Acknowledgements

Writing this book proved more difficult than I had anticipated because so many excellent books and articles have appeared in recent years, especially about curry in Great Britain. In this little book, I’ve looked at curry’s incarnations not only in Britain and its former colonies, but also in other parts of the world, including the former colonial outposts of the Portuguese and Dutch empires.

Many people helped me in this endeavour. I’d like to thank Andy Smith for asking me to write this book; my Australian colleagues Rachel Ankeny Gae Pincus, Barbara Santich, Michael Symons and Paul van Rejk for their helpful suggestions and, in Paul’s case, a recipe; Richard Hosking, as always, a source of invaluable information about Japanese food; Tara Misir Sharma, Indu Sharma and Estella Lalgee for sharing their experience of Trinidadian food; Mary Williamson for her insights into curry in Canada; Marieke van Damme of the Boston Historical Society for providing information about curry in early Boston taverns; and Sri Owen for permission to use one of her recipes. Gaitri Pagach-Chandra very generously supplied a recipe, translations of Dutch songs and information about colonial food in the Netherlands and Guyana. Bruce Kraig offered much helpful advice. Stephen Bishop, Sunil Khushal, Jayashree Mazumdar Hart, Karen Leonard and Ashoka Bajaj provided invaluable assistance in my search for illustrations. I am especially grateful to my friend Helen Saberi for her encouraging and perceptive comments (always tactfully made) and my husband Ashish for his many suggestions and constant support.