Steph Curry is good for curry: Indian restaurants swamped with curry orders on Warriors nights

Photo: Lacy Atkins Asif Aslam serves up a sizzling dish at the Aslam's Rasoi...

It doesn't happen when the Giants are playing. Nor the A's or the 49ers.

The rush on orders of curry dishes only happens at Aslam's Rasoi in San Francisco and Burlingame on nights when the Golden State Warriors are playing, especially during the NBA Playoffs and Finals.

Asif Aslam, the owner of these two Indian restaurants, thinks some of his customers are eating curry to celebrate Warriors star player Steph Curry — who isn't Indian but happens to have a last name giving a nod to India's most ubiquitous dish.

"It's strange, but it really happens," says Aslam. "Everyone is ordering curry and people who've never even had curry are trying it for the first time. I've heard conversations at tables between the guests bringing up Steph Curry and saying they want to order curry because of him."

Aslam says his restaurants, both with bars featuring big-screen televisions playing sports games, are packed during Warriors games and his take-out orders increase by 30 percent or more on game nights.

"On average, we'll do 30 to 40 orders but when it's game day, it goes above 60 take-out orders," Aslam said.

RELATED GALLERY: Steph Curry's quirky habits, mannerisms and routines

. . Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Steph Curry is good for curry: Indian restaurants swamped with curry orders on Warriors nights 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

Take-out orders also pick up at Delhi Diner in Berkeley. "We did about 75 take-out orders last Friday [during the Finals game], and usually on a Friday night we'll do 25 to 30," said owner Subhash Arora.

Arora doesn't have a lot of interaction with his customers so he doesn't know if they're eating his curry dishes because of Steph Curry, but "I like the idea," he said.

The bar manager for Kennedy's Irish Pub & Curry House in SF, Alyssa Tenace, has noticed a Curry-curry trend.

"I have four Curry jerseys and I always wear one of them to the bar on game nights, and the customers think it's really funny because they're eating in a curry house and watching Curry."

Even with these examples, SFGATE thinks this is a fringe trend. This reporter called two other Bay Area Indian restaurants and both had no idea what she was talking about. And after a call-out to dozens of Warriors fans asking if anyone made curry for Warriors games on Facebook and various Yahoo groups, it took a couple days to track someone down.

Photo: Sam Hsu One-time use: Warriors fan Sam Hsu shows off pots of curry his wife...

And then came along, Sam Hsu, who grew up in San Francisco and attended Lowell High School and now lives in Bellevue, Wash.

Hsu continues to root for his hometown team and his wife honors them by making curry—all kinds including Indian Vindaloo-style and a Vietnamese version with vermicelli noodles—during the Playoffs and Finals.

Recommended Video:

He first got the idea in 2015 when an ESPN ad starred Curry in the network's cafeteria acting as if chicken curry was being served in his honor.

Hsu asked his wife to start making curry for the Playoffs games and he posted photos of himself with his big pots of curry on Facebook (see photos above) as a joke to his community of California friends.

"It became this thing with my friends where they wanted my wife to make curry because every time she did, the Warriors won," said Hsu. "And every time she didn't, they'd lose."

Hsu says his wife didn't make curry for Game 7 during the 2016 NBA Finals because it was her 40th birthday that day and he was throwing her a party. The Warriors lost the Championship that year.

"I was so tired of eating curry, and I didn't want to make it again, and my friends got really mad at me," he said. "On Facebook, my friends would joke, put it in the blender and just chug it down."

This year, he skipped the curry tradition for Game 4 because it was his niece's birthday and the family went out for sushi. Again, the Warriors lost.

Will Hsu's wife be making up a pot of her curry for tonight's Game 5?

"Yes, I'm superstitious," he said. "You know what they say in sports, "It's not weird if it works.'"