[CH] Goa & vindaloo
Doug Irvine (dirvin@bc.sympatico.ca)
Fri, 19 Feb 1999 18:15:23 +0000
Long time ago, I decided to find out as much about other cuisines of the
world as I could, seeing as I was interested in preparing them...my
primary interest was China, and then India, which at that time(WAY WAY
back) was one country, before the division of India and Pakistan and
Kashmir and Bangaledesh, in 1949...anyway, I found, when studying Indian
food, that the people who had colonized, hundreds of years previous had
had a distinct influence on the culinary traditions of that particular
section of the sub continent, and indeed, on the whole of Asia, seeing
as the English, Dutch and Portugese had most of it all wrapped up, early
on...due, in part to the missionary efforts of the Catholic Church, and
the Protestant Church. In the case of the area named Goa, near Bombay,
the Portugese got there first, which they did not do in China, getting
there last, and only being able to found the colony of Macao, soon to
return to China. But in the case of Goa, it was founded by a Portugese
named Alfonso de Albuquerque(any New Mexican folk around?) and the same
type of cuisine, as was in vogue in both Spain and Portugal, using
vinegar, was introduced....because the Portugese had also been in South
America, they had taken the pepper with them....to the Phillipines, to
Burma. to China, mostly the western section, Szechuan and Hunan
provinces, but the vinegar, and the chile went also(as did the wine, of
course) The vinegar was firt introduced away back when, as a
preservative(they don't got no frost free fridges back then!), but the
flavour introduced by the vinegar, soon captivated the taste buds of
most every one who tried it, and it became an essential part of our
cuisine(SORRY, all you vinegar haters!)(remember what the Bible
says...ALL things in moderation!)Anyway, this is mostly the reason why
vindaloo is vindaloo, and the vinegar that the Franciscans took to
wherever, was very likely wine when it left Spain and Portugal, and so
they used what they had, and today we profit by that in our daily
eating!
I know that this is a long post, but I thought that a little eddication
would not hurt on President's Day weekend! And Lo and Behold! President?
Al Gore aint nowhere to be seen! (the devil made me do that)Cheers, Doug
in BC...anyone who did not like the history lesson, email me privately
please. We folk in this wonderfu land of America, both North and South,
do not appreciate the number of fruits and vegetables that America has
contributed to the world....go check 'em out...ALL peppers, Hot cold
medium, tomatoes. potatoes, squash, and likely a bunch of others that I
have missed!