Kare Kare

Kare kare is one of those dishes that Filipinos will claim ownership to. According to Alan Davidson in The Oxford Companion to Food, the word kari is a Tamil word meaning spiced sauce. These sauces were stewlike dressings with small quantities of poultry or meat to put on rice. Through the centuries, the word and dish traveled to Europe, and the Portuguese, Dutch, and English helped it evolve into the present term, curry. The original kari was a soupy dressing flavored with a simple spice such as black pepper. It was only later that chiles and other spices such as cumin, coriander, and mustard seeds were added.