Calm down Conan

I'm chilled

Would now be a good time to talk about you needing a change of signature?

I have signatures and avatars turned off in my BE settings

We're still ahead in the stats

I thought Pataks were crap in the UK and they're just as crap here. They taste nothing like any curry I've ever had in an Indian restaurant. Imo they just taste like chemicals. Bleugh

I'm with you. I have a fantastic indian grocer I visit and the stuff is dirt cheap. More time consuming I grant you but life is too short to drink bad wine and eat bad curry.

That is very interesting because some Poms claim that Indian restaurants in England make better curries than Indian restaurants in Australia.

Assuming that the Indians who come to Australia are as competent at cooking their own food as the Indians who go to the UK, and the ingredients are just as good in either country, then why would it taste better (or worse) in either country?

Surely it would be exactly the same, as you imply, albeit in a negative way?

Well you'd think wouldn't you, but the good curries (in Glasgow anyway) aren't made by people just off the boat and have been adjusted over time.

It's curry evolution in action, just think UK magpies vs Australian magpies. The same but different.

Imo it all depends on the chef. There are crap Indian restaurants in the UK, there are crap ones here - apparently though there are far more here. For my taste, there are a few Indian restaurants within a half hour drive that I think are really good.

Things taste different in different countries, whether food or drink. I find anyway. Not something I really think about. Being as I've been away from the UK for a fair while, I have no idea if how I remember something tastes is fact or vague memory.

But wouldn't those Indians who were 'just off the boat' here, have already been cooking all their lives in India? Unless of course 'real' Indian cooking is not as good as British Indian cooking but still better than Australian Indian cooking?

Imagine if you had to go to Delhi or Mumbai to get the best 'English' fish and chips!?

I actually agree with your last sentence. That is the way I feel too. In fact, on Monday night, after a very good (as usual) red chicken curry, cooked by 'real' Thais (I think.), I then had Twix for dessert. Now, I really enjoyed that Twix too (and I dunked it unashamedly in my coffee!)

But to me it tasted like a Twix. It may taste different in the UK but I can't remember.

Apparently, however, there ARE British people living here, who, as soon as they taste that first bite of Twix, Mars, Milky Bar, whatever, even after fifty years here, spit it out. 'Pah, call that chocolate! It's not a bar (sic) on ENGLISH chocolate.

I don't think that we can assume that Indians in Australia cook as well as Indians in the UK, or any other country. There are crap cooks in every cuisine. I can still remember getting a lasagne from an Italian takeaway when I first came to Perth - this particular version had a boiled egg in the middle.

India is a huge country with many regional cuisines. One possible explanation for differences in Indian food and recipes, apart from different local ingredients, is where the Indian migrants originate from. In the UK they tend to be from the north, which has its own cuisine, very different from the south. I can't remember where I read about it, or heard about it, but it's possible that Indians in Australia might be from the south - different cuisine, different ingredients. I also remember hearing that many UK Indians might be from areas now in Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Everyone knows the answer to this, why be obtuse?

My definition of the best Indian food is different from Mr Singh of Hydrabad.

Indian restaurant food in the UK bears little resemblance to what people eat in India, and it's much the same here.

So you have UK Indian food, Australian Indian Food and Indian Food. All different. Just the same way a Scottish chippie serves you totally different stuff than an Australian chippie.

So people can't remember how good something was?

The best ever Chicken & Cashew Nuts came from the Chinese where I grew up, the best salt n pepper chicken wings where I had my first flat and the best Curry from the Dhabba in Glasgow City centre. None of these was my best meal ever, that was at Il Jardino in Pollensa.

I think it's ridiculous that you don't believe people can compare how something tastes to something they ate in the past.