Chaheti Bansal, 27, a Californian who posts south Asian recipes on Instagram, said in a video that has been viewed 3.6 million times: “There’s a saying that the food in India changes every 100km and yet we’re still using this umbrella term popularised by white people who couldn’t be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes.”
She called on people to “unlearn” the term, which became prominent during the British rule of India. “I don’t understand what that word means,” she said, adding that her recipe was “called gatte, not curry”.
Super, how lovely. But you are a Californian, speaking your own variant of English. We are English, speaking our own variant. The two are sufficiently different to be different languages – well, almost.
And here’s the thing about this cultural appropriation, cultural imperialism. We get to decide the language we use just as you get to decide what you do. Because you deciding for us is imperialism.
Which is very Tsk, isn’t it?
The whole idea is so embedded in our – note our – culture that we even spoof it:
In short, bugger off Honey.
When I’m speaking in my own language I shall use the words in my own language that describe the things that I am describing in my own language. How *DARE* you impose your insistences on my language and culture, ethno-culturo-imperialist fascist! You’ll be demanding the Frogs refer to “London” next.
For the same reasons, we should continue to refer to Calcutta and Bombay as Calcutta and Bombay. Peking too, for that matter.
You can fuck off now, we have the recipes.
Can dearieme tell us if Steve’s comment contains an Oxford comma please.
Real Indians don’t give a shit about this sort of thing of course. Nor do the Bangladeshis cheerfully serving curry all over Britain. The mere fact that this stupid cow is twatting on about it conclusively proves that she is a Yank through and through.
Why is this bint hectoring us in English and not eg Gujarati or Punjabi?
If I remember correctly Indian spices are not generally available in the US as they tend to use Mexican and Sth American spices as substitutes, so most of the “curries” they cook are likely to be inauthentic anyway.
. . . they tend to use Mexican and Sth American spices as substitutes, so most of the “curries” they cook are likely to be inauthentic anyway.
Chillies naturally originated in the Americas and were introduced into Indian food five hundred years ago via Portuguese traders. Cultural appropriation!
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Chaheti Bansal, 27, a Californian who posts south Asian recipes . . . “I don’t understand what that word means,” she said
A major ingredient in southern Indian dishes is the curry leaf from the curry tree (anglicised from the Tamil “kari”). If she doesn’t understand that then she sucks at her job. And if she doesn’t like all this interchange what the hell is she doing in California? # stolen land
@Philip, no that’s not an Oxford comma. It’s a comma splice, alas.
‘You can fuck off’. Thanks for the first part of your sentence Steve. Expresses my feelings exactly.
We call Deutschland Germany, Suomi Finland, Zhonghu China, Nihon Japan – we should still call Iran Persia by the way and Thailand Siam. I see no reason why we shouldn’t call curries curries. The Injuns can call them what they like. I’m sure what they call us is far from complimentary.
The mere fact that this stupid cow is twatting on about it conclusively proves that she is a Yank through and through.
She’s not a Yank. She’s a Californian.
There’s a difference, and the difference is important.
Why is this bint hectoring us in English and not eg Gujarati or Punjabi?
And why the fuck is she doing it from California?
The first thing wogs do is leave Wogland for ‘Merica as quickly as they can.
The second thing wogs do is bitch about how ‘Merica sucks and what a bunch of pinhead racist shits septics are.
The one thing wogs never do is go back to Wogland.
“. . . they tend to use Mexican and Sth American spices as substitutes, so most of the “curries” they cook are likely to be inauthentic anyway.
Chillies naturally originated in the Americas and were introduced into Indian food five hundred years ago via Portuguese traders. Cultural appropriation!”
Can’t say I’m an expert in Indian* cuisine. Or not the vile stuff appeals to the English palate anyway. But there is an indigenous S. Asian “hot” spice that was & is used in authentic Indian* cooking. S. American chilli’s substituted for cost reasons. Except vindaloo, which is Portuguese not Indian.
*One thing I’d definitely agree with. There’s no such thing as Indian cuisine. What Brits eat is a horrible mismatch of cuisines from umpteen regions & cultures served in a completely inappropriate “meat ‘n two veg” format.
I have often said English is my second language, my native tongue is Midwestern American.
Many moons ago I had a meal in an Indian restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. Nothing like the fare we get over here but I’ve no idea whether it was closer to genuine Indian recipes either.
As for language, when I’m over there I tend to use American nouns for stuff to improve communication. I still got tripped up by ‘car’ though at a railroad museum.
“Vindaloo vindaloo vindaloo vindaloo nah nah
Vindaloo vindaloo vindaloo vindaloo nah nah
Vindaloo
Vindaloo and we all like vindaloo
We’re England
We’re gonna score one more than you”
Nothing more need be said.
Bansal is a Sikh name.
Not sure what that tells us.
I once had business visitors from India one of whom, remarkably, turned out to be related to the owner of a local curry house who even more remarkably was actually Indian and not Bangladeshi. He arranged for us to have a private room and an “authentic” banquet, none of your British bastardisation here, no sir. Very tasty it was. And frankly, no different to my taste than the usual selection they daily serve up to the uneducated Brits. But Vijay was proud of himself for showing us the light and we all smacked our lips appreciatively and told him what a wonderful experience it was.
I once picked up a Bangalore based engineer – no, not that, I was doing some work with the company and he was passing by – at the airport and took him to dinner as a favour to his boss. He’d been in Germany so he actually did want to go for a curry. So, off we went and I asked him, before, to tell me afterwards. Not “Was it good?” but “Was it authentic”?
The eventual answer was, yes. Except the dishes did get a bit regionally mixed, but that’s OK. The big difference was rice and bread. In India it would be rice only with Southern, bread only with Northern. Although even that’s beginning to mix a bit now.
I travelled round India for about 2 months over 15 years ago (for cricket purposes), in southern and central India, and the food didn’t seem a million miles from what we get back in Blighty, just more veggie dishes and less meat based ones. Gained a love of chick peas as a result, and also discovered the puri, which seems a far lighter Indian bread than the naan, more crispy than doughy as well.
Well, yes, a puri is fried, a naan is baked,,,,”more crispy”