96 JANUARY 2021
I GREW UP IN THE BRONX, where the flavors of your family’s curry
were as personal as the block you were raised on. Everyone’s
mom made their own version, and I quickly came to recog-
nize the different flavor, heat, and spice profiles from the curry
blends I tried as a kid. I learned that while heavy turmeric,
pimiento seeds, fenugreek, cumin, and coriander are usually
in your standard curry, the true signature of a great iteration
was in the balance of the spices.
I was blessed enough not only to grow up eating West African
dishes but also to have had people from the Caribbean and West
Indies in and around my family. The ingredients my mother used
the most often were the same ingredients my friends’ parents
cooked with, and even today, they hold powerful nostalgia for
me. Individually, ingredients like Scotch bonnet peppers, gin-
ger, thyme, and garlic are staples in my household, but when
they are combined in a curry, the aroma is nothing short of
electrifying.
These days, I like to bring that Caribbean influence home in
a coconut shrimp curry, which I combine with doubles, two
turmeric- and cumin-spiced bara. As kids, my best friends and
I would walk up the hill from our church every Sunday to grab
bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches; oxtail with peas and rice;
and, of course, those warm flatbreads. As an adult, I love bara
more than ever, especially as the vehicle for curry. The rendition
I’m sharing here, a play off of a traditional South Asian–influ-
enced Trinidadian street food, uses a generous portion of dough
for each flatbread, creating a heartier vessel for whatever tasty
accompaniments you want to add. —ERIC ADJEPONG
EVERY CURRY
TELLS A STORY
