"Aloo" in Hindi means "Potato", but "Vindaloo" is unrelated, and doesn't contain potatoes

[Recursion]

Last edited Sat Nov 9, 2013, 12:28 AM - Edit history (1)

"Vindaloo" oddly enough, is a Konkanization of the Portuguese "vinha d'alhos", or "garlic-y wine", which was the sauce that was poured on the pork in the sailors' hash that vindaloo is a re-interpretation of. (Goans speak Konkani and Portuguese, though many also understand Marathi and Hindi and of course English -- on a side note, my Indian neighbors literally can't comprehend the conservative US desire to fix English as a national language; we live on a block where there are signs in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, English, Portuguese, Gujurati, Tamil, and Telugu, and they couldn't imagine people wanting to live any way other than that...)

So, "aloo", as a Hindi/Marathi/Konkani word, nowadays means "potato", but obviously didn't mean that before 1500 or so; it is from a Sanskrit word "alo" meaning "yam" or "tuber" in general.

Anyways, point #1 here is that if you go to an Indian restaurant and order a vindaloo, and it has potatoes, you're being cheated: it's chicken or pork, in a white wine, garlic, and chili sauce. But so many people know that "aloo" means "potato" that they feel cheated if their alleged vindaloo does not contain it. Do not support this nonsense!

Point #2, on the subject of potatoes, we (meaning European-descended Americans) often think of the technology transfer in the Age of Discovery as going from east to west, but potatoes and corn are both technologies (both were deliberately bred for food over the course of centuries), and they were clearly the most important and world-changing of all the technological transfers that happened then (I put gunpowder, east to west, as third, and tobacco, west to east again, as fourth; YMMV).

I had a point #3 when I started this, but I have forgotten it. The real point is: go eat vindaloo, particularly if you've never had it. And send it back if it has potatoes in it.

[JI7]

1. Price of Potatoes cost Minister his Job

interesting, i read this today

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/case-of-hot-potatoes-spiralling-prices-cost-minister-roy-his-job/1191816/

isn't the pronunciation of aloo in vindaloo different from aloo itself ?

[Recursion]

2. Excellent point

isn't the pronunciation of aloo in vindaloo different from aloo itself?

Yes, though I'm still at a loss for how to write it in the Roman alphabet.

Great article, btw, thank you!

[dipsydoodle]

3. Aside from which

if you order a vindaloo you may well finish up in de loo the following morning.............bathroom to you I guess

[Recursion]

4. That's kind of the point, yes?

It flushes out the system, both the sinuses and the colon...

[cali]

5. I so love Indian food. I've never been to India. the best Indian food I've had was in London

I like trying my hand at different types of Indian cuisine. I have cookbooks by Madhur Jaffrey (of course) and some on regional Indian cuisine.

I like this website:

http://www.vahrehvah.com/

thanks for your cool post

[Recursion]

6. Indian food in London, Ethiopian food in DC, and Korean food in Fairfax County

Those are the three "expat" places you can find better food than the original. I first went to London in the '90s and everybody jokingly told me about how bland the food would be. I was eating curries, butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, lamb rogan josh, etc. right and left and had no idea what they were talking about.

Inside India per se, the notion of "Indian food" as a single cuisine is kind of silly. There's the tandoori meat chunks of the northwest, the Nepali-influenced bread-heavy food of the north in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, the wonderful seafood of Calcutta and the east, and about four or five different cuisines in the south. Not to mention the "niche" cuisines like Goan vindaloo, which are legion.

That said, London makes a beautiful synthesis of all those cuisines, in the form of London Indian food, which deserves a category of its own, IMO.

Thanks for that link, btw!

[hankthecrank]

7. Did you forget tomatoes, squash, watermelons

A lot of different stuff that came when the America's were rediscovered

[Recursion]

8. I rank tomatoes after tobacco, at #5

Squash and watermelons, while awesome, are pretty far down there.

That said, Mumbai would be a much more dreary place without the watermelon stands (they'll sell you a freshly cut slice of watermelon for about 10 rupees, say 15 cents or so, which is absolutely unbeatable on a hot day).

[hankthecrank]

9. I forgot coffee

Tea from the east
Coffee from South America
And oh Chocolate

[Recursion]

10. Coffee is originally from the horn of Africa

It made its way to South America, Polynesia, and India, but it's ultimately an African crop.

Chocolate, on the other hand, is definitely west-to-east.

[hankthecrank]

16. Seeing how I hate chili peppers I forgot them on purpose

[Luminous Animal]

11. Nope. I love my vegetarian vindaloo and I love potatoes.

Add chick peas and greens, spicy enough to make my hair stand on end, and I am in heaven.

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco (now defunct due to rent raise) was run by a chef who spent her youth in India, her teenage years in London, trained as a French chef... she combined all of her upbringing into a marvelous fusion of Indian street food and French sensibilities.

I took an Indian friend of mine there for his 50th birthday. He was blown away by the combination of tradition that he grew up with and the finesse of her skill.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. I think I'd put iron production above some of those technology transfers

Certainly above corn; it's a major crop in China, but not that important in many other 'Old World' countries (eg India produces about 5 times as much wheat, and 8 times as much rice).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize#Quantity

I might put casava above maize, too - Africa produces twice as much, by weight, as maize.

(Figures from http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=567#ancor - lots to play with there.)

But maize, and casava, aren't 'game-changers' - other crops, but not radically different to some already grown. Iron, on the other hand, is fundamental to modern society, and the Americas didn't have an equivalent structural metal.

[Recursion]

13. Corn and potatoes are 100% game changers, and couldn't be independently engineered

Look at the post- and pre- contact caloric intake tables and you'll see what I'm saying. Maize and potatoes were the cheap calories that allowed Europe to actually grow up.

Anyone who has iron eventually refines it. The same cannot be said of potatoes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Pototoes, perhaps, but not maize

It's not that important to Europe (remember that 'corn' has often been used in Britain as a general term for cereal crops, so this is not a case of wherever 'corn' appears, like 'corn exchange', meaning it's maize). It is important in China, now, but Europe grows nearly as much barley as maize, and over twice as much wheat.

Maize is not a major part of European cooking.

[jollyreaper2112]

18. I second that

Corn is the generic term with a long history that was also applied to maize. I used to ding historic fiction having corn before 1492 and didn't realize I was the one in error. Also explains why the bible has corn.

[taterguy]

14. Oh FFS

It's 'their', not 'they're'

[msanthrope]

24. I don't think the knock on potatoes is personal, taterguy. nt

[taterguy]

30. Don't think

YOu'll only hurt the ball club.

[sendero]

15. If you order a vindaloo in Dallas..

.... (a favorite dish of mine even though I'm aware it is not truly an Indian creation) it will have potato chunks along with the lamb or beef.

[Recursion]

19. Obviously, if that's what's available, roll with it

I'm just saying for long term.

[whistler162]

20. Heck French Toast doesn't contain French people

either!

[Recursion]

21. You lie!

That and Belgian Waffles have been my whole basis of going forward.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. It's the Lily Tomlin joke. If olive oil is made from olives and peanut oil is made from peanuts

I worry about Baby oil.

[jtuck004]

22. So, I am correct in referring to Rand Paul as an "aloo-head"? Thank you for the clarification.

And now I have a new reason to go try that Indian restaurant...

[Ms. Toad]

23. Never would have occurred to me to confuse the two.

But I disagree that adding potatoes means you have been cheated. Now if it is a substitute for the pork or chicken, and you didn't ask for a vegetarian version, then you'd have been cheated.

[clyrc]

25. I loved Indian food in the United Arab Emirates

SO much that even the fact that the most delicious restaurant smelled strongly of urine didn't stop me from going. I used to get masala dosa and dokla and sada chai at that restaurant, but there was a fancier place that was non-veg where I got aloo methi and Hyderabadi chicken to die for. And excellent masala chai.

I never got to go to India, but there were so many Indians in the UAE that sometimes it felt like an Indian country.

[mainer]

27. UAE has great Indian food

I would put it on the same level as London.
It's because of the huge worker population from India there,
I dined in UAE with a famous Indian cookbook author and she was blown away by Indian food in Dubai. Even the Indian food on Emirates Air was terrific, and far spicier than anything the US. On an airline!

[clyrc]

29. It was amazing to me that dirt cheap food could be so good

When I went out with my fiance for Indian food, it was about 5 dollars for both of us to get full of amazing food. That is my kind of deal.

Emirates airline always had good food, and plenty of it, when I was lucky enough to fly with them. The best food, by far, of any airline I've flown.

[laundry_queen]

28. MMM Indian food.

Thanks a lot. Now I'm famished.

We have some really great Indian restaurants where I am, as there is a large Indian population. We often go out for buffets at many different places. Our mall even has decent Indian food. I'm not even sure if the Vindaloo around here has potatoes in it - I cannot remember, because there are usually so many different dishes and variations...my favorite is Palak Paneer.

I'm lucky enough that my uncle was of Indian decent (although he grew up in the Caribbean) and he would cook for us whenever we had a visit and I learned a lot about how to cook Indian food. So we eat it quite often. Dahl with some good Roti is one of my favorites. I still haven't found store bought roti that compares to the way my uncle made it but the restaurants come close.

[Tikki]

31. I like to eat chicken and potatoes, but ew!!…not in a loo.

Tikki