On the Curry Trail

 On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World by Raghavan Iyer, 208 pages.

As a cookbook I found this book to be very alright. The recipes tend to be very involved and use some specialized equipment (I think there's maybe three recipes in the whole book that don't call for a spice grinder), and I had only middling luck making them. However, it is fascinating as a culinary history book. Iyer goes continent by continent tracking the history of how curry got to many countries and how it adapted to local tastes. I was surprised to learn that, despite Japan's fairly long trade history with India and current love of curry, the dish wasn't actually popular in Japan until the English brought it over. Iyer also includes a number of helpful general prep tips and ingredient advice. This is a fun book to flip through, and it's graphic design is very enticing to do just that.