It should be kept in mind that the curry served at Indian restaurants in Western countries is not the same as the staple diet for an average Indian family. While retaining similar ingredients used in these restaurants, curries prepared in South Asian homes are considered leaner and healthier by people from these parts. Also, it's incorrect to assume that curry is the most important constituent of a South Asian meal. Indian cuisine, in fact, is one of the most diverse cuisines in the world, and curry is just a part of it. That being said, curry's popularity in recent decades has spread outward from the Indian subcontinent to figure prominently in international cuisine. Consequently, each culture has adopted spices in their indigenous cooking, to suit their own unique tastes and cultural sensibilities. Curry can therefore, be called a pan-Asian or global phenomenon, with immense popularity in Thai, British and Japanese cuisines.

Etymology

In India the word "curry" is heavily used in the southern part of India in languages such as Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. It is derived from the word, "kari", which has its origins in Classical Tamil, and means "vegetable in sauce" or "sauce". In Kannada 'Kari' means to fry or the fried dish.

In North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the word Kadhi is used to describe a curry made with buttermilk and chickpea flour.

Usage

The term curry is used broadly, in English, to refer to almost any spiced, sauce-based dishes cooked in various southern and southeastern Asian styles. Though each curry has a specific name, generically any wet side dish made out of vegetables and/or meat is historically referred to as a "curry" - especially the yellow, Indian-inspired powders and sauces with high proportions of turmeric. A similar name giving behaviour can be observed at the South Indian Malayali people. For instance fish curry is known as 'meen-kari' and mango curry is known as 'manga-kari'.

Masala

The spice mixes are known as "masala". In South India spice mixes vary from family to family. Usually recipes are passed down from parents to children through many generations. Curry powder and Garam masala are industrialized masala products.

Indian cuisines

Bengali, Oriya and Bangladeshi cuisines