Curry Facts

The Food Standards Agency have come up with the following interesting information.

A curry can be defined as a dish made with spices, cooked in oil with a sauce made from puréed onions, garlic and ginger.

Here are some more tasty facts and figures:

The origin of the word 'curry' can be traced back to the Tamil word 'kari' meaning spiced sauce.

Indian food is the UK's favourite cuisine. In the latest keynote survey, retail sales accounted for 42% of total sales of ethnic foods and was valued at £250 million.

The term 'curry' isn't really used in India. There are many types of curry style dishes, which have characteristic regional variations.

One of the earliest known recipes for meat in a spicy sauce appeared on tablets found near Babylon in Mesopotamia, dated about 1700 BC.

The Indian food industry in the UK is worth £3.2 billion and accounts for two-thirds of all eating out.

The first commercial curry powder appeared in about 1780.

Britain's first curry house opened in 1809. Called the Hindustani Coffee House and located in London's Portman Square.

Indian food now surpasses Chinese food in popularity, with Indian restaurants outnumbering Chinese restaurants by two to one.

Indian restaurants in Britain serve about 2.5 million customers every week.

Chicken tikka masala remains the most popular Indian dish. It's thought to originate in Britain after an enterprising Indian chef had the idea of adding a tomato and onion paste to the grilled chicken – to satisfy the British preference for food that isn't dry.

There are about 9,000 Indian curry houses in the UK, employing an estimated 70,000 staff.

In London alone there are more Indian restaurants than in Bombay and Delhi.

The word 'balti' means bucket.

On average we each eat 4.4 kg of rice every year, according to data from the Rice Association.

The latest keynote survey reported that curry fans spent £480 per minute in supermarkets and a leading supermarket sells 1.1 million packets of chicken tikka masala each year.

It is estimated that ethnic food sales will reach £792 million by the end of 2003.

Scientists at Nottingham Trent University have discovered that people begin to crave for a curry because the spices arouse and stimulate the taste buds.