Working Maharani ?
Don't get me wrong, I like the jollyness of the film. Once again, Disney has turned out a musical buddy film with stable tradmark dancing/catchy songs sung with their teen-girl chipmunk voices. Imagine if Disney compeletely takes over the world's various pop, R&B, Soul and international charts. Wow what a day that will be !!
But that's not why I post. Am I right that the rich boy is a maharaja's son and where they have dinner with his mum is their palace ? I guess that would make her a maharani or equal.
Maybe she watches TV chefs like Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein and Mahdur Jaffrey and likes cooking as a hobby, as she distinctly told her young guests how "she" had "prepared dinner". If that's not the case, I would not be surprised as she has a battery of cooks to prepare delectable food every day. Would she truly prepare food for these tourists with her own bare hands and get her nice sari stinking of hot ghee ? It's a bit like The Duchess of Argyll frying you up some fish and chips !
Anyway, her menu for the night contained "Chicken tikka masala". Now a clever script defender may say here that she was conceding to Western tastes, but really - India is so full of wonderful tastes, especially at her social level of Mughlai cuisine, would she really sink to cooking phoney Indian food like chicken tikka masala ? Do you know what Chicken tikka masala is ? I have Indian friends (and even if you go online with Indians) who will tell you correctly and forcibly that Chicken tikka masala is NOT INDIAN FOOD. It was a British invention about 40+ years ago, by cooks in an Indian restaurant in the UK. At that time, curry restarants were new and Indian cooks had to adjust Indian dishes to suit British tastes and perceptions, so they became semi-Indian. It is reputed that Chicken tikka masala was invented in an Indian restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland, when a customer asked for chicken tikka (which is dry) but asked for a sauce with it to wetten it up. The cook quickly put together a few spices, a can of tomato soup and some cream and made a sauce. The customer was impressed and a new dish was born. CTM has undergone various adaptaions since then, ranging from that basic recipe to rather exotic ones with toasted almond slices etc and very hot, spicy ones. CTM is Britain's favourite curry and was voted British food in a survey. It is also popular as a king prawn version (my favourite).
You will find that British curry restaurants which serve CTM do it in different ways:- Pakistani-run restaurants are mild and creamy, Bangladeshi and hot and heavily spiced, Indian restaurants offer various from cheap and cheerful (with not much chicken) to the delicious top mughlai versions.
I may be wrong, but I don't think America has the same love-affair with CTK, so why would the boy's mum offer it to Americans ? In fact, it's highly doubtful indeed if the mum or her cooks would know how to cook it !
Another dish my Indian friends tell me is a British Indian restaurant invention is Balti, which arose as a way of throwing together odd bits and ends of things which would other wise have been thrown out at the end of the night.
Indians think us Westerners eat any old crap.
Another ridiculous invention for British Indian curry houses was the hot, hotter, hottest fiasco. I did it myself as a young guy. As a test of manhood, with pint of lager on the table, the brave would order a chicken madras. That would be hot and get the tongue sizzling and sweat surfacing. The braver would order a chicken vindaloo, which would electrify the tongue, brand the insides of your cheeks and would cause nose-watering and brow-sweat to run. Then for the crazy-brave, there was chicken pahl, which immediately caused your mouth to go compeletely numb and cease functioning. The experience ws totally without flavour, just that severe burning sensation till all went numb. Swallowing the pahl was an introduction to a world of hurt ! All your tummy knew was a dull pain until you washed down at least 2 lagers, but next morning your rear-end felt like you were sleeping with a red-hot poker up it. I won't even describe the sensation to actually visiting the toilet.
The thing is, the whole experience was false. Real madras curry is spicy, not just hot and has flavour. Restaurant Vindaloo is a complete rip-off. All they do is take what they call their madras and add more chili. Real vindaloo is totally different ! It is a dish from Goa and though hot is not extremely hot. Its main feature though is that the meat and spice paste and cooking liquor uses vinegar, to produce a rich, tangy, hot curry - miles better than the curry-house version in the UK. Pahl is just a curry-house concoction to amuse the cooks and waiters watching their Brit customers torturing themselves. I bet the waiters would never eat anything so stupid !!!
Hoepfully, we've learned over the years and Britain offers Indian reginal restaurants representing their own styles of authentic cuisine. (though hash houses for ending a beer-drinking boys' night still exist).
"S h i t happens in mysterious ways, its wonders to peform"