Official JMC ship-issue curry
Curry is a spicy foodstuff, originating in south Asia on Earth (particularly India), that was a particular favourite of David Lister, the last human in the Galaxy. For Lister, the spicier the better, so one of his favourites was vindaloo, usually the hottest curry available.
References[]
Lister enjoyed all spicy food, but this extended to drinking chilled vindaloo sauce for breakfast and having Tabasco sauce on his breakfast cereal. ("Waiting for God", "Psirens") Describing himself as a 'curryaholic', he admitted that years of vindaloo abuse had destroyed his taste buds. ("Legion", "Tikka to Ride"). He even tried a caviar vindaloo ("Better Than Life") and a kipper vindaloo ("Bodyswap").
Lister on Z Shift on Red Dwarf, eating curry with a cigarette in his ear ("The End")
Before the accident which killed the crew, Lister's bunkmate Arnold Rimmer spent several weeks making a revision timetable to assist in his officer entry exam. Rimmer planned to take learning drugs and spent a full night and day intensely revising. However, to his horror he learned that Lister had ruined this timetable by spilling goat vindaloo all over it. ("Balance of Power") Instead of fulfilling his duties on Z Shift, Lister instead ate curries and smoked cigarettes whilst her followed Rimmer around. ("The End")
Dave Lister and Holly have a conversation as Lister eats a vinadloo ("Waiting for God")
Red Dwarf seemed to have an endless supply of Indian food for Lister contained within the cargo bays. Even Cat, Kryten, and Rimmer indulged from time to time (although they could not stand them as spicy as Lister). Kryten insisted however that they did not eat curry every night, recalling an incident when Lister once ate a pizza, which was unpalatable until he poured curry sauce upon it. ("Holoship") When interviewing a prospective candidate to join them, the Dwarfers claimed that the spent their time salvaging derelict spaceships and eating curries, although they didn't spend that much time salvaging. ("Holoship")
Before movies played in the Red Dwarf cinema there were advertisements for the Titan Taj Mahal, an Indian restaurant on Titan where curries could be enjoyed at one-fifth the gravity. ("Me²")
Lister's curry begins to mutate into the Mutton Vindaloo Beast ("D.N.A.")
Lister's mutton vindaloo was used to test the DNA Modifier's capabilities, but it unfortunately created the Mutton Vindaloo Beast, a rampaging monster that could only be destroyed by Lager. ("D.N.A.")
When hailed by a Simulant Battle Cruiser, Lister and Cat pretended to be a curry-based GELF species named Vindaloovians. This involved filming themselves upside down, with only their mouths and chins showing, and with Kryten's eyeballs stuck to their chins. Lister claimed to be called Tarka Dal (named after a lentil-based curry) and Cat claimed to be called Bhindi Bhaji (named after an okra-based curry); the Simulants saw through the ruse easily when the Simulant Captain teleported aboard as Lister and Cat were in the middle of their act. ("Gunmen of the Apocalypse"
When the Dwarfers were falsely made to believe that Lister was a mechanoid by an unreality bubble, Rimmer assumed that his mission must be to rid The Universe of chicken vindaloo. ("Out of Time")
Curry night, which was held on at least six nights of the week, consisted of: three poppadoms with mango chutney, little onions, dill pickle, day-glo green mint sauce that just doesn't wash out, a weird red "stuff", a shami kebab starter, a chicken vindaloo (kamikaze hot) with a fire extinguisher on standby, two scoops of Kulfi ice cream and two indigestion tablets. ("Tikka to Ride")
Lister uses the Time Drive to recover three and a half tons of curry ("Tikka to Ride")
When the curry supplies were destroyed aboard Starbug, Lister went into shock. His desire for curry led him to risk destroying the timeline to secure a large takeaway order from another Taj Mahal restaurant in London. He eventually was able to restore the timeline and retrieve the curry supplies using the Time drive. ("Tikka to Ride")
Kryten once programmed the AR machine to create Curryworld, a faithful recreation of an Indian restaurant. He invited the crew and the Bennett family from Pride and Prejudice Land. A glitch in the program made the curries so hot that even Lister could not stand them and caused him to exhale fire. ("Beyond a Joke")
When an enormous bowel movement was required from a rampaging dinosaur, Lister and Kochanski created an enormous cow vindaloo, reasoning that since a dinosaur was tough it would like curry. The Tyrannosaur devoured the vindaloo, but it was too hot and he then stormed off to eat ice cream, ice pops and Coca-Cola. This later caused numerous digestive problems. ("Pete II")
Lister accidentally dripped curry sauce from a kebab onto the console in the Drive Room, setting it on fire. Lister put out the fire with a can of Leopard Lager. Rimmer was not pleased, demanding Lister fill out stacks of accident and safety forms. ("Entangled")
When the Dwarfers found themselves in 1st century India, Lister insisted that he be allowed to try a goat curry before they left. ("Lemons")
When the Dwarfers met three Cat Clerics aboard Iron Star, they found that the cats worshipped Lister as their deity "Cloister". As per Cloister's 'teachings' in the Book of Smeg, Sister Luna said that she has spent her life eating three vindaloos a day. (The Promised Land)
Behind the Scenes[]
- When Ainsley Harriott hosted Can't Smeg, Won't Smeg, he taught the crew to make a chicken vindaloo. This was then tested by feeding it to Chloë Annett.
- Craig Charles has described himself as a curry fan, but not quite as much as Lister.