I wrote 'Mamta's Kitchen' on the white board today, for my French third year students at Montpellier University: one of them told me her dad is posted to India, and sends her Indian spices: she does some Indian cookery. The girls is to be encouraged!

Phil

We will teach the French to love Indian food one day :-)!

It'll take a while, Mamta, but I was much impressed to see a French colleague get stuck into spicy Punjabi food at the 'East z East' restaurant in Manchester last year.

They're a very conservative lot, the French. Stuck in their ways. But it will change with the new generation, I think.

Phil

I am sure it will. English were quite conservative only a generation ago, older people I knew in the 70s and 80s refused to even try Indian food. I remember one of our elderly neighbours, who were lovely people and became our great friends and my gardening gurus in time, watching me planting daffodils and Narcissus bulbs in my front garden one day when we first moved in. They thought that being Indian, I was planting garlic...in my front garden! They never did get enough courage to try Indian food, except the wife trying Naan and very low spiced Tandoori chicken at our once a year party that we hold for our Neighbours. But then this was a man who refused to visit his son in Canada, because he wasn't sure about what food they eat there :-), may God rest their souls.

The thing with spices is that once you discover the pleasure of eating them, you always want more. The trick is not to make food too hot, so you can taste all the other beautiful spices other than chillies.

I couldn't agree more, Mamta, re not making things so chilli hot that you can't taste all those different spices.

And yes, my mum's generation were VERY conservative about 'foreign muck', as they called it (a bit rich, since much of what they ate was utterly dreadful!)

We send many French undergrads off to the UK each year, on Erasmus exchange programmes: they come back as completely changed human beings, and one of the things they can discover is Indian food.

The Erasmus programme has been one of the best uses of EU funds, in my humble opinion. How lovely to see young English and German Erasmus students befriending each other at my French university, rather than killing each other on the battlefields of France, as they did only just over half a century ago.

We've come a long way.

phil

Humorous and Interesting!! Long live the curry.

Phil, you will be giving Indian cookery classes to French students next :-), before sending them for exchange to India!

Exchange programmes are always good, young people learn about each other in a positive way. In old days, we used to have pen pals, now it is facebook/twitter etc.

Mamta: we have academic staff exchanges with Indian universities, and I'm very much involved in Erasmus student exchanges, as well as co-ordinating teaching exchanges with universities in Iowa, and Austin, Texas.

So I'll enquire about Indian student exchanges: I've never had any Indian students here, but would love to.

Phil

Which universities do you have contact with in India Phil?

I think Mumbai and Delhi, though I'm not the person who deals with these. We get visiting professors here from India, but no students.

Phil