I have been listening to Mark Steels in Town tonight, a programme where he visits places and laughs at the people. This edition finds him in Southall, once a boring a suburb in south west London, now known as 'Little India.' Here masses of 'Asians,' have settled and filled the hall to here themselves ridiculed. This series is a good one, Steel visits many out of the way places and brings some attention to them.
It was the talk of curry that got me thinking. In the days of long ago when I was a sweet, blonde haired, skinny child, yes that long ago, we had never heard of curry! It may well be we in fact had, dad served two years in Poona so must have mentioned it, but we never ate it. The diet, cooked by mum as we had little money, used a slot of corned beef, mince, spam fritters, home cooked chips, far too many sweets, potatoes and lots of salad stuff in summer. Dads hobby was the garden and he grew a great deal of veg for us, his potatoes were indeed the best we ever had. Mum made potato soup that kept us alive, brilliant stuff, so good she was forced to continue making this until she died for the younger ones! Sticks of rhubarb and a wee jar of sugar were used to keep us on the run, and fish came from the wee van that arrived from Port Seton regularly, fish straight from the North Sea! The cat enjoyed this van more than anyone. Sadly an outbreak of Typhus in Aberdeen in the early sixties was traced back to Fray Bentos in Uruguay if I remember correctly, this resulted in a massive clean up back at base and corned beef, the 'bully beef' beloved of the troops, suddenly rose sharply in price and was soon out of our league.
The influx of immigrants has been so powerful that many probably believe that curry, Britain's favourite dish, was actually a home grown meal. Not that I suspect the UK population to be that stupid in reality......hold on! In the eighties I delivered around Southall with a typical English driver. Long past any desire to work while retirement approached we drove slowly through the streets while he muttered about the immigrants. I mentioned my mate was supposed to bring me down to Southall for a proper curry but the promise had not borne fruit so far.
"Grnnn, I had an Indian once," he growled, "I was sick for days."
"What did you have," I asked innocently.
"Chilli con carne," he said.
"Isn't that Mexican?" I ventured.
"Grnnnn it's all foreign muck," said he.
.
15 comments:
Brilliant post. Will pop back this arvo after work to add more.
My husband remembers Southall well...he had a deal with the greengrocers to take off the surplus veg for his chickens.
An over order of coriander gave eggs with a green tinge and a distinct flavour.....
Father, having served abroad, was an adventurous cook, but, lacking the spices used on his overseas forays he would often end up frustrated by his efforts.
Oddly enough my father and my mother in law...disparate characters - would not have corned beef in the house.
My father because it was 'poverty food', my mother in law because she fed her dogs corned beef when in the Congo.
I remember the Vesta meals...my mother tried a few and gave up...but when she and my father visited us in France she tried a couscous in a can....her French was not too hot...she saw that one can contained semolina so prepared it as she would have done a semolina pud with milk and sugar and dumped on the top of it the fiery hot sauce.
Father's verdict?
Nae mair f....couscous in this hoose!
Carol, How lovely!
Fly, Oh that's laugh out loud time again!
I said I would pop back, and here I am. The experiences of foreign influences on our palette are not unlike what has happened in AUS. I don't think I ever ate Chinese until I was 18 and working in a Chinese restaurant. In moving to the city there was much to try and people to open new eating experiences up with. It has just become another characteristic of our global world and multicultural societies.
I always love how the Brits call Indians 'Asians'. We don't call them Asians here.
I wonder if the only truly global dish will become a Big Mac? I shudder.
Have a brilliant weekend A-man.
Carol, They have to be called 'Asians' as otherwise calling them Indians kind of up sets the Pakistanis and others.
The Chinese were the first to arrive throughout the land in the late 5os and then Indians became normal later. 'Takeaways' were common everywhere by the 70's.
And now the smart restaurants in the city serve all your childhood meals. At a cost your mum would be horrified by
Mo, Ain't that the truth! How can they get away with this?
Even if your folks didn't have much money when you were a kid, you were still fed well by the sounds of it, curry or not.
There wasn't much money in our household when I was a kid, either, but we always ate well. There was always ample food on the table and in the cupboards.
We had curries when we were growing up. I loved curries; still do. Of course, in those days curries were always made by using pre-made curry powder.
When I was cooking in restaurants, etc., I always made my curries from scratch...blending all the necessary spices etc.
These days when making a curry for myself, eight times out of ten, I'm back to using the pre-made, mass-produced curry powder. I can't be bothered fiddling around just for myself.
Toast at two pounds fifty....
Lee, Mum cooked most things in a basic but good manner. Mostly natural stuff as nothing else was available! Potato soup the highlight.
Curry comes from a jar of 'Patak' Madras sauce!
Fly, That sounds cheap for London!
Our Nana did all the cooking, Adullamite...because our mother went out to work. Nana was a good cook, too of the old-style...good, basic food...similar, I'd say to the way your Mum cooked. There was nothing wrong with the way our parents and grandparents cooked, to my way of thinking. Good, basic, healthy food. And the container of dripping was always at hand!
There were less food allergies when I was a kid...I think there is a lot to say for the good "old-fashioned" methods.
It was through Nana that I first learned so much about cooking and it was through her I gained my future interest in it, I guess.
Dot, not feather--right?
Lee, Home cooking is best! Mums don't bother today too often.
Jerry, Wot? have you been dreaming about pillows again?
Lucky you to have your dad's home grown veg!
I like to grow veg in the small amount of space I have here for such things, although here I have my suspicions about what is already in the ground, wouldn't be surprised if it is full of lead piping, there certainly seems to be a lot of Victorian builders rubble around.
Jenny, Dad had a poor bit ground, only good for potatoes. Later folks gave up and he took over their areas and life was better.
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