National Curry Week
12:00, Friday, 13 October 2017
Top Ten Facts about Curry.
1. The word ‘curry’ in a gastronomic sense is thought to derive from the Tamil ‘karil’, which was a sauce served with rice.
2. The first recipe in English “To make a curry the India way” was in Hannah Glasse’s Art of Cookery published in 1747.
3. There are now more than 9,000 restaurants in the UK serving curries.
4. Before it referred to food, ‘curry’ meant a way to prepare leather or the parts of an animal slain in a hunt that were given to the hounds.
5. The town of North Curry is in Somerset but West Curry is in Cornwall.
6. A record tower of 1,280 poppadums was piled up in Northampton to celebrate Curry Week in 2012. It was 5ft 8in high.
7. The phrase “to give curry” is Australian slang for abusing or expressing anger at someone.
8. In 1987, Indian military scientists announced the development of the first long-life chapati.
9. Commercial curry powder first appeared in Britain in 1780 and was sold at Sorlie’s Perfumery Warehouse, No.23 Piccadilly, London.
10. Asafoetida, which is a spice often used in curries, is also known as Devil’s dung.