@Kisato He isn't using one of the compound bows that we have nowadays. If the one he is using is poorly made then he is bound to get some scratches and splinters. Although I do think that his hands got chafed too quickly from just using the bow a few times.
They just make it with the local spices I guess? That's all curry powder even is, a spice mix that you'd generally adjust to your own tastes anyway if you aren't just buying it premade to save time, so even if the new world they're in has different spices to work with they'd just have to experiment a bit to figure out what works well together.