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A History of Indian Food

A Quick Guide to Indian Cuisine

May 29, 2008

Traditional Indian Foods, Indian Foods Co.

Food and cooking are an important part of the Indian culture. Here's a brief guide to the types of food used in Indian cooking and the traditions of how they came about.

Like in the American culture, food and special cuisine are very important in the Indian lifestyle. Families pride themselves on serving the best food when they visit with friends and family. There is also a wide variety of dishes and cooking techniques when making Indian food. Different spices are often utilized, so the food is extremely flavorful. When going into several different Indian markets, you may notice that there is often no meat sold. A lot of the foods are vegetarian, because many Indians are Hindu (they don’t eat beef) or Muslim (they don’t eat ham or pork.) About a third of Indians are vegetarians (about 31% of the population in India.) Food is a really important part of the Indian culture, especially during religious or cultural festivals.

What You Can Expect to Find in An Indian Meal

In a traditional meal, there are usually two or three main courses with many side dishes (like chutneys or roti) and desserts. Indian food is often divided into four sections by the region in which they are utilized: Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western. The history of Indian cuisine goes all the way back to 7000 BCE when sesame, eggplant and cattle were introduced. Around 3000 BCE the spices turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard were first used (these spices are especially prevalent in Indian cooking today.) When invasions and new immigrants came later, tomatoes, chilies, and potatoes became staples in the Indians’ diet.

Important Ingredients

The most important parts of the Indian cuisine are rice, flour (also called atta), and an element called pulses. Pulses are masoor (red lentils), chana (Bengal ram), toor (pigeon pea), urad (black gram), and mung (green gram.) Curries are also very important and are often fried in vegetable oil. In the Indian language, curries are often understood to mean ‘gravy’ because it accompanies other foods in the dishes.

Indian Cuisine By Region

The Northern Indian diet consists of a lot of dairy products. They often use ghee (clarified butter) and yogurt. Samosas are popular snacks that are usually boiled, fried or mashed potato. They can also have fillings of minced meat, cheese, mushrooms, and chickpeas.
Eastern cuisine is well known for its desserts. There are sweets like rasogolla and chickoo made of kiwis.
Southern cooking includes a lot of coconut and they have snacks like dosa, idli, vada, bonda, and bajji, which are all eaten at breakfast time. T
The Western cuisine is broken down into four groups: Rajasthani, Gujarati (mostly vegetarian with a lot of sugar used), Maharashtrian (some fish and wheat), and Goan (with mainly rice and coconut used.)

Types of Popular Drinks in Indian Cuisine

For drinks, tea is very popular. It is often prepared in the masala chai style, which is tea mixed with spices like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger with milk. Coffee, lemonade (nimbu pani), lassi, badam dood (milk with nuts and cardamom), chaach (with curd and yogurt), sharbat, and coconut water are all favorite drinks. Mango juices are often sold at bakeries or stands on the street in India.

Foods and the art of cooking are a very significant part of the Indian culture. It is the spices and unique recipes that make their cuisine so special.

Information found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_food

The copyright of the article A History of Indian Food in Indian Food is owned by Erin Konrad. Permission to republish A History of Indian Food in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.