As far as food is concerned, India can very roughly be divided into four regions. Each region has several states in it and each state its own unique food. Here's a brief look at the cuisines of North, South, East and West India. One must of course, always remember that no such description can entirely cover the huge variety of Indian food. The true discovery of it, can take years of patient and very pleasurable gastronomic experimentation.
North Indian cuisine : North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, using the "tawa" (griddle) for baking flat breads like roti and paratha, 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.
East Indian cuisine : East Indian cuisine is famous for its desserts,[citation needed] especially sweets such as rasagolla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, chhena jalebi and kheeri. Many of the sweet dishes now popular in Northern India initially originated in the Bengal and Orissa regions. Apart from sweets, East India cuisine offers delights of posta (poppy seeds).
Traditional cuisines of Assam, Bengal and Orissa delicately spiced. General ingredients used in Assamese, Bengali, and Oriya curries are mustard seeds, cumin seeds, nigella, green chillies, cumin paste and the spice mix panch phoron or panch phutana. Mustard paste, curd, nuts, poppy seed paste and cashew paste are preferably cooked in mustard oil.
South Indian cuisine : South Indian cuisine is distinguished by a greater emphasis on rice as the staple grain, the ubiquity of sambar and rasam (a dish in liquid form prepared with herbs and/or spices, tamarind paste, turmeric and/or tomato and/or dhaal, also called chaaru/saaru and rasam), a variety of pickles, and the liberal use of coconut and particularly coconut oil and curry leaves.
Western Indian cuisine : Western Indian cuisine has three major regions: Gujarati, Maharashtrian and Goan. Maharashtrian cuisine has mainly two sections defined by the geographical sections. The coastal regions, geographically similar to Goa depend more on rice, coconut, and fish. The hilly regions of the Western Ghats and Deccan plateau regions use groundnut in place of coconut and depend more on jowar (sorghum) and bajra (millet) as staples. |
