[Sca-cooks] Why *X* and not *Y*?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 2, 2008, at 2:31 PM, S CLEMENGER wrote:

> Yummm!
> I've never had a Burmese curry...just Japanese, and East Indian, and  
> Thai.
> What makes it specifically Burmese?
> --M, definitely working up a curry jones.....

Well, this isn't something I can claim to know much about, but it  
seems, as some other Southeast Asian cuisines do, to have aspects of  
both Chinese and Indian cookery represented. Many curries seem to  
begin with a similar (but not necessarily identical) blend of crushed/ 
pureed onion, garlic and ginger, cooked down to a sort of sludge, and  
finally to a lightly caramelized curry paste, in oil, to which spices  
are added. As I say, they seem to be a little less numerous than you  
might fin in Indian curries, where you might find all those  
ingredients plus, say, cloves, caradamom, chiles, cinnamon, turmeric,  
cumin, pepper, and whatever else, a Burmese curry may have two or  
three of those, maybe one, maybe five, maybe none of them. The usual  
suspects seem to be turmeric and chile.

As with Thai cookery, you've got curries made with coconut milk, some  
with tomatoes (including a hair-raising vindaloo), some with chick  
peas. And as with some Indonesian curries, there seems to be a good  
amount of oil floating on top of the curry after the rest of the  
liquid has cooked almost dry; this is not ewww fat, but an integral  
part of the dish, both for flavor and, possibly, to exclude air and  
"pot" or preserve the dish for a short period.

An observation of mine which may not bear much water in fact or in a  
larger sample size, but vegetable dishes tend to be cooked less than  
with some more-or-less corresponding Indian dishes, meat dishes,  
sometimes more, as if concentrating the flavor is the goal.

This is the stuff you're _supposed_ to be eating with all that  
allegedly bland white rice ;-)

Adamantius

>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 12:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Why *X* and not *Y*?
>
>
>>
>> Burmese curries always seem to me to be just a touch too oily and
>> salty, but over rice or noodles this all evens out...
>>
>> Adamantius
>>
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"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter