Whenever I visit a curry house, it strikes me, even as an Asian, how unfamiliar I am with most of the culinary delights on the menu. South Asia is a vast area, with diverse languages, cultures and cuisines. The beauty of the English curry house is that it brings together, under one roof, cuisines and styles of cooking that are found in different regions of South Asia. These styles of cooking cut across political boundaries and are spread along cultural units, for example Punjabi or Bengali.
Curry houses have experienced such phenomenal success because they have filled a vacuum. Before the curry, England lacked a cuisine. We had fish and chips, but essentially English food was a belly-filler and lacked any theme. Asian restaurateurs have been clever at identifying and filling that culinary vacuum. Many innovative restaurant owners experimented with the basic ingredients to come up with new dishes.
Asian restaurants have, however, passed their apogee. This is partly because of competitive pressures from a proliferation of curry houses. Even Asian-owned fish and chips shops offer a more enticing choice than was previously the case. However, I think the main reason why Asian restaurants are no longer at their former heights is because they are, in a sense, the victims of their own success. The curry has become so entrenched as an English meal that the basic ingredients, for those who can cook, are available from supermarkets. For the time poor and the oscitant, there are microwaveable packaged curries. The curry has come home.
To the question does England have a cuisine, I would say, resoundingly: Yes, the curry.
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