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Comment by anuraj | Hacker News Reader

"Now to be clear, India has no such dish as a curry. No self-respecting Indian restaurant has a "curry" on their menu. They would have a Palak Paneer or a Malai Kofta or a Murgh Makhani - all of which we lump into "curry" - but no "curry"

- This is patently wrong. Curry is a South Indian word referring to vegetables originally (Malakkarry means vegetables). Come to Kerala - you have Moru Curry (Butter Milk Curry) , Erachi Curry (Beef Curry), Tharavu Curry (Duck Curry) etc. The author is a North Indian oblivious of curry history.

"കറി വെപ്പാനെന്തുള്ളത് കാട്ടിൽ, വിറകിന് മാത്രം മുട്ടില്ലിവിടെ"

[kari veppaanenthullathu kaattil, virakinu maathram muttillivide]

"What is there to make curry in the forest? Only firewood is available here" - Kiraatham Thullal by Kunchan Nambiar, Malayalam poet Circa 1750 AD.

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As I clarified in another comment, I was trying to make the point that curry is a genre of foods (as your examples illustrate).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35400253#35400453

I understood exactly what you meant, no further clarification is needed. Take the parent comment with a grain of salt, it is clearly biased as Kerala might as well be a different country with its unique, southernmost coastal-climate inspired cuisine and dishes not seen in other parts of diverse India.

Curry refers to vegetable originally and dishes made out of that. Curry Koottu means Masala. We have been using this word from time immemorial.

With all due respect, you failed at making that point, but now at least your intentions are understood.

I agree. Half the comments are about that one statement. You might be on to something here..

FWIW, I understood exactly what you meant on first reading.

Now to be clear, India has no such dish as a curry.

The wording "no such dish as a curry" is a little ambiguous here as to if you mean a single menu item called "curry" or items from the genre of curry. This might be were people are tripping up. However, you make yourself crystal clear with the following sentences:

No self-respecting Indian restaurant has a "curry" on their menu. They would have a Palak Paneer or a Malai Kofta or a Murgh Makhani - all of which we lump into "curry" - but no "curry".

If someone is saying you failed at making this point, I'm not sure they read the whole paragraph, or are just willfully ignoring the context and are looking for an argument.

I don't agree that this point is crystal clear. If they'd written "They would have a Palak Paneer, or a Moru Curry, or...." and at least included one dish with "curry" in the name, then there would've been no such confusion. But as it stands it sounds to me like it's claiming there is no actual Indian dish that contains the word "curry".

> Curry is a South Indian word referring to vegetables originally

Not exclusively to vegetables. It originally comes from 'kari', meaning 'blackened' or 'burnt', and referred to cooked vegetables and meat.

1. https://www.etymonline.com/word/curry#etymonline_v_491

That etymology might actually be wrong. The kari for blackened, burnt, etc comes from കരി where the r sound is a dental flap type r sound, while the kari for curry comes from കറി where the r sound is the typical r sound. So it's more likely the etymology is from malakkarry, which means vegetables, meaning than kari from the blackened, burnt, etc meaning.

Perhaps, but the difference is pronunciation is not definitive evidence.

For example, curry veppu (curry tree) is pronounced with the regular r sound in the standard dialect, but in some dialects, it is instead kariyaappu with the dental flap r sound (the 't' in American English 'atom').

The kari for 'burnt', 'blackened' is also related to 'karuppu' for 'black', which is pronounced with the regular 'r' (like curry) instead of the dental one.

Regardless of this article’s content and the discussion here, I’m glad to see some fellow mallus in a HN thread :)

That etymology is probably wrong. I posit - it comes from 'Kant/rikkuka' means to cut and cook. Kari vs KaRi.

website is called "one-from-nippon"

op's name is japanese

> The author is a North Indian oblivious of curry history.

Also, in several north Indian languages “tarkari” refers to a vegetable curry.

https://www.google.com/search?q=tarkari

Rash Behari Bose was Bengali, and the Bengali word for curry is “tarkari”.

The “kari” is originally a Dravidian word. More on this here: https://mobile.twitter.com/avtansa/status/132281823254637363...

> Curry is a South Indian word referring to vegetables originally (Malakkarry means vegetables)

FWIW, Kannada has no such word. ಕರಿಬೇವು ("karibevu") refers specifically to the curry plant and (as far as I know) there is no word "kari" which refers to curries in general.

My parents had always told me that "curry" was, therefore, a generalization and anglicization of various dishes containing curry leaves. But seeing as "kari" is a word in several other South Indian languages, perhaps Kannada is just the odd one out.

You seem to have missed the obvious Tharakaari (the Kannada word for vegetables)?

> Now to be clear, India has no such dish as a curry

Shit, gotta go ask my mom what shes been calling curry my whole life then.

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