The hottest curry...

[citoyen]

OK, to avoid confusion, when I used the word "pepper" above, I meant "long pepper" or "black pepper", which are native to the subcontinent. "Chili peppers" (capsicums) are native to South America, though there are many cultivars/hybrids that originate outside South America - nagas being an example. So nagas aren't really from South America, but they aren't really "native" to India either. If that makes sense.

d.

[Cudzoziemiec]

They are an Indian cultivar of a South American species. Probably there are also South American cultivars of black/long pepper, which is an Indian species.

[Jon P]

FWIW I've never seen in India any food described as "Madras" (nor "Chennai"!). Oh, and Vindaloo is actually a Portugese invention (apparently it means something like wine with garlic - vin d'aloo, with appropriate Goan corruptions) and it is strictly a pork dish.

According to one of my curry books, the original Portugese dish was called vinha d'alhos, it consisted of pork marinated in wine vinegar and garlic. The Goanese locals found it to be a bit bland, so they increased the garlic quantity and added spices, especially chilli. They simplified the name to Vind-dar-loo.

The restaurant version of vindaloo originated out of a need for a halfway house between "Madras" and "Phall" strength, and Vindaloo (a further simplification) seemd like a good name. Obviously, pork and wine were a bit problematic for the Moslem proprietors of the early curry houses, and marination was too time-consuming, so the dish devolved into yer bog standard meat curry with two extra teaspoons of chilli powder per serving, with chunks of potato being added instead of garlic due to a mistranslation of the original name of the dish.

According to what I once gleaned from the back of a curry packet, vindaloo means "meat and garlic", as in Fr. "viande (et de l') ail", a way of neutralising the off-odours from meat which has ripened somewhat and become rather gamey - ie it's a Sanksrit word, not from your Portuguese or other Romance language as you've quoted it

[citoyen]

Tbh, I'm not sure anyone knows the true origins of "vindaloo" or other such terms, and even though chilis aren't native to India, they've been around long enough that they're as "traditional" as anything else - if Sam claims them as "authentic", that's good enough for me.

[Torslanda]

I don't want to hijack but I can't read this without thinking of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/qAXfmvdA0Vk&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/qAXfmvdA0Vk&rel=1</a> which, unsurprisingly is very NSFW. (Audio only - speakers required)

You will also need a broad mind and I'm sorry if it upsets anyone's delicate sensibilities but, while I've been laid low these past three weeks, this is one of the few things that made me smile.

luv'n'stuff

J

[Pedaldog.]

Dasxtardly Good Link J old chap!

[Cudzoziemiec]

FWIW I've never seen in India any food described as "Madras" (nor "Chennai"!). Oh, and Vindaloo is actually a Portugese invention (apparently it means something like wine with garlic - vin d'aloo, with appropriate Goan corruptions) and it is strictly a pork dish.

According to one of my curry books, the original Portugese dish was called vinha d'alhos, it consisted of pork marinated in wine vinegar and garlic. The Goanese locals found it to be a bit bland, so they increased the garlic quantity and added spices, especially chilli. They simplified the name to Vind-dar-loo.

The restaurant version of vindaloo originated out of a need for a halfway house between "Madras" and "Phall" strength, and Vindaloo (a further simplification) seemd like a good name. Obviously, pork and wine were a bit problematic for the Moslem proprietors of the early curry houses, and marination was too time-consuming, so the dish devolved into yer bog standard meat curry with two extra teaspoons of chilli powder per serving, with chunks of potato being added instead of garlic due to a mistranslation of the original name of the dish.

According to what I once gleaned from the back of a curry packet, vindaloo means "meat and garlic", as in Fr. "viande (et de l') ail", a way of neutralising the off-odours from meat which has ripened somewhat and become rather gamey - ie it's a Sanksrit word, not from your Portuguese or other Romance language as you've quoted it

If vindaloo is from "viande (et de l') ail" then in what way is it Sanskrit?