"The first whiff of garam masala, for example, might transport you back to a wonderful meal that you had at your favorite Indian restaurant last weekend. Curry powder, on the other hand, despite bearing the word "curry" in its title - which is what you ordered at the Indian restaurant, right? - is unlikely to awaken such a connection. Its aroma might, however, remind you of dishes coming from countries like Jamaica, Thailand, and Japan."
"The truth of the matter is that while curry powder was a British attempt to bottle the aromas of South Asian cuisine, it is not something with which local chefs actually cook, whereas garam masala is the aromatic backbone of many recipes. In fact, the origin of the word curry, or at least its use to refer to a wide variety of Indian dishes, also comes from colonizers trying to simplify and categorize Indian cuisine."
Curry powder is a British-invented spice blend created to approximate Indian flavors in a single mix, but it is not commonly used by South Asian chefs. Garam masala is a traditional South Asian blend of warming spices whose name literally means "warming spices" and serves as the aromatic backbone of many dishes. The English term "curry" arose from colonial simplification of diverse Indian sauced dishes, probably deriving from the Tamil word "kari" meaning "sauce". Portuguese colonists transmitted the term, and the British applied it broadly to any Indian saucy dish. Curry powder's aroma often evokes non-Indian cuisines such as Jamaican, Thai, and Japanese adaptations rather than authentic Indian cooking.
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