Curry

Curry is a dish built around a spiced sauce, rooted in the culinary traditions of the Indian subcontinent and later reshaped through contact with the Portuguese and then the British before becoming an internationalized dish eaten worldwide. Medieval Indian proto-curries relied on comparatively mild spices such as asafoetida, cardamom, coriander, cumin and ginger; the dish changed markedly after 1492, when chili peppers, tomatoes and potatoes reached India through the Columbian Exchange and made curries substantially hotter than their predecessors. Preparation varies widely by region: Southeast Asian curries typically use a spice paste with coconut milk, Indian curries fry spices in oil or ghee into a paste that may be finished with water or milk, and East Asian versions often rely on commercial curry powder. The English word curry first appeared in print in Hannah Glasse's 1747 cookbook, after which the dish spread through British colonial trade to the Caribbean and Japan and, later, worldwide through the Indian diaspora.