Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
by Lizzie Collingham
List Price:
Our Price: $9.62
You Save: $7.33 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.45 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Lizzie CollinghamEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-01
ISBN: 0195320018
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
Book Review: A concoction that is India!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a friend of mine once remarked, the measure of a culture is in the complexity & variety of its cuisine. Lizzie Collingham's book is a look into the development of this complexity & variety through centuries of conquests of the Indian mainland, & the consequent assimilation of societies, customs & spices.
From the Moghuls to the Potuguese & finally to the British, the Indian subcontinent's cuisine has been in a millenia-long flux. This book is the story of this flux. Sure, there is a huge plurality of cuisines, particularly regional, that aren't a part of this book, but, for me, what this book might/could/should have been is nearly not as important as what the book is.
As Collingham talks about the cuisines, she also documents a great deal of history & nuances often not part of text-book history. You'd find the Moghuls becoming "Indian" with Akbar, the Portuguese marrying Indian women & the consequent Indianization of the Portuguese househlds, & in the late 19th century, "...as Victorian Britain was enthusiastically embracing the idea of empire, & curry was becoming a favoured dish among the middle classes, Anglo-Indians were busily eradicating as many traces of India as possible from their culture."
Of course, there are recipes in this book. A mere handful of them. But they're all captured in the minutest of details. Unlike the 4 to 5 step Biriyani making process that you'd find on the web, this book's Biryani recipe is two & a half pages long - so that if you follow it well enough, you may be able to soften up an emperor enough to get a grant of 10 acres of prime real estate or some such royal favour.
Summary of Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
Curry serves up a delectable history of Indian cuisine, ranging from the imperial kitchen of the Mughal invader Babur to the smoky cookhouse of the British Raj.In this fascinating volume, the first authoritative history of Indian food, Lizzie Collingham reveals that almost every well-known Indian dish is the product of a long history of invasion and the fusion of different food traditions. We see how, with the arrival of Portuguese explorers and the Mughal horde, the cooking styles and ingredients of central Asia, Persia, and Europe came to the subcontinent, where over the next four centuries they mixed with traditional Indian food to produce the popular cuisine that we know today. Portuguese spice merchants, for example, introduced vinegar marinades and the British contributed their passion for roast meat. When these new ingredients were mixed with native spices such as cardamom and black pepper, they gave birth to such popular dishes as biryani, jalfrezi, and vindaloo. In fact, vindaloo is an adaptation of the Portuguese dish "carne de vinho e alhos-"-the name "vindaloo" a garbled pronunciation of "vinho e alhos"--and even "curry" comes from the Portuguese pronunciation of an Indian word. Finally, Collingham describes how Indian food has spread around the world, from the curry houses of London to the railway stands of Tokyo, where "karee raisu" (curry rice) is a favorite Japanese comfort food. We even visit Madras Mahal, the first Kosher Indian restaurant, in Manhattan.
Richly spiced with colorful anecdotes and curious historical facts, and attractively designed with 34 illustrations, 5 maps, and numerous recipes, Curry is vivid, entertaining, and delicious--a feast for food lovers everywhere.
History Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in History Books
All the King's Cooks: The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palaceby Peter Brears
Souvenir Press; Published: 2011-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.92
Price in other shops:
From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways (Heartland Foodways)by Ellen F. Steinberg, Jack H. Prost
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2011-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.95
Price in other shops:
Favorite Dishes: A Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book (The Food Series)by Carrie V. Shuman
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2000-12-27; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Vegetables: A Biographyby Evelyne E. Bloch-Dano
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2012-04-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.46
Price in other shops:
Ambitious Brew : The Story of American Beerby Maureen Ogle
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2006-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Mealsby Michael Pollan
Penguin Audio; Published: 2006-04-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $25.16
Price in other shops:
Eating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at the Tableby Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate; Published: 2007-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.62
Price in other shops:
Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eatby Sarah Murray
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2007-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.88
Price in other shops:
A Taste of Ancient Romeby Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1994-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.50
Price in other shops:
A Short History of the American Stomachby Frederick Kaufman
Mariner Books; Published: 2009-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
A Revolution in Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650-1800by Susan Pinkard
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2010-01-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.77
Price in other shops:
India: Brief History of a Civilizationby Thomas R. Trautmann
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-07-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.72
Price in other shops:
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Mealby Eric Schlosser
PBS; Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789by Barbara Ketcham Wheaton
Touchstone; Published: 1996-03-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge Concise Histories)by Barbara D. Metcalf, Thomas R. Metcalf
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2006-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvestby Peter Pringle
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Trading Tastes: Commodity and Cultural Exchange to 1750by Erik Gilbert, Jonathan T. Reynolds
Prentice Hall; Published: 2005-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
The True History of Chocolate (Second Edition)by Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coe
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2007-10-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.82
Price in other shops:
Spice: The History of a Temptationby Jack Turner
Vintage; Published: 2005-08-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.68
Price in other shops:
The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spiceby Michael Krondl
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: