I’ve been waiting for this to happen. Britain has been culturally appropriating curries. Of course, they are right to an extent, but the next issue is a kind of intersectional one. Who becomes the arbiter of what constitutes a true dish? For example, Italian dishes will vary considerably from village to village - even household to household. Chicken tikka masala is commonly believed to have been invented in Britain, although by Bengali chefs, which really muddies the waters over who claims ownership. Perhaps some kind of French terroir system could be introduced where the key elements of a curry could be generally accepted and chefs would have to adhere to those or call the curry a different name?
Marks and Sparks are on the receiving end of the majority of righteous fury for their ready meal curries. I suppose it was going to be either them or Waitrose in the Grauniad. I’m not sure how any ready meal could ever be authentic. They’re all basically slightly shit food for extremely lazy people.
If people want to modify food to fit the tastes of different demographics then they should be able to.
Indian food would never have become popular in the UK if it wasn’t modified to fit our tastes.
I mean, have you ever tasted the sorry excuse for British food they serve in Yuanshan? Brits don’t say they can’t serve it though. If they want to serve nasty British food for the Taiwanese palet, they can.
To be fair, most of the commentators aren’t exactly saying it’s cultural appropriation. They’re just saying those ready meals are crap. Which they are. But you could say the same thing about every ready meal on the shelf. It certainly is depressing how the Brits are so easily pleased that you can just plop any old brown muck on their plates and they’ll be happy, as long as it comes with chips.
these cultural appropriation douche bags need to do one.
every country adopts other country’s food and changes it to better suit their taste. for better or worse, no country is above it! this journalist should take a look at some curry dishes here. curry and fries! they will lose their shit.
This type of ridiculous outrage killed a food truck business in Portland Oregon USA. I’ve never seen a burrito with French fries any of the times I’ve been to Mexico. Cultural appropriation and theft? Pfft. This is just so stupid. It’s like people look for reasons to be outraged.
If Brits aren’t allowed to cook foreign food, it’s only logical that they shouldn’t be allowed to eat it either. Time to put your money in mushy pea futures!
Maybe Americans should organize protests at all the places that sell “hanbao” here. Or Italians at the mayonnaise-and corn pizza places. Come to think of it, what are all these Taiwanese people doing wearing western clothing, often with printed nonsensical “English”? Off with it immediately!
