I can confirm that blending your own curry spices is fun; it's how I've been making my curries for the last year or so and I just love how every curry has its own slightly different personality because I mostly just eyeball the spice mix. Also, spices just taste better if you keep them whole and grind them right before using them.
I'm also mixed with South Korean. I speak both languages fluently and was raised by Hindu grandparents from Fiji Island who were indentured workers. They grew all of their spices, dried, toasted, and pounded all of their many different types of spices, including the "Curry Powder," which is masala with Tumeric added. Anybody can blend spices and call it whatever, but curry powder has its home im South Asia.
If curry powder is said to be a ripoff of garam masala, can we really say that the west invented it? isn't it a type of neocolonialism to rename products of another culture as yours?
The whole curry powder thing is the product of colonialism, from its invention, commercialization, to its spread when the British colonized other parts of the world. The term 'curry' has already oversimplified a broad and comprehensive cuisine, so I don't see why 'curry powder' didn't follow the same path. Although it is a product of colonization, on the other hand, oversimplifying the term and grinding the spices into powder somehow has helped it spread further.
@@savorthrutimewithSJ There isn't any material difference between making garam masala and curry powder. It isn't a product of colonialism, as per my understanding, if it has been co-opted like it is and then rebranded under a oversimplified title for western understanding. Can it be really considered as a product if it precedes the very existence of colonialism as a concept.
@@parker4406 The term 'product' I used refers to the result of something, so whether it was a recreation or rebranding, it was a result of colonialism.
@@parker4406 Garam masala isn't exactly the same as curry powder. For example curry powder's key ingredient, turmeric isn't something you'll find in traditional garam masala. The spices used have some overlap but aren't identical in the same way that mayonnaise and ranch dressing aren't different 'brand' names referring to the same thing. The way it's used also differs. You add curry powder while cooking but you don't do that with garam masala. It's also worth nothing that trade and other exchanges throughout history can lead to foods being spread to different places where they may undergo evolutionary changes to suit the local culture and hence take on their own identity. This is especially true for something as widespread as curry which today has all sorts of versions in places ranging from Thailand to Japan.
Thanks for the comment! You are correct about the differences between garam masala and curry powder. Based on my research, I also don't seem to have conclusive evidence that curry powder is a rebrand or reinvention of garam masala. Instead, in the video, I assumed that curry powder might have been inspired by garam masala, considering it existed long before the British arrived.
I can confirm that blending your own curry spices is fun; it's how I've been making my curries for the last year or so and I just love how every curry has its own slightly different personality because I mostly just eyeball the spice mix. Also, spices just taste better if you keep them whole and grind them right before using them.
Exactly! I am so glad that you made you own curry and have come to love it.
I'm also mixed with South Korean. I speak both languages fluently and was raised by Hindu grandparents from Fiji Island who were indentured workers. They grew all of their spices, dried, toasted, and pounded all of their many different types of spices, including the "Curry Powder," which is masala with Tumeric added. Anybody can blend spices and call it whatever, but curry powder has its home im South Asia.
In**
Wonderful background, and thank you for sharing your story and viewpoint.
Masala is not usually added at the end of the dish.
If curry powder is said to be a ripoff of garam masala, can we really say that the west invented it? isn't it a type of neocolonialism to rename products of another culture as yours?
The whole curry powder thing is the product of colonialism, from its invention, commercialization, to its spread when the British colonized other parts of the world. The term 'curry' has already oversimplified a broad and comprehensive cuisine, so I don't see why 'curry powder' didn't follow the same path. Although it is a product of colonization, on the other hand, oversimplifying the term and grinding the spices into powder somehow has helped it spread further.
@@savorthrutimewithSJ There isn't any material difference between making garam masala and curry powder. It isn't a product of colonialism, as per my understanding, if it has been co-opted like it is and then rebranded under a oversimplified title for western understanding. Can it be really considered as a product if it precedes the very existence of colonialism as a concept.
@@parker4406 The term 'product' I used refers to the result of something, so whether it was a recreation or rebranding, it was a result of colonialism.
@@parker4406 Garam masala isn't exactly the same as curry powder. For example curry powder's key ingredient, turmeric isn't something you'll find in traditional garam masala. The spices used have some overlap but aren't identical in the same way that mayonnaise and ranch dressing aren't different 'brand' names referring to the same thing. The way it's used also differs. You add curry powder while cooking but you don't do that with garam masala.
It's also worth nothing that trade and other exchanges throughout history can lead to foods being spread to different places where they may undergo evolutionary changes to suit the local culture and hence take on their own identity. This is especially true for something as widespread as curry which today has all sorts of versions in places ranging from Thailand to Japan.
Thanks for the comment! You are correct about the differences between garam masala and curry powder. Based on my research, I also don't seem to have conclusive evidence that curry powder is a rebrand or reinvention of garam masala. Instead, in the video, I assumed that curry powder might have been inspired by garam masala, considering it existed long before the British arrived.