There are around 12,000 curry houses in Britain.

在英國約有一萬兩千家的咖哩店。

The word came from the Tamil "kari", which meant a spiced sauce,

這個字是來自塔米爾語的 "kari" 意思是加辛香料的醬，

but gradually, the term was adapted and used as a generic term for any stew-like food from the Indian subcontinent,

不過逐漸被改編形容為印度燉煮食物的通稱，

rather ignoring such subtleties as regional differences and completely different flavors, textures, cooking methods, and ingredients.

而忽略了細微的區域差別、完全不同的風味、口感、調理方式和食材。

The first definite mention of "curry" in English is [in] 1598.

1598 年，英文首次明確的提到「咖哩」這個詞。

But the first recipe for curry published in Britain wasn't until 1747, by which time, Brits, long-time traders with India, were slowly taking over the country.

但直到 1747 年，英國才出版第一本咖哩的食譜。在那時，與印度進行長期交易的英國商人，慢慢地掌控了整個國家。

Thousands of British men and women spent time in India; they had Indian cooks and servants.

數千名英國人在印度生活，雇用印度人當廚師或傭人。

And while some tried to maintain Western eating habits, most quickly embraced the taste of their new home.

有些人試著維持西方的飲食習慣，但大多數的人都很快就接受新的口味。

When they returned to Britain, they brought their new love of Indian food back with them.

他們回到英國後，也帶了他們最愛的印度料理回到家鄉。

Those who'd lived in India knew very well that not all Indian dishes were curry,

那些曾住過印度的人都清楚知道不是所有印度料理都是咖哩。

and when the first, albeit short-lived, Indian restaurant in Britain opened in London in 1810,

1810 年，第一間印度餐廳開在英國倫敦，雖然它營業不久。

its menu contained "khichdi", "chutnee", and "pulao", dishes later known by the anglicized names "kedgeree", "chutney", and "pilaf".

它的菜單上有 "khichdi"、"chutnee"、 "pulao"，後來被英語化成「米豆粥、酸辣醬和抓飯」。

Manuscript books kept by those in the know also differentiated between dishes, but they were very much a minority, and in Britain, curry became a catch-all term for almost anything with Indian spices.

原稿書被那些極少數懂得區分料理的人保存著。在英國，有加入印度香料的料理，都統稱成咖哩。

Slowly, certain dishes, especially chicken curry, which used an elderly fowl which had stopped laying eggs, entered the mainstream repertoire.

某些料理慢慢加入了主流的食譜，尤其是使用停止下蛋的老母雞做成的咖哩雞。

Ready-made curry powders were widely sold.

現成的咖哩粉被廣泛地銷售。

British palates were not used to Indian spices, and the early recipes are more like gently-flavored meaty stews laden with turmeric, ginger, and galangal, with cayenne for a hit.

英國人的口味不太習慣印度的香料，早期的食譜比較像淡味的燉肉，搭上薑黃、薑、高良薑和讓人印象深刻的紅辣椒。

By the 19th century, curry was in every cookbook, mainly as a leftover dish.

到 19 世紀時，每本食譜書中都有咖哩，主要都是吃剩的料理。

The Anglo-Indian cuisine of this era was a hybrid, using pickled cucumbers to replace mango, apple instead of tamarind, and ready-made spice blends galore.

這個時代的英印菜餚是混合物，用小黃瓜取代芒果、蘋果取代羅望子和現成香料的混合物。

It was great, but had very little in common with its Eastern roots.

這很不錯，但跟西方國家的本質幾乎不同。

Queen Victoria took a different approach, regularly eating Indian dishes prepared by the cook to her Indian attendants, who'd joined the royal staff at her Golden Jubilee in 1887.

維多莉亞女王採取不同的態度，她經常吃大廚準備煮給印度侍者的食物，他們在 1887 年的金禧紀念日時加入了皇室工作。

There were a few eating houses run by Indians ⏤ mainly for other Indians ⏤ in port towns, but it took until the 1920s for high-profile restaurants to open, catering for a British market.

在港口小鎮有幾間餐館是由印度人經營，多是為了在地的印度人所開，直到 1920 年代才有出現迎合英國市場的知名餐館。

By 1946, there were around 20 Indian restaurants in London.

到 1946 年時，倫敦約有 20 間印度餐館。

Boomtime for curry came after the Second World War, when the partition of India brought migrants from Punjab and Sylhet to Britain.

二戰後是咖哩的全盛期，印度的分割使移民從旁遮普邦和錫爾赫特市搬到英國。

In the 1970s, civil war in Bangladesh saw many Bangladeshis flee to Britain, and even today, many apparently generic Indian restaurants are really Bangladeshi.

1970 年代的孟加拉公民戰爭時，許多孟加拉人逃到英國去，即便到了現代，許多看似一般的印度餐館其實都是孟加拉人開的。

Curry in its 1970s form was cheap and cheerful, adapted for British tastes.

1970 年代的咖哩很便宜、讓人感到愉快，也改造成英國人的口味。

In 2001, the then foreign secretary Robin Cook declared boldly that Britain's national dish was chicken tikka masala, a classic example of an Indian dish, buttered chicken, meeting British tastes.

2001 年時，時任外相羅賓·庫克大膽宣稱瑪沙拉雞是英國國菜，那是一道經典的印度料理，奶油雞迎合英國人的口味。

In this case, with the addition of cream and, allegedly, cream of tomato soup.

在這個例子中，加入奶油，據稱是奶油蕃茄湯。

In the last decade or so, the British relationship to Indian food has changed.

在過去十年間，英國和印度食物的關係已經改變。

Most of us have grown out of wanting something so hot it'll hospitalize us.

大部分的人想要吃辣到能讓我們住院的東西。

Leading Indian chefs are teaching us that there is so much more to Indian food than the comforting predictability of the average restaurant menu.

印度大廚教我們說，真正的印度料理比一般餐廳上的菜單來的精彩許多。

Maybe after 250 years, we've simply come full circle.

也許 250 年後，我們兜了個圈又回到原樣。