Geopolitics of Good Taste
Summary
TLDRThis transcript explores the global journey of curry, starting from British India and its spread to the West and Japan. It delves into the sociological aspects of curry as a cultural artifact, highlighting the diversity of Indian cuisine and its regional variations. The narrative follows curry's transformation into a Western phenomenon, its commercialization, and its re-interpretation in Japan as a modern, Westernized dish. The talk also touches on the convergence of culinary trends by the end of the 20th century, where curry becomes a global food, reflecting the interconnectedness of geopolitics, culture, and taste.
Takeaways
- 🌍 Curry's global journey began in British India and spread to the West and Japan differently, reflecting complex geopolitical histories.
- 📚 The term 'curry' is a British generalization for a variety of Indian-style sauces and stews, originally not used in Indian languages.
- 🍲 Indian cuisine is diverse and regional, with over 22,000 dialects in India potentially correlating to an equally diverse range of culinary traditions.
- 📈 The popularity and prestige of Indian food in Western countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, has grown over time, with a notable increase in media coverage.
- 🌆 In New York City, Indian food has become both common and prestigious, though it ranks behind Italian and Chinese food in terms of popularity and number of upscale restaurants.
- 🍛 Curry rice in Japan emerged as part of the Meiji Restoration's modernization efforts, influenced by social Darwinist ideas linking diet and racial strength.
- 🥦 The Japanese navy played a significant role in popularizing curry rice among the Japanese, using it as part of their Westernization and modernization strategy.
- 🌐 Curry's global spread is marked by a convergence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with regional variations becoming more widely recognized and appreciated.
- 👨🍳 The narrative of curry's global journey includes stories of small entrepreneurs and workers, such as Nepali migrants in Japan's curry house industry.
- 📚 Scholarly works like 'Indian Food: A Historical Companion' and 'The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine' provide in-depth exploration of the historical and cultural aspects of Indian food.
- 🔄 The concept of 'curry' has been both criticized for its overgeneralization of diverse Indian dishes and embraced for its adaptability and representation of cultural exchange.
Q & A
How does the speaker describe the evolution of curry as a global phenomenon?
-The speaker describes the evolution of curry as a global phenomenon starting from British India, spreading to the West and Japan in different ways, and eventually leading to a convergence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The story involves the transnational journey of curry, its adaptation in various cultures, and the sociopolitical factors influencing its spread.
What is the speaker's perspective on the term 'curry' in relation to Indian cuisine?
-The speaker suggests that the term 'curry' is an overgeneralization of the diverse sauces and stews that exist within Indian cuisine. It is a British reference to any Indian style sauce and stew, and its usage varies greatly depending on the region and local dialects within India.
How does the speaker explain the regional diversity of Indian cuisine?
-The speaker explains the regional diversity of Indian cuisine by highlighting the variety of dialects and foodsheds, suggesting that each dialect is linked to a unique cuisine. The speaker also mentions the different staple foods and cooking styles found in Eastern and Western India, emphasizing the multiplicity of Indian cuisine.
What is the significance of the 19th century in the global spread of curry?
-The 19th century is significant because it marks the period when curry began to spread transnationally from British India to the West. It was during this time that curry powders were made at home and commercial curry powders started to emerge, leading to the popularization of curries in the Anglo-Indian world.
How did curry spread to Japan?
-Curry spread to Japan primarily through the Japanese Navy, which adopted Western, specifically British, food practices as part of its modernization efforts during the Meiji Restoration. Curry, along with other Western foods, was seen as a way to improve the physical strength of the Japanese population, aligning with social Darwinist notions of race and diet.
What role did the military and education systems play in the popularization of curry in Japan?
-The military and education systems played a significant role in the popularization of curry in Japan. School lunches and military rations introduced a more homogeneous diet and palate to the population, with curry becoming a common dish in these settings. This helped to establish curry as a part of modern, Westernized Japanese cuisine.
How does the speaker describe the current state of curry in Japan?
-The speaker describes the current state of curry in Japan as a result of convergence, with Nepali workers now playing a significant role in the production and popularization of curry in Japan. Nepali migrants have opened numerous Indian curry restaurants, and the dish has become a part of the modern Japanese food landscape.
What is the significance of the convergence of curry at the end of the 20th century and the early 21st century?
-The convergence of curry at the end of the 20th century and the early 21st century signifies the global spread and adaptation of the dish, transcending its origins and becoming a part of various culinary traditions around the world. This reflects the interconnectedness of global food cultures and the influence of migration and globalization on local cuisines.
How does the speaker's personal experience with curry reflect the broader themes discussed in the script?
-The speaker's personal experience with curry, including the variety of sauces and stews in their family's cooking, reflects the broader themes of regional diversity and cultural adaptation within Indian cuisine. It also highlights the complexity and richness of food traditions that can be simplified or generalized in different cultural contexts.
What are some of the sociopolitical factors that influenced the spread of curry?
-Some of the sociopolitical factors that influenced the spread of curry include British colonialism, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, social Darwinist notions of race and diet, and the global power dynamics of the 19th and 20th centuries. These factors contributed to the adoption and adaptation of curry in different parts of the world.
What is the speaker's recommendation for those interested in exploring the history and diversity of Indian cuisine?
-The speaker recommends several books and resources for those interested in exploring the history and diversity of Indian cuisine. These include K.T. Achaya's 'Indian Food: A Historical Companion', Colleen Taylor Sen's 'The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine', and Lizzie Collingham's 'Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors', among others.
Outlines
🌍 Curry's Journey: From British India to Globalization
This paragraph introduces the topic of curry's global spread, starting from British India and its transnational journey through the 19th and 20th centuries. The speaker, a sociologist, plans to discuss how curry spread to the West and Japan, and the convergence of these culinary traditions at the turn of the 21st century. The paragraph also touches on the diversity of Indian cuisine, highlighting the regional variations and the lack of a single 'national' cuisine in India.
🗣️ Language, Dialects, and the Diversity of Indian Cuisine
The speaker explores the relationship between language, dialects, and regional cuisines in India, suggesting that each dialect corresponds to a unique cuisine. The paragraph discusses the complexity of Indian food and the overgeneralization of the term 'curry.' The speaker also addresses the criticism of using the term 'curry' to describe India's diverse cuisines and acknowledges the changing perceptions of this term over time.
📚 Historical and Contemporary Sources on Indian Food
This paragraph provides a list of recommended readings for those interested in learning more about Indian cuisine. The speaker mentions several books, including K.T. Achaya's 'Indian Food: A Historical Companion' and 'The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine.' The paragraph also highlights the importance of Instagram and new journals for contemporary discussions on Indian food, emphasizing the regionalization and diversity of the cuisine.
🌊 The Influence of Global Trade and Migration on Indian Food
The speaker discusses the impact of global trade and migration on the spread of Indian food, particularly curry. The paragraph covers the early 20th-century cafes in Manhattan, the adaptation of Indian food in the West, and the emergence of Indian restaurants in New York City. The speaker also touches on the bi-ethnic culinary traditions that developed in California due to marriages between Punjabi men and Mexican women.
🍲 The Evolution of Indian Food in the United States
This paragraph details the evolution of Indian food in the United States, from its initial discovery and exoticization to its eventual integration into mainstream American cuisine. The speaker discusses the naturalization of Indian food as an 'ethnic' cuisine and its rise in popularity and prestige, as evidenced by the increasing number of articles on Indian food in the New York Times and the growth of Indian restaurants across the country.
🍛 Curry's Unique Path to Japan and its Cultural Impact
The speaker explains how curry arrived in Japan, primarily through the Japanese Navy, and its association with Western imperialism. The paragraph discusses the Meiji Restoration's influence on Japanese cuisine, the introduction of meat-eating practices, and the adoption of curry as a symbol of modernization and Westernization. The speaker also highlights the role of the military and education in popularizing curry and other Western foods in Japan.
🌏 The Global Convergence of Curry and its Cultural Significance
In this final paragraph, the speaker discusses the convergence of curry as a global food, particularly focusing on the role of Nepali workers in the Japanese curry industry. The paragraph explores the demographics of Nepali migrants in Japan and their significant contribution to the Japanese curry house scene. The speaker also reflects on the exploitation within the industry and the homogenization of curry flavors, drawing parallels with the situation in New York City.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Curry
💡Geopolitics
💡Sociology
💡Cultural Exchange
💡British India
💡Japan
💡Regional Cuisines
💡Food全球化
💡Curry Powder
💡Curry Rice
💡Modernization
Highlights
Curry serves as an interesting artifact to explore the geopolitics and politics of taste, with its roots in British India and its spread to the West and Japan.
The story of curry is complex, involving its transnational journey from the 19th to the 20th century, and its different trajectories in the West and Japan.
Curry's definition is broad and often overgeneralized, much like referring to beurre blanc or bechamel as gravy, encapsulating a variety of Indian style sauces and stews.
The diversity of Indian cuisine is immense, with regional variations influenced by local dialects and foodsheds, suggesting that there may not be a single national cuisine in India.
The term 'curry' is considered degrading to India's diverse cuisines, but it has persisted in certain contexts, reflecting the complexity of cultural adaptation and perception.
The spread of curry in the Western world, particularly in New York City, is marked by its evolution from an exotic novelty to a naturalized part of the culinary landscape.
Curry's global journey includes its adoption in Japan, influenced by the Japanese Navy's rations and the country's efforts to westernize and modernize its cuisine.
The convergence of curry in the late 20th and early 21st century reflects the interconnectedness of global food cultures and the influence of migration and trade.
The role of curry in Japan is unique, with its ingredients and preparation methods reflecting a blend of Western influence and Japanese adaptation.
The popularity and prestige of curry in the United States and the United Kingdom differ, with Indian food ranking differently in terms of popularity and cost in New York City and London.
The global spread of curry is also marked by the contributions of various communities, including Nepali workers in Japan and Punjabi Mexicans in California.
The concept of 'authenticity' in food is challenged by the global circulation of dishes like chicken tikka masala and butter chicken, which may be seen as adaptations rather than pure representations of a cuisine.
The rise of curry in Japan is tied to the Meiji Restoration's efforts to promote meat consumption and align with Western dietary practices for reasons of race, strength, and modernity.
The categorization of food as 'ethnic' varies by region and culture, with Japan developing its own classification system that includes Japanese, Western, Chinese, and 'esunikku' or ethnic South and Southeast Asian food.
The modern Japanese experience with curry rice is relatively recent, with its ingredients and preparation methods reflecting a history of global influence and adaptation.
The global popularity of curry has led to its commercialization and standardization, with a focus on certain spices and ingredients that have become synonymous with the dish.
The labor and entrepreneurial dynamics behind the global curry industry reveal a complex system of migration, adaptation, and cultural exchange.
Transcripts
So as you heard the title is "Curry Goes Global: The Geopolitics Politics of Good Taste" and curry
in fact is kind of a very interesting artifact that allows us to tell a complicated story and
the story starts in British India that I'm going to talk about today. I'm going to point a little
bit to how curry went transnational through the 19th century into the 20th century. Specifically,
the way it spreads to the West and a very different way it spreads to Japan. In fact,
it spreads to Japan from the West and then I'm going to end up talking about
convergence at the end of the 20th century in the early part of the 21st century. I'm a
sociologist by training so you will see a lot of the sociological arguments emerging and I
depend on the work of a lot of terrific historians who you will see me refer to
tonight and I will often use the cover of their book to also encourage you. If you want to dig
deeper into any of these topics and Melissa had asked me to provide a reading list. I
can also provide a reading list at the end. So in some ways, the first take is curry at home,
about home cooking and this is in fact literally the picture is of me making rajma chawal at home
and curry in some way is born as a British reference to any Indian style sauce and stew
and most of you would be familiar with it. In some ways the analogy I would say is say
calling beurre blanc or a bechamel, a veloute - as gravy so there's kind of this overgeneralizing
quality to something called curry and I have probably not eaten anything called a curry but
I've eaten various kinds of sauces and one of the languages in my father tongue is Bengali my mother
tongue is Oriya and one of the sauces is kind of a runny jhol which is made with whole five spice
which has things like fennel in it and onion seed, fenugreek, etc. Often in eastern India, a base is
the mustard oil. I've had something thicker like in this picture often called a jhaal which also
literally means hot with fresh ground mustard paste, green chilies, and not much more. It
doesn't have a garam masala when I make it I don't add all kinds of spices. It is,
in this case, it will be fresh ground mustard, green chilies -sometimes I
might add a little ginger or a little garlic I've also had something called
tok and a tok is t-o-k of sardines in tamarind sauce so in a sense all these things could be
classified as curry but in my case I would often use the vernacular and, of course,
the broader argument here is that - I'm going to just move this a little
bit. So there, I'm going to kind of paint a picture and, in this particular case,
it's about the multiplicity and variety of cuisines of India and even at the simplest
level. When we - you see the two maps there. One is a wheat rice map and lot of river valleys in
peninsular India, the part of India I come from, Eastern India and is a rice eating culture. Rice
and fish and vegetable and I spent - I went to college - high school and college in Delhi,
the capital city, which is a place of kind of wheat based breads, flat breads,
etc. But what you cannot see on this map also is that like in many parts of the world wheat
and rice are about a thousand years old when they become extensively used before that we
have kind of a collective noun a variety of millets in fact which is what the rice and
wheat civilizations cultures are sit on. So if you ask me about Indian food I would say I
would probably associate it with the dialects. The last census counted about 22,000 dialects
in India with about 125 mother tongues and remember I told you my father tongue is Bengali,
my mother tongue is Oria, and Bengali is to Oria a bit like what Spanish is to Italian
but with a different script - written with a different script. Then I went to Delhi which is
my language there was Hindi, so my hypothesis is wherever there's a dialect there's a cuisine and
partly because dialects are linked to foodsheds and there's this double orality it is what food
is produced in the region and then the kind of conversation we have about it and in a sense if
I'm going to make a generalization I would say there is probably no national cuisine at least
in India's case and probably true about most nations in the world. They're probably a lot
more regional. In India, there are these many states as you see in the map and then in fact
you go further down in under those kind of states into regions. Okay, let's see,
there it is, so in a sense, I also want to caution us not to be hyper sensitive about it.
A good example is in 1974, Madhur Jaffrey said the word curry was as degrading to
India's great cuisines as the term chop suey was to China's
and there is a truth to that the kind of a simplification yet in 2003 she did write a
book called the "Ultimate Curry Bible" so in fact the best of us also change our minds and Indians I
would say, in general, rarely use the word curry other than in a context of anglophone and in the
expatriate world but I would also encourage you to think about any generalizations I make about
India is probably can be contradicted I mean that's the nature of the size of the country
the nature of the culture and the multiplicity of it and here the one of the sources that is
sometimes referenced and you will have there are a couple of references that presumably the word
curry comes from a Portuguese transliteration of karil from Tamil there's some reference to it in
Achaya. Some reference to it in the other books but that's not an established that's not like a
a guaranteed argument. By the 18th century the English begin to use it for a range of salans,
kormas, vindaloo and if you're looking for a book on Indian food that explains
some of this complexity the classic is K.T. Achaya's - the book on the right,
"Indian Food: A Historical Companion." It's a fantastic book it's still not
been superseded and then a recent book a more recent book by Colleen Taylor Sen,
Sourish Bhattacharyya, and Helen Saberi - "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian cuisine," but also
by the way I kind of keep on top of a lot of interesting work on Instagram that's happening
often with very talented younger women. Then the new journals that have come out Juggernaut,
Vittles, which comes out of London in fact - Whetstone, which is both out of the US and
a vertical in India - Goya there's a feminist food journal so if you need kind of interesting
contemporary discussions about Indian food and especially that pays attention to kind of the
multiple - the regionalization of it I would go to some of these sources then there are classics
for students who want to get a sense of especially what I'm talking about today a bit of it - which
is "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" by Lizzie Collingham and one of my favorite the
book on the right side "Bengali Cooking" which is absolutely a beautiful book about culture its
relationship to ecology and as you can see in that book it's called "Bengali Cooking" so it
becomes - it begins to regionalize - a state a - state of Bengal and and as I said my father tongue
is Bengali and there are more interesting books like food culture in colonial Asia that addresses
some of this question of how curry goes global in a complicated way and a fascinating book like
"Flavors of Empire" which is more about Thai food but its relationship to geopolitics in
terms of the Vietnam War and Thailand. Those of who - those of you who are taking notes
or will get these slides for instance some of the good Instagram pages to follow - I follow
@helloforktales and @odiafoodstories - that's partly because as I said my mother
is Oriya. I come from Orissa. I spend the first half of my life in Orissa and Delhi
and then the second half of my life in the United States. @rushinamg, @pickletopilaf,
and a number of other people referenced here. So now back to a little bit of the broader
argument as I said curry emerges in the British vocabulary in the 19th century and curries and -
here's one quotation, "Curries consist in the meat, fish, or vegetables being dressed until
tender to which are added ground spices chilies and salt...The meat may be fried in butter,
ghee, oil, or fat to which an added gravy, coconut" - sorry, "yogurt, milk, coconut juice,
or vegetables." And curries begin to emerge in the Anglo-Indian world. Curry powders, often made at
home, I would say my mother never uses curry powder bought from the market but I would say
the next generation, my sister-in-law uses some variety of regional curry powders. Commercial
curry powders - I don't like using them because I find them almost sometimes overbearing there
are some exceptions - I would usually make up these curry powders mixes of curries from whole
spices than ground and I've been referencing - referencing - Odia Bengal. My Odia grandmother
and you can see even if you cannot read the script you can recognize what the script is.
The Odia script in some ways is much more rounded would often use - my Odia grandmother would often
use roasted garlic in her dal which would be often very runny with vegetable stews called
santula and rarely ground spices like garam masala with some exceptions about it. She
would usually rarely cook chicken or goat meat. My Bengali grandmother was more likely to cook
say shrimp in a ground poppy seed paste and dal so as you can see like the argument about jahl -
if I have a mustard sauce it is basically mustard and green chilies. It's not a lot
of spices of different kinds if we have eaten mostly Indian food in a restaurant
our palate is used to in fact a lot of spice different kinds of spices and usually home
cooking especially Eastern India tends to be lot more kind of milder and fewer spices and,
in this particular case, coming from Balasore in coastal India. So what I've been pointing to is
the differences under the nation and there are also of course connections above the
nation. This is a beautiful map that shows you - this is just before the kind of Portuguese get to
India at the end of this century. It's a 15th century kind of a mapping of - I just finished
work on a relationship between say Zanzibar and Western Indian cooking so as there are multiple -
- multiple varieties under the nation there are also multiple iterations of things like chapati
things like parathas around the Indian Ocean wall. So my second take is as curry moves abroad in the
Western world - I live in New York City so I'll tell you this story relatively quickly from New
York City and there's a beautiful book by Vivek Bald called :Bengali Harlem," who identifies
that Manhattan's early 20th century cafes is basically a place where you find most in curries -
is a British Merchant sailor's club for seamen and this is on 38th Street and there is the
quotation from The New York Times here where he's talking about lascars who will - John Carter says
"the shift of economic forces during and since the war" - this was just the (inaudible) war,
"have left little of Navy's British character, save the officers, who are English" and then
he gets into this ethnocentric tirade, which he says "they demand they shall eat no meat unless
it has been slaughtered in accordance with the prescribed ritual. The diet of Indian Muslims
consist of mutton, curry and rice: rice, curry, and mutton ad infinitum" end quote.
He's referencing to Indians as Muslims because most of them are coming from Eastern Bengal at
that point of time around the Chittagong Hills and who would contribute substantially to in
fact the British Merchant (inaudible) you see - references ,this is 1921, in the New York Times,
where she writes "Six short weeks ago an Indian restaurant was discovered on 8th
Avenue near 42nd Street. Grave Indian gentlemen with American clothes but with great turbans on
their heads used to come in for their curry and rice. Six short weeks and already the restaurant
is half full of tourists eagerly peering at each other for turbans and local color" -
end quote. I mean which is of course a typical New York - very New Yorker complaint we have
been doing that at least for 100 years if not more the idea that we have these very exotic
things and then of course all the tourists come and swamp it and we both enjoy this discovery of
exotic exotica and also endlessly complain about how no one goes there because it's too crowded in
some ways. There's also a fascinating story because you're on the West coast of Punjabi
Mexicans of California - this is a beautiful book called "Making Ethnic Choices" which
you had substantial movement of Punjabi men in early 20th century into California and because
of miscegenation laws and racial prejudice they often married women of Mexican heritage and these
were Mexican Punjabi families what she calls bi-ethnic families often identified as Hindu
within quotation marks I put it because Hindu of course is a religious category but that was one
of the available census category that was trying to distinguish indigenous Native Americans from
Indians who came to be called Hindus who in fact often were not Hindus in terms of religion but
Sihk and Muslim men and they developed a culinary repertoire of corn tortillas and mustard greens in
Punjab you have something called (saroki sag) and makki ki roti and makki ki roti is corn
tortillas and sarson ka saag is mustard greens and small amount of highly flavored animal proteins
to create in some ways a bi-ethnic food. You see references slightly upscaling this is Long Champ's
1935 advertisement you have the Ceylon India Inn and a number of restaurants called Taj Mahal,
etc. And increasing coverage in 1949 we see the earliest reference in a telephone directory
to a cluster of restaurants for restaurants and they're also often carried in the African-American
newspapers like New York Amsterdam and news by 1960 we see the first instance of this Indian
food entering into this world of the Gourmand and this case Craig Claiborne, who some people call
him as the first restaurant critic, who sets up some rules like paying his own bill, not eating
for free, and in some ways familiarizing here with Indian food through the figure of Manorama
Phillips and he has a whole half a page picture of her - she works in the United Nations and
of course in some ways you can say archetypes of the Indian sari, jewelry, wall hangings which is
partly framing this authentic Indian which would be this perpetual quest in the West in the global
West about whether we are getting the authentic thing or not. So New York Times covers about 100
articles on Indian food by the 1970s and that is kind of the process of naturalization of it
within quotes ethnic food and 1989 you will have Dawat, Madhur Jaffrey figures in its little ad in
the NYNEX Yellow Pages to remember NYNEX Yellow Pages or even know what they are you have to be
a little older like me if you are of the next two generations it's kind of probably as exotic as in
some ways what - what print media would be so by the 1990s you see 300 articles on Indian food in
the New York Times to give you a comparative sense about 1,200 on Italian food which is the
most popular Cuisine named cuisine in New York City and Chinese at 368 and Japanese sorry -
the Japanese at 368 and 316 Mexican and Japanese is emerging at this point of time will become
very important and you will see most of what are called Indian restaurants even today are
relatively cheap what could be called curry houses they're about 2% and I'll show you some
data about 2-3% Indian restaurants (inaudible) scale in many American cities I'm going to talk
about that quickly what is becoming visible now is Nepali Cuisine often called Newari
cuisine of the Kathmandu Valley and many may not be familiar with it with air dried meats are
important part of their cuisine, bamboo shoots, and minced buffalo liver. They are I think the
last time I looked at Yelp about 31 self-described Himalayan restaurants including Nepali Bhutani,
Tibetan, etc. And these are often working class to small South Asian entrepreneurs this is how
Indian curries go west and the popularity and prestige I want to kind of go through it quickly
this is Zagat's data. I just want to look at over 30-year period - 2016 was the latest data the most
expensive largest number of most expensive restaurants in New York City are Japanese,
and then French at the top, then American if it is called New American, Continental Italian it
goes down, Spanish Greek, by the way Greek and Korean and Vietnamese food have been climbing
up in prestige the fastest, and then you have Mexican and Indian - Indian figures are about
10th or 12th in rank in terms of New York City and you can see that this is Yelp data I just
want to draw your attention to the Y axis - Italian you see that on top there - Italian,
Chinese, and Mexican tend to be the the most popular in most American cities I have data
on about two dozen American cities including San Francisco, etc. In San Francisco, for instance,
French does a little better - popular and then I want to draw your attention to that
green line on it you will see which is a pricey food and the most pricey tends to be French and
the New American and also Japanese but Japanese is becoming both common and pricey and Indian on that
list is I think 10th or 11th. I want to give you one other data point. This is London and you will
see at the top there is Indian, then Italian, then American, then Chinese, etc. In some ways you can
say Indian food is to London, what Italian food is to New York City in terms of both popularity
and prestige if you look at London about 12% of Indian restaurants there are upscale and of
course if you look at the French it's almost 50/50 but Indian food does quite well both
in popularity and in prestige in London than in fact than in New York City and that's partly has
to do with demographics partly has to do with the relationship of what I have called the hierarchy
of taste. I just want to have one comment here on this question you might be wondering if they
call themselves Indian or they call themselves Italian are they and there's this beautiful quote
from Italian who's visiting in New York City in 1920s -"One evening while strolling in New
York we went to an Italian restaurant where they introduced two very fine, traditional American
specialties called 'spaghetti with meatballs' and cotoletta 'parmigiana'...I found both
extremely satisfying and I think someone in Italy should invent them for the Italians over there."
So this circulation of like chicken tikka masala, like butter chicken - Italian food, Japanese food,
including California rolls that folks invented on the West coast circulate globally in a way and
yes one can have quarrels about how authentic or inauthentic that is. I'm going to set it aside for
now. Now to - so to say the meat of the matter, this is my third take which is how curry reaches
Japan via in fact the Japanese Navy and in fact most of the ingredients in there curry powder,
white potato, carrot, not rice as much, but I'll tell you how rice is relatively modern and about
150 years old in the Japanese experience if you're looking for the best book on this it
is "Modern Japanese Cuisine" by Katarzyna Cwiertka and she opens the book with a kind
of a citation of a survey that favorite television show does with 6,000 of its viewers - what is the
accompaniment that you have with Japanese dinner and at number 10 was hamburger, then gyoza - in
the middle of the list there you see curry rice, and at the top of the list was soy simmered beef,
potatoes, and onions these are of course -year - conceptions - Japanese conceptions of what is
traditional Japanese food and what are these other accompaniments with it. Even rice in some ways,
though always symbolically important, white rice was not available to all especially rural
poor and then of course urban populations through rationing and scarcity and especially what we now
have come to associate with fresh sushi that has gone global is a post Edo period street food and
if you want a a beautiful book on Sushi this is the book you should be looking at and he traces -
Eric Rath traces Sushi's development from China to Japan which is usually a story
that is under told and then how it spreads internationally and from how it moves from
being street food in Edo period Japan to in fact high class cuisine, the most expensive cuisine,
most expensive restaurants in New York City are omakase sushi restaurant - that's very recent
development both in Japan and also globally so what we call curry is this about 150 years old
of associated fried food - breaded fried meats that are borrowed heavily from the Portuguese and
in fact there's a point of time in 1871 where the Meiji Emperor in fact very performatively
turns West and he turns West and he's supposed to represent this modernizing feature of Japanese
culture which is called the Meiji Restoration which in some ways is a sort of a coup d'état
with the middle level samurai who are faced with the challenge they see what's happening
to China and they don't want Japan to go down the pathway okay so there's part of
this meat and the and the emperor eating meat is performatively functioned in a particular way and
it's important because in Japanese culture partly influenced by Buddhism, partly based on Shintoism,
there's a sense that you don't eat domesticated animals okay and you eat hunted wild animals and
there's a sense of a westernization of this cuisine that will help to circumvent this
problem of vegetarianism and there have always been medicinal meats but there's a substantial
vegetarianism that has developed in Japan from about the 7th Century onwards you see outsiders
who are going to Japan are pointing it out about wild game, high quality fish ,and here is a
Jesuit missionary who says "some people especially traders, since the arrival in Japan now eat cow,
pig, and hens, but such things are not eaten at solemn banquets." There's a sense that that is
still not ritually correct and of course all of us today know Kobe beef very famous for it and that
comes out of the port of Kobe where it is shipped to Yokohama and in some ways, named - gets named
as Kobe beef which becomes quite popular among young selective cosmopolitan crowd. The state does
a lot of propaganda on the Meiji government and afterwards on consuming meat and I'll tell you why
because this is the kind of the biopolitics what - what scholars after Foucault called biopolitics
which is this question of race and diet and that is quite a rage in the Western world and here is
Edwin Lankester saying "those races who have partaken of animal food are the most vigorous,
most moral, most intellectual races of mankind." It's kind of a inversion
compared looking back from the first two decades of the 21st century. Sarah Hale
argued that British dominance of India proved that fact that meat eaters dominated World politics so
there's this social Darwinist argument that is developing a more interpretation of race
and diet that the Japanese pick up from these dominant powers and there are Americans there
are other westerners who are traveling through Japan who today - Japanese food has so much
prestige it is astonishing to read these people endlessly whining about what Japanese food is
what they're saying is - is not good for their palate and their meat eating habits
which is very Atlantic, very European, especially northern
European the consumption of meat is almost two to three times higher around northern
Europe than around the Mediterranean and also than across the Atlantic. Here's the American
Vice-Consul who's whining about living off rice, fish, and very poor poultry and kind
of that becomes a common place in some ways but the intriguing - intriguing question is
why do the Japanese mimic a kind of the Anglo-Saxon model rather than the Gallic
model which is in fact at this point of time becoming the dominant Western model of haute
cuisine okay and some of the arguments made by historians is its relationship to global power,
visible power, frequency of contact, and some have argued to the relative ease of preparing
Anglo-Saxon foods rather than Gallic foods and here's one quote "As democratic as American homes
are and as unsophisticated as the English homes are, so extremely simple is their food and easily
adaptable for Japanese homes. Therefore, I find them most suitable." These are of
course interpretations of what is easy and what is complex. I mean what - what is the most important
part of mimicking the Brits are because they are a major global power in the 19th century and in fact
Japanese come into substantial contact with the British and begin to mimic this sensibility which
is both as I said coming in from the emperor performatively turning West - eating meat and
then it is also becoming popular in Western restaurants they were in fact at this point
of time restaurants called "beast" restaurants that specified on food and Western food and curry
is identified as Western food you see that in railway company restaurants, in department stores,
which are in fact quite fashionable and lot of the ingredients are coming from different parts
of the world and beef you have Kobe beef - it'll take off later it's coming from China, Shanghai,
onions from Bombay, white potatoes, carrots, cabbage, not typically widely used in Japan
until the end of the 19th century you see like white potato crop grew 10 times between 1880 and
1930 so not only are the concepts but of course the ingredients that go into the making of these
kinds of meat stews with curry powder that happens basically an early first half of the 20th century,
first 2-3 decades of the 20th century and that gets strengthened with with universal
education by the way that's in most developed parts of the world where you have school,
you have school lunches, you begin to create a relatively homogeneous diet and a palate and you
have modern notions of nutrition and association with for instance strength and height with protein
consumption and protein is all the rage until vitamins become the rage by about the 1920s and in
for some ways proteins have come back again now. It is in schools and especially in the military,
specifically in the navy, that the Japanese learned to eat meat often in with sauces -
soy sauce was often a bridge and then of course curry powder which was largely seen
as a British ingredient because curry had moved West to the British lands as
in fact coming through the navy the interesting observations about the
Japanese navy recruit who would often eat an enormous bowl of plain snow white rice with
a little bit of pickle as relish. We begin to see a military - army cookbook in 1910 which has about
150 recipes it includes curry rice in it and you see the increasing consumption of beef -
consumption per soldier which moves up while the population is eating at
the maximum 1 kg a year on the average, you have 13 kilograms, so military population,
naval population is consuming meat - at beef at the level of 13 times. Chinese dishes are added
and the naval diet is specifically targeted towards kind of there's the French model the
Japanese military develops the French model for land forces of course mimicking its successes
in Europe from the memory of the Napoleonic Wars and the British model for naval forces
because this is of course the model of the global power and Katarzyna Cwiertka
talks about de-Japanization of side dishes, various kinds of curries,
croquettes, and Chinese stir-fries by the way these are persistent like in most militaries
there's a persistent complaint and anxiety about malnutrition okay - in the Pacific War
for instance malnutrition kills many many people and you begin to see a lunch then added to the -
in the navy menu of steamed stewed beef with potatoes and onions which often become the
bridge to this thing called curry rice so there are these foods of empire - gyoza,
kimchi, ramen, and curry rice is in some ways is imagined as the food of another empire and this
is built as a mimicry of Western Imperialism and to mimic it in some ways is to kind of
re-conceive of oneself as a martial race that is an important part of the kind of
the military naval - modernizing - westernizing and curry rice ironically becomes part of this
project of modernization and westernization and some of the languages is a beautiful new
book called "Food Language and Society" about language of classification that develops in Japan
often develops in many parts of the world as to what is Japanese food remember just like India,
Japan is a long narrow island with mountains and valleys so it's a highly regionalized cuisine just
like Italy just in some ways like French food but there's a kind of a unification of it and
that often happens in the mirror of the other. The other here are Western, the other here are
Chinese. Partly, China plays a complex role in the Japanese imagination both as the source of a
Sinocentric culture but then of course a country, a region that would be colonized by the West
that would be seen as increasingly inferior and then the classification that you also have with
American food. The idea that something is ethnic - different people consider different food ethnic,
ethnic means ethnos people and usually it is in this case it is Japanese, Western,
Chinese and then "esunikku" which is ethnic which is often South- Southeast Asian and South Asian
food. The last bit I want to talk about - I have about seven minutes left - is this convergence
that is happening. The curry makers of Japan today are often Nepali workers. Nepali migrants
have increased about 10 times from about 5,000 in 2005 to about 55,000 in 2020 it's twice the number
of Indians five times the number of Pakistanis so out of about 2.4 million registered foreigners in
Japan and there are these niches just like New York City you have South Asian Bangladeshi cab
drivers. There are also these ethnic enclaves of Filipino entertainers and bartenders and then you
have Nepali curry house owners and often sometimes described as the 3-K jobs: dirty, dangerous,
and difficult - sorry I'm just going to check my time good five minutes - and out of 50,000 Nepalis
about 30,000 work in Nepali run Indian curry restaurants so it's substantial it's in some
ways that demo - demographics looks a lot like if I think of New York City the analogy here in
fact is Thai - the number of Thai people and the number of Thai restaurants are in some ways that
high that ratio is that high that very many of Thai families in New York City are associated with
Thai restaurants just like Nepali is in Indian restaurants - curry restaurants and about 500
last time I checked the data Nepali restaurants in Tokyo alone each restaurant and this is by the way
in which a kind of an exploitative system develops can bring in three to four cooks - sometimes each
of these cooks are paying about $15,000 dollars each to get the paperwork and often that is used
to finance the restaurant and there are about 3,000 Nepali owned Indian restaurants in - in
Japan and the assessment last piece I looked at is about 25 to 30 seat restaurant the typical a
median restaurant curry house -three to five workers it takes about three to four million
yen as revenues and about a 1,500 yen dinner and you see this kind of a structuring of ethno
exploitation that you - I also see in in New York City in these various so-called ethnic restaurants
these are small entrepreneurs and a labor force and often they are indistinguishable from each
other. This system in some people traced back to other chains of Indian entrepreneurs often hiring
people which looks like quite high salaries by Indian standards but in fact does not turn out
to be so of course in terms of cost of living in Japan and earnings as I've said before from three
cooks can often allow an entrepreneur to start a business and of course folks are just like in New
York City working very hard working long hours of six days a week and there's of course as you have
this a relative homogenization of curry which is often used used as a roux often with ingredients
as turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, pepper, chili, orange peel, and spices and fat and flour
often cubed like that you're also going to see a differentiation in this spice curry - one of
my friends who lives in Japan now pointed out to me of not a flour-based roux but in fact what is
called spice curry which is in some ways more directly spices cumin, cardamom, clove, chili,
ginger, garlic etc. So just to repeat, so of these divergent pathways of the curry so curry goes west
first with British, British transplants, and their wives. There's an article by Zlotkin
that's beautiful about how curry goes - works with gender in the imperial realm of the British Indian
empire, then it goes by small entrepreneurs and workers, especially Naval workers, first - first
from Chittagong and now from Nepal for instance and then of course it goes east to Japan via the
West primarily through British naval rations based on social Darwinist notions of race and
diet ending up - this divergence ending up with a convergence at the end of the 20th century and the
early 20th century in terms of curry rice. I think I'll stop here. I'll stop sharing,
so I can see you and you can see me and we can open up the questions.
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