Cook a Pot of Curry Day: Sounds Delicious

I woke up this morning to talk of a curry war in Singapore. As I lay in bed listening to a contributor from there on Radio-Can, I remembered the absolutely excellent food I've eaten in the island nation when I've visited. Without a doubt, I've never encountered better or more varied cuisine at all levels of society and at all prices.

Like many other things in societies these days, population changes are sometimes hard to manage. In Singapore, which has English as a national language but gives official status to Mandarin, Malay and Urdu reflecting the origins of its multi-racial population, the latest newcomers are from mainland China. These are carefully chosen immigrants, selected for their professional competencies, supposedly.

But one family of them protested that they couldn't stand the smell of their Indian neighbors curries, and went so far as to get a ruling from a neighborhood mediation judge that banned the Indian-origin folk from cooking curry except when the Chinese nationals weren't home.

This solicited a huge protest in a country where protests are strictly controlled. The upshot was an National Cook and Share a Pot of Curry Day in August. The result: quite an amusing bunch of internet comments from people of Chinese and Malay origin who like their curry too, and a lovely cloud of curry smells over the city, according the Radio-Can's report. Sounds like a great way to protest!

Photo: A sidewalk cafe in Singapore a few years ago.