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Mar 30 13 tweets 5 min read
If you have ever tasted a Vietnamese cà ri, you must have felt a slight tinge of French and Indian flavours wriggling in your mouth. This melting of flavours is not by accident but by design that has a curious back story. A thread. #travellingsOftheIndianCurry 1/n
Phan Xich Long in the Phu Nhuan District is one of Ho Chi Minh City's (formerly Saigon) most bustling streets redolent of street food. The shops lined up on the streets offer up a variety of Vietnamese cuisine, one particularly interesting item being the cà ri. 2/n
The Vietnamese cà ri is, however, not considered on the same plane as other street food like phở, bún bò Huế or hủ tiếu. It’s a dish mostly eaten in the comfort of a home and has strong connections with the sub-continent. 3/n
To understand this, we need to delve into a bit of history of the spice trade and the intertwining fates of the French colonies. 4/n
In the 19th century, the French-controlled portions of South Vietnam which being coastal, was convenient as a trading spot. Here spices from India and the Americas were bought and traded. 5/n
Back then, the port city of Pondicherry in Southern India was also under French control. Now it is believed that the French didn’t quite like the Vietnamese locals, so they used to bring in people from India to man their spice depots. 6/n
More than 6000 people, mostly Tamilians are supposed to have migrated from Pondicherry and settled in parts of Saigon, Cho Lon, and the Mekong Delta. Though there were tensions between these migrants and the local Vietnamese, a culinary amalgamation flourished. 7/n
Later on, the curry spices would move around with the ethnic Cham people, who had dealings with the Indian migrants in the spice trade. 8/n
At the dawn of the 20th-century, curry powder became the rage in Vietnam, from being a French-Tamil culinary expose, these spices become an integral part of the middle-class Vietnamese kitchen. The Indian curry became cà ri and literally, everyone was making it. 9/n
These days it is easy to get a powdered mix like the Ca Ri Ni An Do which is also labeled as the Madras curry powder. Shops will also readily give you a blended mix if you tell them what kind of curry you are cooking. 10/n
The spices are then used in portions that go into the marinade and the sauce which is a combination of coconut milk, potatoes, taro, sweet potatoes, and carrots. The curry can be served either with chicken (cà ri gà) or shrimps (cà ri tôm) and is often eaten with noodles. 11/n
Most of the Indian diaspora left with the French after 1954, but it left behind a beautiful and delicious mix of cultural and culinary legacy. 12/n

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More from @Paperclip_In

Mar 31
What connects a town on India’s Malabar Coast, a British war hero who vanquished Napoleon and the most English of games, cricket – a thread (1/n) Image
An ancient spice trade hub, the town of Thalassery (erstwhile Telicheri) in Kerala, saw the arrival of the British East India Company in 1694 (2/n)
Over the next 100 years, the British consolidated their control over Thalassery until revolts by local princes and rulers in the late 18th century started undermining their supremacy (3/n)
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Mar 29
This is the story of a forgotten newspaper that was in a league of its own, a banned daily that fueled India’s first war of independence, the indomitable Payam-e-Azadi (1/n)
On the afternoon of 29 March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a sepoy of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry in Barrackpore, rebelled against his commanders, marking the inception of the Great Indian Sepoy Rebellion (2/n)
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Mar 28
In every Bengali kitchen, “Potol-er Dorma” is a delicacy. A thread on the remarkable journey of the dish that tells an exciting story of cosmopolitan Calcutta and landmark immigration (1/9)
Readers who have experienced Mediterranean or Balkan cuisine would already be aware of the Turkish delicacy Dolma, a family of stuffed dishes mostly served as an appetizer (2/9)
Dolma is Turkey's national dish, where traditionally grape leaves are stuffed with rice and ground meat. The word dolma comes from dolmark in Turkish, which means 'to be stuffed’ (3/9)
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Mar 27
A short thread on how nationalistic sentiments came to engulf Madras’ theater world in the early 20th century creating a long-lasting legacy of using the stage as a medium of protest. #WorldTheatreDay 1/n
India at the beginning of the 20th century was beaming with nationalist fervor and anti-colonial sentiments and it was showing itself in all forms, especially in forms of performing arts and theatre. 2/n
Though Bengal was considered a pioneer in protests through the stage, it was not long before other regions of the country started using it as a medium. 3/n
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Mar 26
As the cricket crazy nation heads into another cricket season, we look back at one of the first ladies of Indian cricket. The daughter of a legend and a star in her own right. A thread on the indomitable and multitalented Chandra Nayudu. 1/n
Chandra was the youngest of the three daughters of the legendary Col C.K. Nayudu from his first wife. Her love and adulation for the game must have started at an early age seeing her father, the country's test first captain play and preach the game. 2/n
Nayudu hailed from Indore, one of the largest cities in Central India and home to the princely Holkar dynasty. The city also has strong affiliations towards the game of cricket. 3/n
Read 14 tweets
Mar 25
It was no less than a spy thriller when a fearless 22-year-old Usha Mehta from Surat ran an underground radio station to fight the British colonial forces. On her birthday, a thread on India’s bravest radio jockey, fondly known as Radio-Ben, and her secret Congress Radio. 1/n
Circa 1942 when all the prominent media were under constant British surveillance, a certain Usha Mehta emerged. She grew up highly influenced by Gandhi and was only eight when she joined the protest against the Simon commission. 2/n
1942 was a terrible time for the Indian press, as the prominent editors were forced to suppress all news on  Congress activities to isolate the mass from the momentum of the freedom movement. 3/n
Read 12 tweets

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