Curry 101

Debunking the mysterious paste

By Joey Peters

Since starting college, I’ve been a regular at Cedar Avenue’s Keefer Court, a dirt-cheap Chinese bakery perfect for those looking for a non-fast food dollar menu. One of their signature standouts is the curry beef bun, which costs only $1.25. Inside the glossed bread roll, you’ll find a mildly spicy green sauce mixed with meat that’s atypical from your average American bakery good. After eating it for four years, I started wondering, “Why exactly is this tasty meat paste so broad, eclectic and multicultural?”

Most Americans think of curry only as one type of spice, but actually it is a combination of nearly 10 spices. It isn’t even referred to as a spice in the Middle East, but as a sauce or paste. Its origins date back to the beginning of collective human civilization. As long ago as 3000 B.C., people in India were harvesting turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard— all of which combine to create curry. Communities living in Mesopotamia traded with those in the Indus Valley and soon adopted Indian food habits, specifically the spicy ones. Curry’s oldest printed recipe, written around 1700 B.C., was discovered in Babylon, and historians believe it was most likely an offer to the Marduk, the Sumerian god of Babylon.

Most experts believe the term “curry” came from the Tamil word “kari,” which means “spiced sauce.” There’s also evidence that the word has English origins (although modern Brits use “curry” as a description for nearly any Indian dish.) The first English cookbook, written in 1390, during the midst of Richard II’s rule, had a recipe called “The Forme of Cury.” The Old English use of “cury” was taken from the French word “cuire,” which means to cook.

But all history aside, there are plenty of joints in the Twin Cities to score some of this spiced meat sauce. If you’re looking for good, pricey Thai curry, downtown’s ‘King and I Thai’ serves a red curry that comes with kaffir lime leaves and a side choice of peapods and beef or scallops for $15. Uptown’s ‘Sawadee’, another tasty Thai joint, offers a dish of tremendously spicy green curry beef. Let’s not forget that curry’s origins probably lie in Indian cuisine. I suggest Franklin Avenue’s the ‘Blue Nile’, which has a beef curry dish that’ll stun the taste buds.

In the end, the best bet for skeptical curry newcomers who don’t want to empty their pockets for food they’ve never tried before is the Keefer Court curry beef bun that I so piously abide by.