][1]Rejoice spice lovers for National Curry Week is upon us.
We’re sure that no-one really needs much of an excuse to tuck into a tarka dall or chow down on a chicken tikka masala but National Curry Week is as good a reason as any to nosh on a rogan josh.
National Curry Week run from 8-14th October 2012 and has the joint aims of celebrating Britain’s national dish and raising much need funds for the Find Your Feet charity which concentrates on tackling malnutrition and poverty.
5pm Indian restaurants
You can check out all of 5pm’s Indian restaurant members here and, of course, you can use the 5pm Takeaway service to place a convenient online order at your local curry house.
Pathia-inspired poetry
The National Curry Week website is well worth a visit, especially if you like dodgy poetry inspired by curry.
Your blogger’s favourite is Close Encounters of a Curry Kind in which our planet is visited by extra-terrestrials eager to munch a Madras.
Sample couplet:
And later that evening e’er brimful with mirth
Curry Week welcomed the strangers to Earth.
Everything you ever wanted to know about curry
Naturally, no national week of celebration would be complete without a random selection of curry facts so here’s ten spicy factoids:
There would be no chilli in curry without the Portuguese – they introduced chillies to Cochin and Calcat in India in 1501 and by 1543 three varieties were being grown successfully locally.
A style of curry powder existed in UK in seventeenth century – often know as ‘kitchen pepper’ and used in recipes since 1582 with ginger, pepper, cloves, nutmegs and cinnamon.
Chilli is the most popular spice in the world – it can help combat heart attacks and strokes and extends blood coagulation times preventing harmful blood clots.
If your mouth is on fire don’t reach for the water or beer – the burning is caused by the capsaicin in the chillies and is only countered by casein products such as milk or lassi.
Chillies continue to get hotter – The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T claims to be the hottest around at 1,463,700 just beating the Naga Viper – and to think most people consider the hottest Tabasco a killer at 30,000 units.
We all like a curry at home – almost half of Brits cook curries at home at least once a week and spend, on average, £30 a month on curry supplies from supermarkets.
According to a recent survey, 35% of people claim to eat more than two poppadoms per person with their curry.
Curry was taken to Japan by the British in the 1870s – it is now one of the most popular dishes in Japan with people enjoying it over 62 times a year on average.
Korma does not mean a mild creamy dish for beginners – it actually refers to ‘slow cooking or braising’ and theoretically could be mild or fiery hot.
According to this piece in the Daily Mirror, Britons spend an average of £34,000 each on curry over the course of their lives.