Do you like your curry hot, spicy or mild?

In light of National Curry Week this week (October 9th-15th), here are a few facts you may not have known about curry:

• The earliest known curry was made in Mesopotamia in around 1700BC.
• Over 70,000 staff are employed by the more than 9,000 Indian Curry Restaurants in the UK.

• There are more Indian restaurants in London than there is in Mumbai or Delhi.

• Chilli is the most popular spice in the world and can help combat heart attacks and strokes and extends blood coagulation times, preventing harmful blood clots.
• According to the Guinness World Records, the largest naan bread ever created was 32kg in weight. It was measured 4.96m in length and 1.26m in width and was made in Canada in 2016.
• Two thirds of all meals out in the UK are Indian Food and this is worth 3.2 billion pounds a year.

• The first recipe in English “To make a currey the India way” was in Hannah Glasse’s Art of Cookery published in 1747.
• Before it referred to food, ‘curry’ meant a way to prepare leather or the parts of an animal slain in a hunt that were given to the hounds.

• A record tower of 1,280 poppadoms was piled up in Northampton to celebrate Curry Week in 2012. It was 5ft 8ins high.
• Chicken Tikka Masala is not a traditional Indian dish but allegedly originated from Glasgow in 1971.