SPICY A ZINE BY CHLOE LAW M A X L E E S E R I L E E ABBEY ZHU
Welcome Traveler, You’ve come a long way, and we’re glad to have you rest at our humble abode before embarking on another expedition. “Spicy” is a zine about the foodways of curry. “Curry” comes from the British interpretation of the Tamil word, kari. Depending on who you ask, curry is a quintessentially Indian dish...or British...or even Japanese. Ask a Japanese, and they’ll say curry is “Western” (read: British); ask a Korean, and they’ll say it’s Japanese. And as Asian American curry lovers ourselves, we thought curry is unquestionably Indian. But we were wrong. Curry is a product of imperialism and commercialization in an early modern, increasingly global world. It’s a British colonial construction approximated from diluted ideas of “Indianness” and then globally commodified throughout the world. Through its foodways, we can trace the violent histories of colonialism and globalization that displaced Desi people—and their culinary/cultural practices—across the world in places as close as Southeast Asia and as far as the West Indies, central Europe, and even the South Pacific. But in this zine, we’re taking you along one specific trade route— from British colonial India to Great Britain to Meiji Japan and finally to the Korean peninsula after the end of World War II—to uncover the magic trick that transformed an Indian spice mixture and home-cooked culinary tradition into a modern British / Japanese food product. You’re in for a spicy treat.
Safe travels, Chloe, Max, Seri, and Abbey
Curry travels from India in the colonial period to Great Britain and is sold in markets as powder and roux cubes Britain opens up Japan to foreign trade and introduces curry powder and roux cubes Koreans living in Japan as a result of colonization and forced migration bring curry back to Korea after World War II
Timeline of English Rule in India East India Company establishes trading post in Madras, India
Death of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
1640 Following Massacre at Amboina (Indonesia), The East India Company establishes trading center in Madras and centers operations on India. Indian cloth traded for spices in other countries in the East Indies.
Battle of Plassey
1757
English Slavery Abolition Act
Following decades of a fractured India, the East India Company military defeats Nawab of Bengal and takes over control of India. East India Company triples taxes, impoverishes millions. Millions die of famine and are dispossessed of land by the East India Company over the next two decades.
1833 Parliament expands 1807 abolition of slavery to most British colonies. This leads to an increase of indentured migrant labor in British colonies like in the Caribbean, Latin American, Pacific Islands, Southeast Africa, etc. Many laborers come from India and other South Asian countries
1707 Aurangzeb had previously led an India untied under Sharia Law. Under his rule, India expanded to what it is now territorially, and became the world's largest economy at the time, surpassing Qing China.
Warren Hastings appointed as governor general
1774 Warren Hastings appointed as governor-general of India (1774-1785) due to British concern about the East India Company's rule, which was marred by corruption and violent suppression of uprisings. Hasting's appointment was enabled by Regulating Act of 1773, which gave the Crown indirect power over governance of India. Hastings eventually charged with mismanagement and tried in 1788.
Indian Independence Act of 1947
1857 1947 This Act, passed by the British Parliament on February 20, 1947, granted independence to two separate states of India and Pakistan. Ended British Raj rule of India.
Large, but ultimately unsuccessful uprising by the Indian people against the East India Company. However, this ended the East India Company's rule in India and led to dissolution of the East India Company altogether. This marks the transition to British Raj rule in India.
Indian Rebellion of 1857
HERE ARE SOME SPICE MIXTURES USED IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF INDIA TO MAKE CURRIES
cumin seeds
black peppercorns
methi (dried fenugreek) turmeric chili powder
coriander seeds
Curry powder was invented by British colonists returning to England who wished to replicate the flavors they had experienced while in India. Middle class housewives played a crucial role in writing curry recipes into cookbooks, thus "assimilating" curry into the British diet so that it was no longer the food of the Oriental Other. Curry became British. Curry powder is evidence of this assimilation, as British companies turned the multitude of Indian curries into a singular packaged powder, and then sold this powder back to India. The Empress brand of curry powder was one of the first companies to do so. Teeny Tiny Spice Company is a spice company today that still packages and markets its curry powder with messaging invoking the British Empire and the colonial and imperial history of curry powder.
Through the British East India Company, the British consolidated Indian “curry” (taken from Tamil word kari) and transformed it into a roux cube. It was first commercially available in in London in 1784. The British eventually sold it back to India in the form of packaged curry powder. Later, upon forcibly expanding trade into Japan, the British sold packaged curry boxes to Japan during the 1860s-’70s. In Japan, curry was seen as a “Western” food and popular among middle class Japanese. Today, curry is widely accepted as a comfort food in Japan.
Under Japanese colonialism, Koreans were forcibly displaced throughout the Japanese empire. Koreans living in Japan called themselves “Zainichi” and they adopted Japanese curry into their diet. After the end of World War II, Zainichi Koreans were forced to self-deport and returned home with Japanese curry, further incorporating curry into Korean cuisine. Even Zainichi Chosenjin—or North Korean nationals living in Japan—have continued to send back curry packets back home to family in North Korea.
"Japanese" Home Cooking in a Box An Interview with Minna Ito
We interviewed our friend, Minna Ito, about her experience with curry growing up as half-Japanese half-Filipinx in Saipan and how it shaped her taste for curry now in college. Minna fondly remembers the first time she ate curry at home and associates these memories with her Japanese father. “The first time that I ate curry was at home because my dad would make it a lot into various things: curry with rice, curry udon, curry fried rice,” she said. “So I would eat it a lot growing up.” Because of her dad’s busy work schedule, he wasn’t able to cook curry all the time, which made eating curry at home a special experience for Minna and her family. “It was seen as a very special or a once a month thing and a very communal experience,” she said. Her dad would use roux cubes and curry powder, particularly the S&B Oriental Curry Powder made in Japan. Minna explained how growing up, she always thought of curry as Japanese mainly because of the large Japanese influence in Saipan and the relative lack of South Asian cuisines. “I had only really seen Japanese curry at home,” she said. “I knew that it originated from India but it just wasn’t something I interacted with growing up.” With this, Minna also claimed that Japanese curry is her favorite, out of both personal taste but also accessibility and convenience. Living on her own in college, she makes curry all the time from curry powder and roux cubes, just like her dad. Using the same ingredients as her family did back in Saipan, Minna has begun to “demystify” curry for herself. The food that had once been a special treat for her has now become an everyday enjoyment. She explained how she would video chat her dad while cooking, only to realize that her dad’s curry was relatively simple to make. “We were both technically using the same ingredients so what I had thought of as this magical experience before has now become routine in my life,” she said. “It sort of removes some of the awe.”
/ EMPIRE / COOKBOOKS / C O S M O P O OLITANISM / CULINARY IMPERIALI S M / W E S T E R N I Z A T I O N / MEIJI ERA / MIDDLE CLASS / OPENING OF JAPAN / TR ADE / DIASPORA / NATIONAL CUISINE / IN NDUSTRIALIZATION/ ZAINICHI / GLOBALIZAT I O N / W O R L D W A R I I / P O W D E R AND ROUX / DEPORTATION / AUTHENTICITY / COMFORT FO OOD /SELF-ORIENTATLIZATION / C U L T U R A L E NTREPRENEURSHIP/ ORIENTAL OTHER /CON NVENIENCE / APPROPRIATION / K A R I / C O COMPANY COSMOPO IMPERIALI MEIJI ERA / JAPAN / TR C U I S I N E / I N FROM BRITISH COLONIAL G L O B A L I Z A T INDIA TO GREAT BRITAIN AND ROUX / TO MEIJI JAPAN TO THE COMFORT FO KOREAN PENINSULA CULTURAL E OTHER /CON KARI / COLONIALISM / EAST INDIA COMPANY / EMPIRE / COOKBOOKS / COSMOPOLITANISM / CULINARY IMPERIALISM / WESTERNIZATION / MEIJI ERA / MIDDLE CLASS / OPENING OF JAPAN / TRADE / DIASPORA / NATIONAL CUISINE / INDUSTRIALIZATION/ ZAINICHI / GLOBALIZATION / WORLD WAR II / POWDER AND ROUX / DEPORTATION / AUTHENTICITY / COMFORT FOOD /SELF-ORIENTATLIZATION / CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP/ ORIENTAL OTHER /CONVENIENCE / APPROPRIATION /
FOODWAYS OF CURRY