Indian Cuisine

The multiple families of Indian cuisine are characterized by their sophisticated and subtle use of many spices and herbs. Each family of this cuisine is characterized by a wide assortment of dishes and cooking techniques. Though a significant portion of Indian food is vegetarian, many traditional Indian dishes also include chicken, goat, lamb, fish, and other meats.

Food is an important part of Indian culture, playing a role in everyday life as well as in festivals. In many families, everyday meals are usually sit-down affairs consisting of two to three main course dishes, varied accompaniments such as chutneys and pickles, carbohydrate staples such as rice and roti (bread), as well as desserts.

Diversity is a defining feature of India's geography, culture, and food. Indian cuisine varies from region to region, reflecting the varied demographics of the ethnically diverse subcontinent. Generally, Indian cuisine can be split into four categories: North Indian, South Indian, East Indian, and West Indian. Despite this diversity, some unifying threads emerge in the art of Indian cuisine. Varied uses of spices are an integral part of food preparation, and are used to enhance the flavor of a dish and create unique flavors and aromas. Cuisine across India has also been influenced by various cultural groups that entered India throughout history, such as the Mughals, Persians, and European powers.

North Indian Cuisine

North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, paneer, ghee (clarified butter), and yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt) are all common ingredients. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other common ingredients include chilies, saffron, and nuts.

North Indian cooking features the use of the "tawa" (griddle) for baking flat breads like roti and paratha, and "tandoor"(a large and cylindrical coal-fired oven) for baking breads such as naan, and kulcha; main courses like tandoori chicken also cook in the tandoor. Other breads like puri and bhatoora, which are deep fried in oil, are also common. Goat and lamb meats are favored ingredients of many northern Indian recipes.

The samosa is a popular North Indian snack, and now commonly found in other parts of India, Central Asia and the Middle East. A common variety is filled with boiled, fried, or mashed potato. Other fillings include minced meat, cheese (paneer), mushroom (khumbi), and chick pea.

The staple food of most of North India is a variety of lentils, vegetables, and roti (wheat based bread). The varieties used and the method of preparation can vary from place to place. Popular dishes include buknu, gujiya, chaat, daal ki kachauri, mirchi bada, jalebi, imarti, several types of pickles (or achar), murabba, sharbat, pana and aam papad. Popular sweets include mithai, such as gulab jamun, peda, khurchan, petha, rewdi, gajak, milk cake, balushahi, bal mithai, singori, kulfi, falooda, khaja, ras malai, gulqand, and several varieties of laddu, barfi and halwa.

Some common North Indian foods such as the various kebabs and most of the meat dishes originated with Muslims’ advent into the country. Pakistan was part of North India prior to the partition of India. As a result, Pakistani cuisine is very similar to northern Indian cuisine.

East Indian Cuisine

East Indian cuisine is famous for its desserts, especially sweets such as rasagolla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, and kheeri. Many of the sweet dishes now popular in Northern India initially originated in the Bengal region. Apart from sweets, East India cuisine offers delights of posta (poppy seeds).

East Indian cuisines employ thickening agents such as cashew or poppy seed paste. Milk-based sweets are also very popular, being a particular specialty in Bengal and Orissa. Bangladeshi cuisine is very similar to East Indian cuisine. Fish and seafood are very popular in the coastal states of Orissa and West Bengal.

South India Cuisine

South Indian cuisine is distinguished by a greater emphasis on rice as the staple grain, the liberal use of coconut and particularly coconut oil and curry leaves, and the ubiquity of sambar and rasam (also called saaru'/'chaaru) at meals.

The dosa, idli, vada, bonda, and bajji are typical South Indian snacks. These are generally consumed as breakfast. Andhra, Chettinad, Hyderabadi, Mangalorean, and Kerala cuisines each have distinct tastes and methods of cooking. In fact each of the South Indian states has a different way of preparing sambar; a connoisseur of South Indian food will very easily tell the difference between sambar from Kerala and sambar from Tamilnadu and pappu pulusu in Andhra cuisine.huren

West Indian Cuisine

Western India has four major food groups Rajasthani, Gujarati, Maharashtrian and Goan. The Goan cuisine is a mixture of the traditional cuisine with a heavy use of rice, coconut and sea fish and some Portuguese influence from the colonial era. Maharashtrian cuisine is has mainly two sections defined by the geographical sections. The coastal regions similar to goa depend more on rice, coconut, and fish while the hilly and plateau regions use groundnut in place of coconut and depend more on wheat, jowar and Bajri. Saraswat cuisine forms an important part of coastal Konkani Indian cuisine. Gujarathi Cuisine is predominantly vegetarian. Many gujarati dishes have a beld of sweetness.

Etiquette of Indian dining

Proper table manners vary from culture to culture, although there are always a few basic rules. This holds true for dining in an Indian household or restaurant. Indians traditionally don't use cutlery for eating, as many foods - such as Indian breads and curry - are best enjoyed when eating with the hand. There is a story that the Shah of Iran, on a visit to India, was so impressed by the custom that he remarked that to eat with a spoon and fork is like making love through an interpreter. However, spoons (occasionally two used in a clasping motion) and forks are commonly used to distribute foods from a communal dish, as it is considered rude to touch the foods of others.

Indians usually give the following explanation for the practice of eating with hands: "Food is divine and needs to be enjoyed with touch, smell and taste. There is no joy in using a knife and thorns to eat it."

Eating with your hands is a technique can be quite clean when done correctly. First, the hands must be thoroughly washed, with particular attention paid to the fingernails. Having long fingernails in India is considered unhygenic (with the exception of sadhus and other ascetics).

The food should be scooped into the fingers and quickly brought to the mouth. In North India, when eating curry, the gravy must not be allowed to stain the fingers up to your knuckles--only the fingertips are used. However, in South India, it is acceptable to use more of your hand. Bowing one's head to the plate, or occasionally bringing the plate closer to the mouth is acceptable.

When flatbreads such as chapati, roti, or naan are served with the meal, it is acceptable and expected to use pieces of them to gather food and sop up gravies and curries.

Right hand

The cardinal rule of dining is to always use the right hand when eating or receiving food and never the left. The left hand is considered unclean and to use the left hand when eating is considered vulgar and uncouth.

It is however acceptable to use the left hand if there are any spoons/cutlery for taking food from the dish onto your plate.

Beef and pork

Hinduism is the largest religion and Islam is the largest minority in India. Almost all Hindus consider the cow sacred, and never eat beef. Muslims consider the pig unclean and never eat pork. Restaurants in more conservative Indian states, therefore, don't serve beef or pork, and if they are not on the menu then one would not ask for them for risk of offending the restaurateur. On the other hand, beef is commonly available in the North-Eastern states and Kerala and pork is common in Goa, Kerala, Karnataka.