Did You Say Curry Or Did You Mean Chili powder?

Now I'm sure this will be brought up many more times in future posts but the best part of American cuisine is the multitude of cultural influences that have been added to it's evolution.
As we learn early in history class, America was built by immigrants. A land considered a melting pot of different cultures and ideas. Some cultures and nationalities were brought here against their will while others transplanted themselves here to search for a better life.
One of these nationalities are Indians (that's dot not feather). When talking about Indian cuisine with other food lovers two topics always arise, and somtimes are debated, which are the heat of Indian cuisine and curry powder.

There is really not a right and wrong list of ingrediants when it comes down to making curry powder. There are however, a few ingredients that seem to be main stays in traditional curry powder.
Widely used in Indian cooking, authentic Indian curry powder is freshly ground each day and can vary dramatically depending on the region and the cook. Curry powder is actually a pulverized blend of up to 20 spices, herbs and seeds. Among those most commonly used are cardamom, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, red and black pepper, poppy and sesame seeds, saffron, tamarind and turmeric (the latter is what gives curried dishes their characteristic yellow color).
One very interesting item I found when researching what really made "curry" curry was how close chili powder was to traditional curry.
Chili powder really could be called American curry powder.The chili powder spice mix contains hot chilis and often mild paprika chilis as well, and other ingredients which usually include cumin, oregano, garlic powder, and salt. It may also include any or all of the following additional spices: black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, mace, nutmeg, and turmeric.

Indian food really has made a large leap in popularity since it's boom in the 1970s. By searching numerous sites I narrowed down a small list of the best areas to eat this wonderful food. The clear winner, followed closely by some regions in New York, was the San Francisco bay area. The areas in New York were Flushing in Queens and Jackson Heights in Brooklyn. Some notables were Edison New Jersey and suprisingly Charlotte North Carolina.
I really do promise Rigsby's Chicken Curry recipe will be in my next post!!!

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