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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
An engaging history of Indian food, from the late 1400s to the present day. The books focuses on Mughal, Portuguese, and — particularly — British influence on Indian cuisine. Collingham artfully weaves together historical accounts and thorough research to tell a compelling story about how the Indian subcontinent’s cuisine has evolved and spread across the globe in the last 500 years.
The book does have its flaws, primarily:
(1) It portrays India as a passive recipient of influence from the Islamic world and from Europe (and by proxy the Americas). Yes, these regions had significant influence on Indian cuisine. But can you imagine a world without sugar and rice or citrus and chicken? These are just some of the foodstuffs domesticated at least in part by Indians and spread across the globe before Islamic or European influence in India. The book could have better explained the cuisines across the Indian subcontinent and their impacts globally before discussing important foreign influences.
(2) Collingham is British, and her lack of cultural awareness about India clearly shows. She makes factual errors, such as calling the Kannada language “Kannadan” or states that Indians only rarely use pre-ground spices. Worse yet, Collingham exhibits thinly veiled contempt for Indian people, referring to coconut oil used on skin as “smelly” or dhal as “sloppy” and describing unhygienic conditions in colonial India as character flaws. Even on the back of the book you can see Collingham describe the Mughals as a “horde” while the Portuguese are “explorers.” Funny.
The book does have its flaws, primarily:
(1) It portrays India as a passive recipient of influence from the Islamic world and from Europe (and by proxy the Americas). Yes, these regions had significant influence on Indian cuisine. But can you imagine a world without sugar and rice or citrus and chicken? These are just some of the foodstuffs domesticated at least in part by Indians and spread across the globe before Islamic or European influence in India. The book could have better explained the cuisines across the Indian subcontinent and their impacts globally before discussing important foreign influences.
(2) Collingham is British, and her lack of cultural awareness about India clearly shows. She makes factual errors, such as calling the Kannada language “Kannadan” or states that Indians only rarely use pre-ground spices. Worse yet, Collingham exhibits thinly veiled contempt for Indian people, referring to coconut oil used on skin as “smelly” or dhal as “sloppy” and describing unhygienic conditions in colonial India as character flaws. Even on the back of the book you can see Collingham describe the Mughals as a “horde” while the Portuguese are “explorers.” Funny.
An enjoyable look at a highly nuanced cuisine. Being one of the guilty people who goes into every Indian restaurant expecting to find and order my favorite dish (paneer makhani 4ever!), this book was a wakeup call. The most fascinating part was when the British Empire took hold because it showed how an entirely new cuisine (Anglo-Indian) was formed by British prejudices, as well as thoughtfully discussing what happened when Hindu purity rules around eating and drinking came up against British colonial social norms. Also quite interesting to me was the spread of Indian and Anglo-Indian food into Great Britain and America, since it spoke directly to my own experiences eating these cuisines.
Not sure that I'll be making any of the delicious-sounding recipes found at the end of each chapter because, as the author notes throughout the book, real Indian cooking is extremely complex. Every recipe needing a cupboard-full of ingredients to chop and grind and marinate is too involved for my style of cooking. Label me a happy eater, leaving the cookery to the experts.
Not sure that I'll be making any of the delicious-sounding recipes found at the end of each chapter because, as the author notes throughout the book, real Indian cooking is extremely complex. Every recipe needing a cupboard-full of ingredients to chop and grind and marinate is too involved for my style of cooking. Label me a happy eater, leaving the cookery to the experts.
History of Curry complete with recipes from each period in it's development. Part history book, part cookbook, what's not to like?
informative
medium-paced
A great book about how important food is to our culture and daily life and also how curry has been impacted by other cultures and in turn influenced other cultures as well. The inclusion of recipes is also lovely starting from Mughal recipes which could be seen as more traditional to more adapted recipes making do with the ingredients available. An overall interesting book with an insightful look into British and Indian history.
informative
slow-paced
This is from a fairly Western POV, since a lot of it discusses the part that the British Empire played in the development of curry as we know it today, and a lot of it seemed to focus on what the British said/thought/did with regards to their meals. Which is relevant to the development of curry as we know it today, of course, but it did give Britain a lot of credit.
I dunno, I just didn't get into it. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, but I wasn't engaged and there are other books I'd rather be reading. Probably won't go back to finish it.
What a delightful surprise this book turned out to be! It was on my To Read list for a while, simply because it promised to detail the history of Indian cuisine and the search for authenticity. Lizzie Collingham not only delivered on that promise, but served it with a dose of cultural relativism that is even more relevant today than it was twelve years ago when the book was published.
Americans as a whole are vastly ignorant of the history of the subcontinent save for maybe a romanticized version of the British colonial period and the Raj. Collingham uses dishes that Western foodies are familiar with to explore and illustrate India’s long history of cultural fusion that accompanied their evolving political eras, going back to the 15th century. Interwoven in the obvious discussion of history are highlights of the ingredients available to both the colonizers and the local natives at the time, and the way each prepared their foods using those ingredients.
There are a few places in the book where the narrative becomes a bit dry and bogged down with names and dates and battles to be won; in that respect, it sometimes reads too much like a history book and if you aren’t familiar with Indian history it can quickly become confusing. But overall, Collingham writes in a conversational, easy to digest voice that, at times, made me wish I was listening to her instead of just reading.
But this book is more than just a history of food. Collingham also addresses the racism, both blatant and subtle, inherent in the colonizer/colonized situation with regards to food, it’s preparation, and it’s acceptance. It’s an eye-opening discussion to which those of us not exposed to that racism due to geographic considerations don’t give much thought. But she brings it into the present day onto the global stage. Going forward I will be more aware of the accommodations the restaurants and their employees are willing to make, and the often unfair expectations those of us who patronize them harbor.
The takeaway from the book is that the search for an authentic Indian cuisine is like the search for an authentic India which, even today, after 70 years of independence, remains elusive. Much like the US, India is more a union of diverse regions and tastes, as opposed to being one distinct cuisine/culture. That search for authenticity is a false judgment passed by those more interested in touting their own experience than upholding and highlighting a heritage and those traits which make a culture and a people unique.
(Ithink I’m gonna pass on the recipe for Roasted Black Rat, though. Just sayin’.)
Americans as a whole are vastly ignorant of the history of the subcontinent save for maybe a romanticized version of the British colonial period and the Raj. Collingham uses dishes that Western foodies are familiar with to explore and illustrate India’s long history of cultural fusion that accompanied their evolving political eras, going back to the 15th century. Interwoven in the obvious discussion of history are highlights of the ingredients available to both the colonizers and the local natives at the time, and the way each prepared their foods using those ingredients.
There are a few places in the book where the narrative becomes a bit dry and bogged down with names and dates and battles to be won; in that respect, it sometimes reads too much like a history book and if you aren’t familiar with Indian history it can quickly become confusing. But overall, Collingham writes in a conversational, easy to digest voice that, at times, made me wish I was listening to her instead of just reading.
But this book is more than just a history of food. Collingham also addresses the racism, both blatant and subtle, inherent in the colonizer/colonized situation with regards to food, it’s preparation, and it’s acceptance. It’s an eye-opening discussion to which those of us not exposed to that racism due to geographic considerations don’t give much thought. But she brings it into the present day onto the global stage. Going forward I will be more aware of the accommodations the restaurants and their employees are willing to make, and the often unfair expectations those of us who patronize them harbor.
The takeaway from the book is that the search for an authentic Indian cuisine is like the search for an authentic India which, even today, after 70 years of independence, remains elusive. Much like the US, India is more a union of diverse regions and tastes, as opposed to being one distinct cuisine/culture. That search for authenticity is a false judgment passed by those more interested in touting their own experience than upholding and highlighting a heritage and those traits which make a culture and a people unique.
(Ithink I’m gonna pass on the recipe for Roasted Black Rat, though. Just sayin’.)
informative
medium-paced
The book had a fascinating look at the cultural history of curry -- definitely recommend, and gave me a much better sense of the history of this increasingly international food.
A simple, delicious food becomes a lense to consider the real ramifications of colonialism in this well-written cultural history.
Interesting take on food history. Occasionally repetitive...