Curried seal curries favour at Indian Express food truck

Jerry Joy is best known for his butter chicken, doled out from his Indian Express food truck in St. John's.

But Joy likes to experiment.

When he heard about seal flippers for sale at Coleman's, he bought 20.

We make curry out of everything so I thought seal is an interesting meat to work with.- Jerry Joy

"We make curry out of everything so I thought seal is an interesting meat to work with because it has its own flavour. It's unique to Newfoundland so I thought, try it."

Joy trimmed meat from the flippers and soaked it overnight in a vinegar and turmericbath to take thegaminess out of it.

A curry tailored to suit seal

The key was making a curry to suit the meat.

To do that, Joy mixedmyriad ingredients into a stainless steel pot, starting with cumin and ending with seal.

"Some turmeric, a little bit of chili powder for heat, coriander powder. We roast it here, we grind it here. Want to smell it?" he asked.

Joy is an engineer by training and has been working as a real estate agent.

Food though, is his passion.

"Growing up in India, mostly the boys are not allowed in the kitchen. Ialways loved food, and I think my love for food drew me to cooking."

While curried bear is his favourite so far, he's curious as to how people will react to curried seal.

"I don't know. I want to try with a small amount first. If it's a hit, definitelymore is going to come."

After the seal is added to the pot, it simmers for twohours.

Customers are pleased

A few hours after making the curry, Joy servedcustomers from his truck in aparking lot next to busy Torbay Road.

People heard seal was on the menu and a handful were waiting as the side window slid open.

"Oh look, that's delicious," said Mike Duke as he dug into his meal.

"Hmmmmm, awesome. You wouldn't expect seal to go with (curry). It's actually really, really nice."

Sitting in the driver's seat of her car, Marilyn Freakehad a taste.

"Wow, it's delicious. It tastes like authentic Indian curry. Very tasty. I love seal. It's something different than what we're used to, baking seal flippers in the oven with some pastry."

Joy was pleased with the reaction he's getting. He plans to open a restaurant in Portugal Cove thissummer.

Curried seal will likely be on the menu.

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