Showing Durban Curry - So Much of Flavour by Erica Platter

Durban Curry, So Much of Flavour - perfect for the home-cook, the traveller, the party host and even the man who wouldn't be caught dead baking cupcakes but will proudly flaunt his curry-making skills. 'Durban curry' is shorthand for South African Indian curry - a very distinctive and particular dish descended from the spicy sauce known in Tamil as 'kari'. Durban curries feature many different ingredients and a multiplicity of individual approaches. What this fascinating and appetising book explores is what makes them so recognisably 'Durban' rather than Cape Town or London or even Mumbai. The book looks at why and how, after Indian immigrants came to work in the sugar plantations of Natal, the recipes they brought have developed a character of their own, one so distinctive that even authorities like Madhur Jaffrey single out Durban dishes for special mention in international curry books. No other city in South Africa has such a signature dish that attracts food explorers, both national and international (food is the fastest growing area of tourism, worldwide).Those who travel to sample specialities like schnitzel in Vienna, Peking duck in Beijing or Nicoise salad in Nice come to Durban for its curries. Plural. Because there is not just one, standardised 'Durban curry'. There's a multitude - an array of evidence showing how the culinary traditions of one community were embraced and are now owned by all, straddling every class, gender, race and age barrier. Durban Curry, So Much of Flavour is a food story book which documents a quest to identify the DNA of this delicious South African dish. It celebrates, in words and Clinton Friedman's superbly atmospheric photographs, a national culinary treasure.