In case you missed it, the Twitterverse exploded in both confusion and annoyance yesterday after Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten alleged that Indian cuisine was entirely based on one spice that is “curry.”
In a column titled “You can’t make me eat these foods”, he wrote: “If you like Indian curries, yay, you like one of India’s most popular class of dishes! If you think Indian curries taste like something that could knock a vulture off a meat wagon, you do not like a lot of Indian food.”
Within minutes, social media users were quick to point out some simple facts – “curry” is not a single spice, Indian food constitutes more than curries, and the cuisine enjoys a plethora of delicious spices.
Weingarten’s article looked at other cuisine and ingredients as well, commonly disliked foods like Old Bay seasoning and anchovies, but it was his oversimplification of Indian food that made waves.
In true social media fashion, the path to Weingarten’s enlightenment wasn’t quite straightforward.
Many users were bewildered by the writer’s ignorance.
If curry was one spice, how are there so many different types of curries? Curry doesn’t just exist in India. Curry blends are used in cooking in Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and many more places. And they’re all different (and yummy!).
— M. A. Ka’upenamana (@1NativeMom) August 23, 2021
You don’t like a cuisine? Fine. But it’s so weird to feel defiantly proud of not liking a cuisine. You can quietly not like something too
— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) August 23, 2021
Others took a more playful route to correcting the writer.
If we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant there’s one onminpresent ingredient that offends him, I have four potential candidates: asafoetida, fenugreek, curry leaves, or love.
— Rhoda Morgenstern (@TactfulRhoda) August 23, 2021
I bet if his mom doesn’t separate the yolk from the egg white on his plate he throws a tantrum.🤨
Also, I am not an accomplished cook by any means, but when I attempt to make one of my favourite Indian dishes, I know it involves many gorgeous aromatics and ingredients.
Yum.
— Sierra Foxtrot (@SierraFoxtrot20) August 23, 2021
Every few months a white ‘food writer’ decides to say ignorant stuff about South Asian food
and every few months the spirits of our aunties possess us as we roast the ever-living f**k out of them.— Mads Prakash (@mads_sp) August 24, 2021
READ ALSO: “Stop cooking curry”: when neighbours complain about ‘smelly’ Indian food
All this only made the writer double down on his allegation, adding that his recent Indian meal had been “swimming with the herbs & spices (he) most despise(s).” (Worth pointing out, though, that Weingarten seemingly gave into the fact that Indian food did use more than one spice after all!)
Took a lot of blowback for my dislike of Indian food in today’s column so tonight I went to Rasika, DC’s best Indian restaurant. Food was beautifully prepared yet still swimming with the herbs & spices I most despise. I take nothing back. https://t.co/ZSR5SPcwMF
— Gene Weingarten (@geneweingarten) August 23, 2021
Even celebrity chef, TV host, and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi got involved, tweeting “what in the white nonsense is this?” and “Is this really the type of colonizer ‘hot take’ the Washington Post wants to publish in 2021- sardonically characterizing curry as ‘one spice’ and that all of India’s cuisine is based on it?”
For good measure, she even linked him to her cookbook.
You *clearly* need an education on spices, flavor, and taste….
I suggest starting with my book “The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs”:https://t.co/DARIJ1olqf
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) August 23, 2021
In the end, Weingarten gave in, apologising for his limited view of Indian cuisine, saying “I should have named a single Indian dish, not the whole cuisine, & I do see how that broad-brush was insulting.”
Still, in all this, perhaps the best takeaway has been this tweet. We introduce to you, the most savage take-down of all. The feelings for comfort food run deep!
I pride myself on my Pakistani cooking. I also love South Indian, and fusion dishes. That you got paid to write this tripe, and boldly spew your racism is deplorable.
May your rice be clumpy, roti dry, your chilies unforgivable, your chai cold, and your papadams soft.— Shireen Ahmed- CanWNT Stan (@_shireenahmed_) August 23, 2021
READ ALSO: Back to WFH: Funny tweets about working from home (again)
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