Indian Cuisine: Curry can never be cooked in a Hurry

When we look at the world as a palate, the major cuisines in the world, which have a profound impact on the world palate i.e., 1. Japanese, 2.  Italian, 3. Chinese, 4. Indian, 5. French, 6. American. Indian Cuisine has always been considered complex and requires an extensive list of ingredients for each dish 😊 can’t help it right..! That’s how we have lip-smacking dishes too…!

In a survey conducted in 2007, it was found that approximately 1200 Indian food products have been introduced in the United States alone. As per Britain food standard agency, the Indian food industry is worth £ 3.2 billion, which’s a staggering amount.

Indian Cuisine is an amalgamation of various styles of cooking across India and also sometimes various cuisines coming from outside India. In India, we normally prefer food fresh i.e., prepared with fresh vegetables and other fresh ingredients. The recipes might change from household to household as the cooking is passed on from generation to generation and it carries the stamp of each person who has been cooking.

Since India has a deep history and land full of diversity in all ways and since we have been accommodating people for ages. This influence can also be seen in the food, new dishes coming out of an amalgamation of new ideas giving a twist to a traditional dish.

Indian food has always been towards giving preference to healthy and wholesome food, that’s the reason one can see the concept of thali whichever region you might go, one can find thali fitting to the regional diaspora.

The concept of thali is normally giving one balanced diet according to what is predominantly available in the region and also according to seasonal variation, some thalis have rice as the major component i.e., south Indian thali, they are divided into three to four-course meals with the sambar, Rasam, and Curd/buttermilk and two to three dry vegetable preparation. In the north or west, it would be more chapati, roti, paratha, phulka, or naan along with rice and dal. In the south you would find unlimited thalis i.e., you can have as much as you want and an option of limited executive thali.

When we talk about Indian Cuisine we cannot miss the etiquette of eating, which is very different from other countries, traditionally food is eaten by seating on the floor and using hands without forks and spoons. As food is already in bits size one does not need to tear and eat except the roti, which can be done by hand. And moreover, eating by hand gives the idea of the temperature of the food and also helps in tearing the roti or naan into small portions and scoop the curry or vegetable preparation. Eating by hand and using fingers is a unique experience as you’re totally involved while eating.  Given a chance I would prefer eating by hand always, it’s so personal and the food is much tastier, rather than eating by some fork or some plastic cutlery. These traditional methods are weaning as modern methods are slowly making their way.

Northeastern food is very different from the other parts of the country, states like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, and many other states are highly influenced by the nearby Burma/Myanmar and China, their eating habits are entirely different.

As such in India we can find such diversity, for every 20 km we will find the food, and their habits are totally different, with such kind of diversity and having deep roots of the concept i.e treating food as Ayurveda we are bound to find some hidden gems in our Indian cuisine.

Let’s continue the discussion and further the fascinating journey in our next post trying to venture out in-depth about regional cuisines and their influence on Indian Cuisine and vice versa.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon #blogchatterhalfmarathon.