India’s flavours & spices have enriched the world SACHA VAN NIEKERK EVERY region in India has its distinct delicacies and styles of cooking. But when it comes to curry, there’s a technique called tempering that’s widespread. This consists of the complex layering of dry roasted spices blended together before being braised in oil with onions, ginger, garlic and chilli. This liberates pungent aromatics, while other compounds in the mix mingle to enhance warm notes.
Unfortunately, to the untrained palate this level of sophistication in cooking may go unnoticed and under-appreciated. This was at least the case for American syndicated humour columnist for The Washington Post, Gene Weingarten. Last month, he penned an article titled: “You can’t make me eat these foods”. In it, he systematically picked apart various foods he cannot seem to stomach that included blue cheese and
hazelnuts. On the list, he also included Indian food. “The Indian subcontinent has vastly enriched the world, giving us chess, buttons, the mathematical concept of zero, shampoo, modern-day non-violent political resistance, Snakes and Ladders, the Fibonacci sequence, rock candy, cataract surgery, cashmere, USB ports ... and the only ethnic cuisine in the world insanely based on entirely one spice,” Weingarten wrote.
