Sometimes I wonder, ‘agar Google baba na hotey toh humara kya hota?’
Search anything on it and you’re sure to get an answer. Recently, the bawarchi in me wanted to cook ‘Chicken Tikka Masala’. Unaware of the procedure to cook the spicy chicken curry, I went to Google to look for answers. And guess what, it says that the UK has stolen our desi dish just like the Kohinoor. 😩
My mind blasted when the search result suggested that ‘Chicken Tikka Masala’ is the ‘National Dish Of UK’, like W.H.A.T!? I panic searched again and again and surprisingly found the same answer.
Just look at this:
IKR! My Punjabi mom was very upset. She went like, “Enna chandara ne sadda murga we nhi chhaddeya.” (These ignorant people haven’t even spared our chicken dish.)
Cool, we understand multiculturalism and the fact that the country houses lakhs of Indians, but this news is hard to stomach. Some credit for this also goes to Robin Cook, the late British politician who once in his speech to the ‘Social Market Foundation’ in London said:
“Chicken Tikka Massala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Chicken Tikka is an Indian dish.”
“The Masala sauce was added to satisfy the desire of British people to have their meat served in gravy,” reported The Guardian.
The dish that finds inspiration from our desi ‘Butter Chicken’ is loved by all and cooked extensively in UK households. Apparently, it’s the country’s second-most popular foreign dish to cook, after Chinese stir fry. We are happy that the dish has admirers from around the globe, but the fact that it’s attributed to Great Britain is exasperating.
Where you aware of this heartbreaking, mind-numbing, tastebud ruining news?