Crazy for Curry

It's steeped in spice-and not the one you think

- Emily Tyra

WHEN TENDER MEAT or veggies meet a fragrant, boldly spiced sauce, you need fluffy basmati rice and pillowy naan bread to soak up every drop. 

Although it's one of the most globally famous foods-recipes hail from India, Thailand, Japan and the Caribbean-curry can be a conundrum.

"If you ask any Indian about curry, chances are they'll reply, 'Which one?'" says food editor Amrita Thakkar. "Curry was a blanket term used by the British during the era of colonization for a wide variety of foreign dishes. Indian cuisine simply doesn't have one singular dish called curry."

Neither a specific flavor nor a single spice blend, curry (which simply means "sauce" or "gravy") is similar in its vastness to the term pasta. Indeed, Indian curry variations are as diverse as the regions in the subcontinent.