You’re basic for ordering the butter chicken

That side of garlic naan isn’t adventurous, either. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an entry point into understanding Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - India’s [butter chicken]( fight. - Japan’s not ready to [take flight](. - China’s crash [turned out]( alright. - Cuba’s [crisis]( has no end in sight. Chicken Roast A year ago today, I was on vacation in Florence, Italy. I was [by myself]( for the evening and I went to [Trattoria Cammillo](, a longstanding institution dating back three generations. I ordered an artichoke salad to start, a plate of gorgonzola gnocchi for my primi and asked the waiter what secondi he recommended. “Chicken curry with rice is our secret famous dish,” he confidently told me. I gave him a skeptical look in return, but he pressed on: “I know … curry in Firenze! Unusual. But it is the best, I promise.” I took his suggestion. The dish, a rather unattractive pile of chicken swimming in a creamy curry next to hefty scoop of mango chutney, was bright yet indulgent, a mastery of flavors that I will never forget. Nothing — not even the tiramisu I proceeded to devour after that — was as good as the chicken. The waiter was so impressed with my appetite that he poured me tea to digest it all and took 10% off the bill. But why, oh, why, is a storied trattoria in the heart of Borgo San Jacopo famous for a curry dish? Thanks to this [deep dive]( by Emiko Davies, I learned that one-third of Florence’s 200,000-person population was foreign during the second half of the nineteenth century, many of them anglophones. By the end of the Second World War, curry dishes were highly requested by British visitors and expats. In an effort to charm those diners, the founder of Cammillo’s added a creamy chicken curry with pilaf and mango chutney to the menu in the 1950s. It’s a fascinating story that illustrates the ways in which we use food to bridge cultural gaps. In the US, chicken makhani — or “butter chicken” as it’s more commonly known — has played a similar role on a far larger scale. Raj Tawney [says]( (free read) a family fight for the credit of the dish’s origin story has reached India’s courts. But regardless of who wins, it won’t matter much to Americans. The now-prolific glop [first appeared]( on Manhattan menus in 1975 as a way to get New Yorkers to try Indian food that seemed less intimidating than, say, palak paneer and dahl. Fast-forward half a century and now “it’s the only item that non-Desis can mention by name, and their love for the rich curry runs deep,” Raj writes. At Target you can buy a jar of bastardized [butter chicken sauce]( for $3.29. At Trader Joe’s, there’s a $4.49 [frozen dinner version](, which recently dethroned Mandarin orange chicken in popularity. Before you know it, we’ll be eating butter chicken in space. No, [really](. (For the record, Howard Chua-Eoan [will not be partaking](.) “As a kid growing up less than an hour outside of New York City in the ’90s, I always assumed the recipe was developed in the US as a way to appease American tastebuds,” Raj says, noting that he dubbed the chicken in a tomato cream sauce “wedding food” as a child because he often saw it at catered events that had multi-cultural guests. Every time he hears people gushing about it, he realizes that “the dish is so ingrained in American cuisine that it feels like they’re raving about the equivalent of a hamburger and French fries.” Maybe that’s [an accomplishment]( in it of itself: “Butter chicken served as an olive branch to outsiders … an entry point into understanding Indian culture and people, who often faced bigotry because of their skin color, name, clothes, accent and religion,” he writes. Even so, the next time you find yourself at an Indian restaurant, Bobby Ghosh [suggests]( you try the [goat neck biryani]( instead of your usual order of butter chicken with a side of garlic naan. If you like it, who knows! Perhaps your waiter will take off 10% of your bill. Bonus Eating Reading: - Oprah’s [TV special on obesity drugs]( felt like like one long ad for Novo Nordisk and Lilly. — Lisa Jarvis - Bye-bye, Ben & Jerry’s? Here’s why Unilever is [spinning off]( its ice cream business. — Andrea Felsted The Great Poke Awakening Can someone please tell me why, on the same day that The Bank of Japan [decided]( to raise its interest rate, Meta says it’s having a full-throttled [Facebook Poke]( renaissance?? Sure, this might be just one big coincidence. Or, or, or it could be the first-ever recorded instance of FPBOJRHCC, or what I like to call the Facebook Poke-Bank of Japan Rate Hike Correlation Coefficient. If it’s the latter, then this is truly groundbreaking stuff: Japan hasn’t moved its policy rate above zero since 2007 — the [heyday]( of the Facebook Poke. Seventeen years later, we’re suddenly resurrecting Facebook Pokes and Japan’s fiscal mojo. That’s gotta mean something, right?! Sadly, I think the similarities end there. “The arrival of zero rates two decades ago was greeted with disbelief and horror,” John Authers [writes](. “Japan has at last extracted itself.” Now, there are no monetary authorities left with negative rates, and the wacky world in which central banks czars paid you to borrow from them has ended. But you might want to hold off on popping the champagne. Daniel Moss and Gearoid Reidy [warn]( that the BOJ’s move has plenty of caveats. “Japan has the highest debt burden of any rich country and must provide for an aging population while preparing for a big lift in defense spending,” they write. “Totems of unorthodox stimulus may be ending, but policy will remain far more accommodative than almost anywhere else.” Don’t come crying to me when the Facebook Poke renaissance turns out to be a false dawn! Bonus Central Bank Reading: Bank lending and bond-market activity are climbing in anticipation of [Fed rate cuts](, which should deliver an outsized economic punch. — Conor Sen Telltale Charts For a minute there, it looked like the Evergrande crisis — one of history’s greatest property crashes — marked the end times for China’s construction sector. But despite the economic downturn, David Fickling [says]( building activity has been holding up surprisingly well. In the US, home completions fell by about half in the two years after the housing market peaked in 2006, he writes. “Things have been very different in China. Two years after the market started to crack in 2021, completions last year were down less than 1% from their peak. The real estate crash showed up everywhere except the real estate data.” A few weeks ago, the Cuban government [asked]( the United Nations for some food in what Juan Pablo Spinetto [calls]( an “unprecedented cry for help from a communist regime that has always prided itself on its social welfare model.” Cuba hasn’t been in this bad of an economic situation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Between 2021 and 2023, the island lost [at least half]( a million citizens, or close to 5% of the total population — evidence that the socialist regime is collapsing in real time. “These are young, educated Cubans [escaping hunger](, economic mismanagement and political repression,” he writes. It should be seen as a wake-up call for the US — and Latin America and the world. Further Reading Free read: Brexit has been [truly disastrous]( for the UK economy. — Matthew A. Winkler TikTok’s current position is untenable. [A sale]( is its best option. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Putin’s sham [election victory]( isn’t just a Kremlin charade. It’s a danger. — Marc Champion Americans, Israelis and Palestinians must [rediscover nuance]( to find peace. — Andreas Kluth Ships, not chips, could provide China with [an edge]( over the US. — Tim Culpan Spirit Airlines [isn’t the first]( budget carrier to hit turbulence. — Stephen Mihm ICYMI SCOTUS [let Texas keep]( SB4. Microsoft [hired]( DeepMind’s co-founder. The [RBG award]( givers [lost the plot](. Brazil’s police [pursue]( Bolsonaro. Dries Van Noten [retires]( in style. Saudi Arabia has [$40 billion]( for AI. Kickers Bioluminescent [houseplants]( enter the group chat. Dunkin’ [is embracing]( Short King Spring. Babysitters [are a symbol]( of a bygone era. Cruise ships are full of [morbid surprises](. Nicole Kidman has a [secret superpower](. Notes: Please send anything but butter chicken and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. 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