The Indian cuisine features a large variety of dishes.
One of the main specialties of Indian Food is the use of a large array of different spices, herbs and vegetables. With regard to vegetables, the Indian cuisine actually offers a wide range of vegetarian dishes since a large portion of the population is vegetarian. Moreover, the Indian cuisine is characterized by a wide variety of cooking techniques and ingredients that vary from region to region.
Influences
Indian Food has been influenced by religions like Hinduism, the Islam or Christianity. The cusine has also been impacted by various invaders like the Persians, the British and the Portuguese. Therefore, India’s cuisine can be considered almost a melting pot of various cultures and cooking habits. During the colonial period, Indian cuisine was heavily influenced by European cooking.
Regional Differences
Of course, foreign and different religious influences, which varied all over the continent and the local availability of certain foods and spices played another part. They all contributed to the incredible rich collection of recipes and cooking styles, which we use to call “The Indian Cuisine” today. However, India, as a country is diverse as large and has not surprisingly many regional cultures. Each region has its own specialties. These differences in the regional cuisines are partly the result of geographical location such as whether the region is close to the sea or near the mountains as well as climate.
Important Meals and Eating Habits
The Indian cuisine relies heavily on fresh products, thus some dishes are only seasonally available and may not be cooked all year round.
Indians generally consider breakfast to be an important meal. A typical breakfast could include tea or coffee and parathas accompanied by pickle and yoghurt in the North, or dhokla and milk in Western India or idlis and dosas in South India.
For lunch, people from eastern and southern India may start with an appetizer, such as Pakora or Samosa. However, they eat rice as the main dish, while those from the North and West prefer rotis or parathas. Side dishes include two or more vegetarian dishes, yoghurt, fish, dal, chicken or the like. Sauces are not very common, however, chutneys are quite a similar thing and widely appreciated.
Around tea, Indians usually eat snacks like pakoras, samosas, bhajjiyas etc accompanied by tea.
Dinner is on the lines of lunch but may be followed by a dessert like kheer, kulfi, ras malai, gulab jamun, or shrikhand.
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