Curry Spices
Curry spices or curry powder is a mix of many different spices with wide variations of those spices depending on the location or region and depending on the type of dish being made.
It is usually a powder but can also be a paste. Its widely used all over south and eastern Asia. Curry powder is based primarily on turmeric, which gives it the yellow tint. But curry powder also includes base ingredients of coriander and cumin as well as an abundance of other spices.
Curry sauces can supplement the flavors in dishes made with meats vegetables, fish and eggs and many other base ingredients. Curry from India is normally made with fresh ingredients and is considered premium by culinary standards. In the Orient curry powders are used on chicken, rice and seafood dishes. It gives what some would say as the "touch of the Orient" when using these mixes of spices.
Garam masala, from India, is very similar to curry powder. It can have peppercorn, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, cardamom but is not based around turmeric as much and has a warmer flavor. Its also usually added toward the end of the cooking of the dish or on the finished dish as opposed to curry that is added at the beginning when cooking.