Blending memoir, humour, lists, slices of life, and vignettes into a layered collage, Curry and Bread is Pravasan Pillay’s offbeat exploration of the food and foodways of working-class South African Indians – as well as his own food memories.
The book’s structure is an intriguing interplay between lighter and more melancholic moments. There are tongue-in-cheek guides to eating bunny chows and messy crab curries, an examination of the special relationship between Indian aunties and ice cream containers, an ode to the humble baked beans curry, a ranking of extremely weird sandwiches, a trainspotter’s list of South African Indian tomato chutneys, and much more – a veritable breyani in its construction.
Pillay now lives in Sweden and we are also given glimpses of his culinary adjustment there, ranging from his experimental dhals to his ruminations on frozen curry leaves.
Curry and Bread is a funny, and, at times, bitter-sweet book about food, but it is ultimately about memory, home, nostalgia, migration, and identity.
140 pages.
ISBN: 978-1-0370-6553-8
If you order directly from Dye Hard Press, the price is R320, including the cost of courier directly to your door. Email the publisher at cummiskeyg@gmail.com.
Curry and Bread will also soon be available from Made in Durban and select bookstores.
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