Dear all,
I?m a newbie on the site so first of all a big hello and an equally big thanks for the amazing site. I?ve been dabbling in trying to replicate BIR curries for around 16 years so I?m very excited about finding this site and can see this is going to be addictive!
As a historian and someone who has been eating BIR curries from themed 1980s I?ve been following the thread with interest. Oral history has demonstrated that memory can be deceiving when it comes to people?s sense of taste confirming the old clich? ?things don?t taste as good as they used to be?. However, that doesn?t mean to say that this necessarily applies to everything. In this case, I also remember BIR curries from circa 1986 as very different to today?s fare. In particular, the vindaloos used to have a slightly thinner but manifestly darker sauce with a bit of a more smokey flavour (at least in my memory).
I can see that some of the members have been able to access restaurant and T-A kitchens and received some invaluable advice. But I guess we?re talking about a different generation of chefs. Given the traditional secrecy of chef disseminating their knowledge I wonder exactly how much of the old techniques have been passed down?
Apologies if this doesn?t exactly relate to Patak?s sauces, but this is a fascinating thread. At the end of the day perhaps the answer lies in a mixture of the changing nature of cooking as well as the effect of time on our memories?
I?m a newbie on the site so first of all a big hello and an equally big thanks for the amazing site. I?ve been dabbling in trying to replicate BIR curries for around 16 years so I?m very excited about finding this site and can see this is going to be addictive!
As a historian and someone who has been eating BIR curries from themed 1980s I?ve been following the thread with interest. Oral history has demonstrated that memory can be deceiving when it comes to people?s sense of taste confirming the old clich? ?things don?t taste as good as they used to be?. However, that doesn?t mean to say that this necessarily applies to everything. In this case, I also remember BIR curries from circa 1986 as very different to today?s fare. In particular, the vindaloos used to have a slightly thinner but manifestly darker sauce with a bit of a more smokey flavour (at least in my memory).
I can see that some of the members have been able to access restaurant and T-A kitchens and received some invaluable advice. But I guess we?re talking about a different generation of chefs. Given the traditional secrecy of chef disseminating their knowledge I wonder exactly how much of the old techniques have been passed down?
Apologies if this doesn?t exactly relate to Patak?s sauces, but this is a fascinating thread. At the end of the day perhaps the answer lies in a mixture of the changing nature of cooking as well as the effect of time on our memories?