You may want to think twice before telling someone from India how much you love “curry.” Just ask Trevor Noah.
The comedian recently recalled a culinary lesson he learned while traveling through India in 2022 during a conversation with acclaimed Indian-born chef Asma Khan on an episode of his What Now? With Trevor Noah podcast.
The head-scratching clip has been making the rounds on socials as of late.
“Actually, this is something I’ve always wanted to know. I’m confused by this,” Noah said. “So when I was in India, I would say curry. And then people were like, ‘What are you talking about?'”
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When locals asked what he loved, Noah remembered enthusiastically answering, “Oh, I love curry,” only to be met with more confusion.
And curry wasn’t his only linguistic food faux pas.
Noah also recalled asking for naan before someone explained that naan itself means bread. In other words, asking for “naan bread” was essentially asking for “bread.”
Still confused by the curry conundrum, Noah turned to Khan for answers.
“So what is curry?” he asked.
Her response probably wasn’t what many Western diners would expect.
Khan, who grew up in India before moving to England, said she had never even heard the term until arriving in the U.K. “Every dish has a name,” she explained. “Curry is not a name of anything.”
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According to Khan, “curry” became a generic term used by the British to group together dishes that actually have distinct names, ingredients and regional identities. She said she first encountered the word in 1992 after someone in England asked whether she knew how to make curry.
Noah then tried another example: What about someone who says they love “butter chicken curry” or “vindaloo curry”?
“It’s absolutely wrong,” Khan replied.
She compared the phrasing to saying “spaghetti pasta,” explaining that adding the generic word strips away the actual name of the dish.
So, yes, you can still love butter chicken and vindaloo.
Just maybe give them the courtesy of remembering their names. And next time you whip up your favorite curry at home, maybe take a second look at what’s actually in the pot.