Curry is one of those words like salsa; it means different things to different people. At its most basic, curry refers to a spicy dish of vegetables or meat served with rice. Curry is derived from the Tamil word kari, which means sauce.

In some types of Indian cuisine, curry denotes a dish that is sort of like a soup made with yogurt, clarified butter, spices and chick pea flour. Other regions from England to Thailand use curry as a generic word for meat or vegetables cooked with a spicy sauce.

Different types of curry use different main ingredients, depending on the region of Asia or India you are in. Curry from the Punjab region, for instance, involves wheat instead of rice, and is heavy on the butter and cream. Malayali curry usually has coconut and coconut milk, as well as bay leaves. Tamil curry, however, is probably what most western people think of when they think of curry. Tamil curry refers to shallow-fried meat or vegetables cooked along with dry spices.

It’s the spices that most people think of as making curry, well, curry. That’s because in many parts of the world you can buy a prepared blend of spices known as curry powder that is used to make a dish of curry. To make things more confusing, curry powder may contain curry leaves, which come from the curry tree (or curry leaf tree), which is native to India.

Curry leaves are used sort of like bay leaves in Indian cooking, but they are not the only ingredient in curry powder. Curry powder is like chili powder—everyone has his or her own recipe and each concoction is a little bit different.

One common thread in many curry powder mixtures is turmeric, which gives curries a distinctive yellow color. Other popular spices in curry powder include coriander, ginger, garlic, chilies, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, cumin and tamarind.

The main types of curry you might encounter in an Indian or Thai restaurant are red, yellow, and green curry. Red curry is made with red chiles, while green curry is made with green chiles. Yellow curry is made mostly with turmeric and cumin, though it may include hot peppers or pepper flakes as well.

Curry dishes can now be found all over the world, with regional variations in many countries including Sri Lanka, South Africa, Japan, the United States, China, the Caribbean and Bangladesh, to name just a few. Curry is one of those wonderful foods that adapts everywhere it goes, making it a dish loved the world over.