Curry

Every person has to have passions, they are what drive us forward and keep us interested in the cosmic game of life. Some folk collect little porcelain dogs, others have an overwhelming concern for saving the whales, others yet are keen on Jesus, and some us who are a little less altruistic, are concerned with filling our bellies. One of my passions is curry. Not that ghastly slop they have the audacity to serve in the majority of British curry houses - you know the stuff - a few big chunks of some kind of meat swimming in yellow sauce that has half inch slick of oil across the top. I love *proper* curry.

What constitutes *proper* curry?
It is hard to clearly define but I tend to think of Andhra cuisine, Bengali, Bangladeshi and Oriya cuisines, Gujarati and Rajasthani cuisine, Karnataka cuisine, Malayali cuisine, Maharashtrian cuisine, North Indian cuisines, Pakistani cuisine, Punjabi cuisine, Sindhi cuisine, Tamil and Sinhalese cuisines, Afghan and Pashtun cuisine, Northeast Indian and Nepalese cuisines, and Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Southeast Asian cuisines, Burmese cuisine, Indonesian cuisine, Malaysian cuisine, Philippine cuisine, Thai cuisine, Vietnamese cuisine (and all the other Asian cuisines I have neglected to mention in my ignorance), the native dishes of indigenous people.

There are so many different kinds of curry that utilise so many different ingredients and cooking styles that I always find it a little odd when people say they don't like curry. It is a bit like people who don't like any classical music, the canon of classical music is just so enormous and there must be something, somewhere out there that you can like. Anyway, such is the range of curries (and associated sundries), that a fellow could eat a different dish every day of their life and never have a repeat experience.

So what has spurred me to jibber so about curry on New Years Eve?

My partner and I enjoy a low key start to the New Year (I was always find the mass celebration of this arbitrary date incredibly odd, but in the past I used to revel with the best of them). Our new years eve consists of a nice dinner, some charming wines and the obligatory Champagne at midnight. Each year we take it in turns to cook for one another and this year it is Vicky's turn to cook for me, which means *proper* curry.

As always, it will be a complete surprise what I get but I do know that there will be a pre-dinner nibble (hors d'oeuvre/ amuse-bouche to those of you who are elucidated in the epicurean arts), a starter and a main course.