Top Course Unit 196

Presentations: The Top Course Unit 196

Listen to the recordings to practice this study group.
Repeat each line after the speaker.
Practice one group at a time.
Start with Part A Slow reading then Part A Normal speed. Then go on to Part B.

Unit 196 Part A

1    Pat Chapman, author of the Cobra Good Curry Guide and founder of the Curry Club,
2    is the presenter of our food programme today.
3    Were he around today, he might observe that we are now a nation of curry-house keepers.
4   But, surprisingly, it wasn't until the twilight of the Raj that Britain's first Indian restaurant,
5   Veeraswamy, opened in 1926 in London's Piccadilly.
6    Such is the popularity of curry that it is still there, but this was very nearly not the case.
7    By 1950, there were just six curry restaurants in the whole of Britain.
8    Curry hadn't really caught on, and it might never have done so had it not been
9    for the chronic labour shortage caused by the nation's new-found, post-war prosperity.
10    It was solved by bringing in immigrant labour from the West Indies and the subcontinent.
11  The Indians, finding Britain to be a spice desert,
12    soon made arrangements to import their beloved spices and foodstuffs.
13    It wasn't long before enterprising Indians invested in restaurants
14    to offer Indian food to the indigenous British population.
 

Unit 196 Part B

 

12    It was a revelation to a nation who considered garlic a suspicious item.
13    Not only was curry addictive, but it was, above all, affordable.
14    The total in the UK is a staggering 8,000 and they still continue to open and expand.
15    We still, erroneously, refer to our curry restaurants as 'Indian'.
16    So, cubed meat, chicken or potatoes and vegetables were lightly curried and chilled,
17    and a large pot of thick curry gravy, a kind of master stock, was brewed to medium strength.
18    Rice is pre-cooked, breads and tandoori items made to order by a different specialist,
19    and, hey presto, your order!
20    The menu can be very long, and any dish is available with meat, poultry,
21    prawns, king prawns and most vegetables, too.
22    This is still the formula of the standard British curry house.
23    However, it is clear that, judging by the many new restaurants
24    which seem to appear almost daily,
25    and the selection which appear in the Good Curry Guide, curry is a-changing!

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