Vindaloo

{{Short description|Type of curry}} {{good article}} {{Other uses}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox prepared food | name = Vindaloo | image = Beef Vindaloo - Chilli Mama, Chadstone (3014236693).jpg | image_upright = 1 | caption = A beef vindaloo curry, Australia, 2008 | alternate_name = Vindalho | country = Goa, United Kingdom | course = Main course | type = Curry | main_ingredient = Pork or other meat, vinegar, spices, chili peppers }} '''Vindaloo''' is a curry dish known globally in its British form as a staple of curry houses and Indian restaurants, specifically a fiery, spicy dish that can be made with a choice of meats. Vindaloo's name derives from the famous{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}} Portuguese Goan dish ''carne de vinha d'alhos'' (meat with garlic vinegar) or ''vindalho'', made with pork.<ref name="CN">{{cite web |url=https://www.cntraveller.in/story/goan-vindaloo-meaning-get-portugual-mums-kitchen-panaji |title=How did the Goan vindaloo get to you?| last=Menon |first=Smitha |date=23 June 2020 |website=Condé Nast Traveller}}</ref><ref name="BBCFood">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/24432750 |title=Curry: Where did it come from? |last=Taylor |first=Anna-Louise |date=11 October 2013 |website=BBC Food |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211232211/http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/24432750 |archive-date=11 December 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=17 December 2014}}</ref>

From the 19th century onwards, the Portuguese-Indian dish was adapted within Anglo-Indian cuisine. The British highly prized Goan cooks, and acquired "Portuguese curry". This was initially applied to meats including beef and duck. In the 20th century, some recipes in Britain called for lemon juice in place of wine vinegar, possibly because British Muslim chefs intentionally omitted it. As a postwar British restaurant dish, vindaloo became popular as the curry to eat after pub closing time. The drunken clientele then demonstrated its machismo by ordering a specially hot curry. Fat Les's 1998 song "Vindaloo", which became a sort of football anthem, celebrates such lad culture behaviour. Potatoes are sometimes added through confusion with Hindi ''aloo''.

== Portuguese Goan dish ==

The Portuguese founded their State of India in 1501; Goa became its capital in 1530.<ref>R.S. Whiteway, (1899) ''Rise of Portuguese Power in India'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=jM4NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA224 p.224] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714131530/https://books.google.com/books?id=jM4NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA224 |date=14 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=De Souza |first=Teotonio R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwYDPnEjTb4C&pg=PA214 |title=Goa Through the Ages |date=1990 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |series=Goa University Publications Series No. 6 |volume=2: An Economic History |location=New Delhi |page=214 |isbn=978-81-7022-259-0 |author-link=Teotónio de Souza |access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=14 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714131523/https://books.google.com/books?id=dwYDPnEjTb4C&pg=PA214 |url-status=live }}</ref> A standard element of Goan cuisine derived from the Portuguese ''carne de vinha d'alhos'' ("meat in garlic wine"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dicionario.priberam.org/vinha-d'alhos |website=Priberam (Portuguese Dictionary) |title=Vinha-d'alhos |access-date=27 November 2020}}</ref>), '''''vindalho''''' is a dish of pork marinated in vinegar and garlic.<ref name="Galinha">{{cite web |last=Peters-Jones |first=Michelle |title=Indian Classics – Vindalho de Galinha (Chicken vindaloo) |url=http://www.thetiffinbox.ca/2011/11/vindalho-de-galinha-chicken-vindaloo.html |publisher=The Tiffin Box |access-date=13 July 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713232936/http://www.thetiffinbox.ca/2011/11/vindalho-de-galinha-chicken-vindaloo.html |archive-date=13 July 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Deravian |first=Naz |date=13 December 2023 |title=Chicken Vindaloo |url=https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024642-chicken-vindaloo |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=NYT Cooking}}</ref> This was adapted by the local Goan cooks with the substitution of palm vinegar for the wine, and the addition of spices.<ref name="tvu">{{cite web |url=http://www.uwl.ac.uk/the_university/news/news_story.jsp?ID=219 |title=How to cook a vindaloo – students learn from the best |publisher=University of West London |access-date=26 October 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109094436/http://www.uwl.ac.uk/the_university/news/news_story.jsp?ID=219 |archive-date=9 November 2012 }}</ref>

According to the chef Raghavan Iyer, cooks in Goa were free to use pork, a meat avoided by Hindus and Muslims in India, because they had been converted to Christianity by the Portuguese.{{sfn|Iyer|2022|p=141 "Playing with Fire"}} The historian of food Lizzie Collingham writes that formerly high-caste Goans made a point of eating pork and beef as they had acquired outcaste status by becoming Christians, and accordingly had to emphasize their closeness to the Portuguese, such as by eating ''vindalho''.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}} Collingham writes that the Goans did not have vinegar, so the Portuguese there used sour tamarind, or made vinegar from coconut palm toddy.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}} In addition, she states that the Portuguese liked their food extremely spicy, with up to 20 chili peppers in a recipe.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}} Christopher Columbus found chili pepper when he sailed to Central America in 1492, and it was soon planted in the Iberian Peninsula. By 1528 at the latest, the Portuguese had introduced it to the Malabar Coast, and several varieties of it were being grown in Goa; their use quickly spread across India.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=49–53}}

Vindaloo has, Collingham writes, become the most famous element of Goan cuisine.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}} Traditional Goan ''vindalho'' does not include potatoes; some Indian versions add them due to the confusion with the Hindi आलू ''aloo'', "potato".<ref name="manon-cntraveller">{{cite news |last=Manon |first=Smitha |date=June 23, 2020 |title=How did the Goan vindaloo get to you? |magazine=Condé Nast Traveler |url=https://www.cntraveller.in/story/goan-vindaloo-meaning-get-portugual-mums-kitchen-panaji |access-date=March 22, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Hindi/English/Tamil Glossary |url=http://tiffinbox.wordpress.com/glossary/ |work=Pravasidesi's Tiffin box |date=25 September 2007 |access-date=26 October 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017145516/http://tiffinbox.wordpress.com/glossary/ |archive-date=17 October 2012 }}</ref>

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=180 heights=180> File:Toddy Bottle and Glass.jpg|The Portuguese used coconut palm toddy (pictured) to make vinegar for their ''vindalho''.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}} File:Vindalho em Lisboa.jpg|Pork ''vindalho'' in a Goan-style Indian restaurant. Lisbon, Portugal, 2011 </gallery>

== British dish ==

=== Origins ===

[[File:Vindaloo or Bindaloo Dawe 1888.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Anglo-Indian cuisine during the British Raj: "Vindaloo or Bindaloo—A Portuguese Kárhí", in ''The wife's help to Indian cookery'', W. H. Dawe, 1888]]

The British highly prized Goan cooks. As a result, Anglo-Indian cuisine in the 19th century took on vindaloo or "Portuguese curry". Its method of preparation was then used for other kinds of meat, including especially duck.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|p=170}} W. H. Dawe's 1888 cookery book, ''The Wife's Help to Indian Cookery'', gave a recipe for "Vindaloo or Bindaloo—A Portuguese Kárhí", suggesting beef, pork, or duck as the meat.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dawe |first=W. H. |title=The Wife's Help to Indian Cookery: being a Practical Manual for Housekeepers |date=1888 |publisher=Elliot Stock |location=London |page=65 |url=https://archive.org/details/b21528378/page/64/mode/2up |chapter=Vindaloo or Bindaloo—A Portuguese Kárhí}}</ref> London's Veeraswamy restaurant, opened in 1926, served the same sort of British Raj food, including duck vindaloo in its early years.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|p=154}} Vindaloo became widespread in Britain with the creation of more Indian restaurants in the 1970s.<ref name="Mathur 2020"/>

The food writer Glyn Hughes suggests that at that time, British Muslim chefs intentionally omitted the pork and the wine vinegar called for by the Portuguese recipe, substituting chicken or beef as the meat and lemon juice for the vinegar.<ref name="FoodsofEngland">{{cite web |title=Vindaloo |url=https://foodsofengland.info/vindaloo.html |website=The Foods of England Project |publisher=Glyn Hughes |access-date=21 December 2025 |date=2022}}</ref> Iyer on the other hand gives a recipe for "British Curry House Vindaloo" which uses both vinegar and pork, along with both mild spices and "potent-hot" chili.{{sfn|Iyer|2022|p=142 "British Curry House Vindaloo"}} Felicity Cloake however writes that the dish is sweet and sour rather than hot, and that the "tangy gravy works best with rich meats like duck or pork".<ref name="Cloake 2020">{{cite web |last=Cloake |first=Felicity |author-link=Felicity Cloake |title=Duck vindaloo |url=https://www.thewinesociety.com/discover/inspiration/food/recipe-felicity-cloake-duck-vindaloo/ |publisher=The Wine Society |access-date=21 December 2025 |date=21 June 2020}}</ref>

A variant theory, from the food writer Pat Chapman, is that vindaloo served in British restaurants is not based on the Portuguese dish, but simply a version of the standard medium spicy (Madras) restaurant curry with the addition of vinegar, potatoes and plenty of chili peppers.{{sfn|Chapman|2004|pp=118–121}}

[[File:Evolution of Vindaloo.svg|thumb|center|upright=2.5|Evolution of Vindaloo, from Portuguese ''Carne de Vinha d'Alhos'' with pork, to Goan ''Vindalho'' with pork and chili peppers, to a fiery British curry. The Portuguese brought chili peppers to India, and Christianity which enabled the people of Goa to eat pork.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|pp=66–69}}]]

=== Restaurant curry ===

[[File:The Vindaloo Evington (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The "Vindaloo" restaurant and takeaway, Evington, Leicestershire, England, 2008]]

The name "vindaloo" was effectively redefined in postwar British usage to mean simply an extremely hot curry, contrasting with a mild korma.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|p=225}} Vindaloo has indeed featured in "challenge" competitions to see who can eat such a hot curry.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vindaloo |url=https://www.britishcurryday.org/thefamousdishes/vindaloo |website=British Curry Day |access-date=16 November 2025}}</ref><ref name="Mathur 2020"/> In Britain, vindaloo became associated with white working-class culture, as well as social rituals and tests of masculinity.<ref name="Ray Srinivas 2012">{{cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Krishnendu |title=Curried Cultures |last2=Srinivas |first2=Tulasi |date=2012 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-95224-9 |publication-place=Berkeley |page=153}}</ref><ref name="Jancovich 2003">{{cite book |last=Jancovich |first=Mark |title=Defining Cult Movies |date=2003 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6631-3 |publication-place=Manchester |page=55}}</ref> Collingham writes that the habit of British Indian restaurants of the period of staying open late, after pub closing time, allowed working class Britons to discover "that a good hot vindaloo went down particularly well on a stomach full of beer",{{sfn|Collingham|2006|p=221}} and people became accustomed to have a curry after an evening's drinking.{{sfn|Collingham|2006|p=221}} This was accompanied in lad culture<ref name="Edwards 2003">{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=Tim |title=Sex, booze and fags: Masculinity, style and men's magazines |journal=The Sociological Review |volume=51 |issue=1 suppl. |year=2003 |pages=132-146 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.2003.tb03607.x}}</ref> by, in Collingham's words, the "lager-loutish tradition of rolling, uproariously drunk, into an Indian restaurant and proving one's machismo by ordering the hottest vindaloo or phaal possible".{{sfn|Collingham|2006|p=236}}

The 1998 Fat Les song "Vindaloo" is named for the curry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.curryaddicts.co.uk/vindaloo.php |title=Vindaloo |last=Edwards |first=Allan |date=2007 |website=Curry Addicts |publisher=Allan Edwards |access-date=3 July 2021 |quote=Vindaloo - the classic "hot" restaurant curry, a favorite for the boys night out |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131121064653/http://www.curryaddicts.co.uk/vindaloo.php |archive-date=21 November 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The actor and songwriter Keith Allen stated that the dish was appropriate for the sort of song that a "right-wing lout" would like.<ref name="Allen 2008">{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Keith |title=Grow Up |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HufHfe-5-iEC&pg=PA347 |year=2008 |isbn=978-0091910716 |pages=346–347}}</ref> Whatever the reasons for its composition, it became something of a England football fan anthem during the 1998 World Cup.<ref name="Mathur 2020">{{cite news |last=Mathur |first=Bhakti |title=The history of vindaloo, loved in Britain: why India has Portuguese explorers to thank for the famous hot curry |url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3102843/history-vindaloo-loved-britain-why-india-has-portuguese |work=South China Morning Post |date=28 September 2020}}</ref>

=== International dish ===

From Britain, vindaloo became international. In 2010, the "Vindaloo against Violence" campaign invited Australians to share a curry in a "stand against racial intolerance", which had included attacks on Indian students there.<ref name="Rockower 2012">{{cite journal |last=Rockower |first=Paul S |title=Recipes for gastrodiplomacy |journal=Place Branding and Public Diplomacy |volume=8 |issue=3 |date=2012 |doi=10.1057/pb.2012.17 |pages=235–246}}</ref><ref name="Bryant 2010">{{cite news |last1=Bryant |first1=Nick |title=Vindaloo against violence |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/nickbryant/2010/02/vindaloo_against_violence.html |access-date=23 December 2025 |work=BBC |date=24 February 2010}}</ref> The dish was introduced to Hong Kong when it was a British colony. In 2020 the food and beverage manager of the region's Aberdeen Boat Club described vindaloo as one of its most commonly ordered dishes.<ref name="Mathur 2020"/> Pork vindaloo can according to the Guide Michelin be found in restaurants in Tokyo, Japan.<ref>{{cite web |title=Katchar Batchar |url=https://guide.michelin.com/gb/en/tokyo-region/tokyo/restaurant/katchar-batchar |publisher=Guide Michelin |access-date=23 December 2025 |quote=From the north, butter chicken; from the west, pork vindaloo; shrimp curry from the south – such a lineup of flavours from every region of India adds breadth to the joy that is Indian cooking.}}</ref> The Swedish Meat organisation (''Svenskt Kött'') proposes "Vindaloo – Indian stew with lamb shoulder" on its website.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vindaloo – indisk gryta med lammbog |lang=sv |trans-title=Vindaloo – Indian stew with lamb shoulder |url=https://svensktkott.se/recept/vindaloo-indisk-gryta-med-lammbog/ |publisher=Svenskt Kött |access-date=23 December 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250122120930/https://svensktkott.se/recept/vindaloo-indisk-gryta-med-lammbog/ |archive-date=22 January 2025}}</ref> A study of Indian food in America found that restaurants could offer dishes like "Goan Spiced Maine Crab cake", which it described as "a far cry" from standard pork vindaloo as "differentiated restaurants [break] new ground".<ref name="Josiam 2004">{{cite journal |last1=Josiam |first1=Bharath M. |last2=Monteiro |first2=Prema A. |title=Tandoori tastes: perceptions of Indian restaurants in America |journal=International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management |volume=16 |issue=1 |date=1 January 2004 |doi=10.1108/09596110410516525 |pages=18–26 |url=https://foodethics.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_foodethik/Josiam__B._2004_Perception_of_indian_restaurants.pdf |access-date=23 December 2025}}</ref>

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=180 heights=180> File:Flickr - cyclonebill - Chicken vindaloo med basmatiris og naan-brød.jpg|Chicken vindaloo, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009 File:Lamb vindaloo in Helsinki.jpg|Lamb vindaloo, Helsinki, Finland, 2011 File:PrawnVindahloo.jpg|Prawn vindaloo, Göttingen, Germany, 2021 File:Soup Stock Vindalho.jpg|''Vindalho'', Tokyo, Japan, 2025 </gallery>

== References ==

== Sources ==

* {{cite book |last=Chapman |first=Pat |title=The New Curry Bible |author-link=Pat Chapman (food writer) |year=2004 |publisher=Metro Publishing |location=London, UK |isbn=978-1-84358-087-4}} * {{cite book |last=Collingham |first=Elizabeth M. |author-link=Lizzie Collingham |title=Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors| publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-19-517241-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/currytaleofcooks00coll |url-access=registration}} * {{cite book |last=Iyer |first=Raghavan |author-link=Raghavan Iyer (chef) |title=On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World |publisher=Workman Publishing |location=New York |year=2022 |isbn=978-1523511211 |oclc=1374192575}}

Category:Anglo-Indian cuisine Category:Goan cuisine Category:Portuguese fusion cuisine Category:Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom Category:Curry in the United Kingdom