National Curry Week, 21st - 27th November 2010

National Curry Week celebrates its thirteenth anniversary as Britain prepares for a week long curry festival from 21st - 27th November 2010. It is nearly 400 years since Sir Thomas Roe became the favourite drinking buddy of Emperor Jahangir in India in 1612; over 250 years since Hannah Glasse had the first curry recipe published in 1747; 200 years since Dean Mahomet opened Britain’s first dedicated Indian restaurant with the Hindostanee Coffee House and 230 years since commercial curry powder first went on sale in Britain in 1780.

In Japan curry is one of the most popular foods enjoyed since its introduction from Britain in 187; in South Africa their own special curries ‘bobotie’ and ‘bunny chow’ are the tops; in Germany it is the currywurst craze and so on throughout the world in Europe, China, Caribbean, USA, East Africa, Ethiopea, and Australia not forgetting Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia and many others, making it the fist truly global cuisine.

Through National Curry Week we get the opportunity to celebrate this amazing British/Asian success driven by the communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India and, whilst enjoying ourselves, remembering the plight of others with fundraising for The Curry Tree Charitable Fund. All over Britain restaurants, cafeterias, schools and universities will be celebrating what has become Britain’s ‘national dish’ with fun events from poppadom towers and football matches to simple enjoyment of a fantastic meal.

The centrepiece event of Curry Capital of Britain involving Britain’s major cities outside London has created another dimension of excitement with current holders Leicester battling to hold off the likes of Birmingham, Glasgow, Bradford and more. “The curry industry has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years,” says National Curry Week founder Peter Grove, “and it is all there waiting to be enjoyed, offering fantastic value, and, with the help of the very generous curry-loving public, helping raise money for the malnourished and needy.”

For further details visit www.nationalcurryweek.co.uk

THE TOP 20 'DID YOU KNOWS?' OF CURRY

1. Could it have been the fist chicken tikka masala? - Cuniform tablets dated to 1700 BC found near Babylon in Mesapotamia contained recipes for meat with a sauce and bread probably as an offering to the god Marduk.
   
   
2. The Portuguese introduced chillies to Cochin and Calicat in India in 1501 and by 1543 three varieties were being grown successfully locally – they were originally known as goan pepper.
   
   
3. The British acquired Bombay in 1661 and Calcutta in 1690 opening the spice trade to a much wider market.
   
   
4. A style of curry powder was introduced to UK in seventeenth century along the lines of the popular ‘kitchen pepper’ used in recipes since 1682 with ginger, pepper, cloves, nutmegs and cinnamon.
   
   
5. Coronation Chicken was invented by Constance Spry and served at Queen’s Coronation Lunch in 1953.
   
   
6. The Koh-i-noor in London was opened by Vir (Bir) Bahadur in the late 1920s with his daughter Kashmirin as cook. She met an Indian Prince in the restaurant and they married and moved to live in Jaipur Palace.
   
   
7. The Shafi in Gerrard Street, London was the first successful up-market Indian restaurant in twentieth century opened in 1915 by Mohammed Wayseen and Mohammed Rahim then taken over by Dharan Lal Bodua.
   
   
8. The first restaurant tandoor was built in the Moti Mahal in New Delhi in 1948
   
   
9. The first commercial curry powder appeared in Britain in 1780 ntroduced by Sorlander from the East Indies and was quoted in the Morning Post in 1784 as being available at Sorlie’s Perfumery 23 Piccadilly.
   
   
10. Queen Victoria had an Indian confidant, Abdul Karim, and is said to have had a curry prepared every day by two Indian chefs in the event she had a visitor from India. Abdul Karim became her favourite often being referred to as “her Munshi”.
    
    
11. Japanese curry is one of the most popular dishes in Japan where people eat it 62 times a year on average. Curry was introduced to Japan by the British in 1870s.
    
    
12. Currywurst is celebrated at a Currywurst Museum in Germany where 800 million are consumed each year since created by Herta Heuwer in 1949.
    
    
13. One of the ingredients in Worcestershire Sauce created by two chemists Mr Lea and Mr Perrin in 1835 is ‘devils dung’ – asafoetida.
    
    
14. Chilli is the most popular spice in the world and can help combat heart attacks and strokes and extends blood coagulation times preventing harmful blood clots.
    
    
15. Curry first appeared on a commercial menu at a Coffee House in Norris Street, Haymarket in 1773 but the first dedicated Indian restaurant was the Hindostanee Coffee House in 1809/10.
    
    
16. The first known record of the name ‘piccalilli’ is by Mrs Elizabeth Faffald (1733-1781) who gave a recipe for making ‘Indian Pickle or Piccalillo’. She wrote ‘The Experience English Housekeeper’ first published in 1769.
    
    
17. Hannah Glasse, born and raised in Hexham, produced the first known printed recipe for modern ‘currey’ in Glass’s Art of Cookery in 1747
    
    
18. Prince Axel of Denmark first met Edward Palmer at the Empire Exhibition at Wembley on May 2nd 1924. When Palmer opened Veeraswamy’s in London the Prince visited and was so entranced he ordered a case of the royal lager ‘Carlsberg’ to be delivered each year, thus making lager the drink of choice in Indian restaurants for many years to come.
    
    
19. Biryani was brought to Hyderabad by the invading army of Aurangazeb under Khaja Abid, the father of the first Nizam. The dish was a ready-to-eat food for the soldiers during time of war.
    
    
20. Korma is a greatly misunderstood curry. Korma is “slow cooking or braising” rather than meaning a mild curry as it has become accepted in Britain. It can actually be very mild or fiery hot, with rich ingredients.

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