Indian Cuisine : South India Cuisine, North India Cousine, Eastern And Western Indian Cuisines

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India Travel

Chicken Tikka

North Indian

Masala Dosa

Your tour of India is not complete until you have sampled at least a few special dishes from the myriad delicious Indian cuisine. The diverse population and culture of India is prominently reflected in its food culture and while each one of them is distinctly different with their individual flavors, they are all equally tasty and mind-boggling.

As for all other places Indian cuisine has been influenced by environmental, social, religious and political factors and to add on to all these it has additionally incorporated the widely different food cultures of the different settlers who have ruled or inhabited India for years.

Indian cuisine is predominantly identified by the use of variety of spices and vegetables than most other culinary traditions. However, every local style is very much different and offers a wide variety of the tourist to liven up their taste buds.

North Indian cuisine is well known for its heavily spiced thick gravies. While Roti, Chapatti does the round for the regular meals luxurious version of Indian breads like Paratha, Lachha paratha, Puri, Nan, Kulcha etc are also available in most occasions.
North India is also the home to the Mughlai Cuisine, introduced by the Mughal rulers. The Biryani, Pilaf (Pulao), and the rich non-vegetarian fare introduced by the lavish Mughal rulers are still some of the all time favorites for gourmets of Indian cuisine.

Rice is the primary constituent of Eastern and Southern foods and is the staple food in most cases. Pulses, though popular all over India, get the most importance in the eastern part of India. At least five dozen varieties of pulses are used in India of which the most popular ones are chana (Bengal Gram), toor (pigeon pea), urad (black gram) and moong (green gram). People in the coastal areas of West Bengal are extremely fond of fish and it is probably the most commonly used non-vegeterian item in eastern India. The city of Kolkata is also the birthplace of the world famous sweet dish, “Rosogolla”. South Indian food has a predominance of coconut, tamarind and curry leaves and are comparatively less spicy. The south Indian delicacies comprising of famous Masala Dosa, Idli Sambar, Pongal, Wara are definitely a mouth-watering experince for anyone.

The cuisine of Western India is mainly vegeterian in nature and has considerable influence of the Marwari community from Rajasthan. The food is extremely spicy and rich, with almost everything being cooked in ounces of ghee (clarified buter). This was to make up for the lack of variety of materials in the barren deserts; however, they have done their best to get the maximum utilization of whatever was available to them. Some of the all time favorite western Indian dishes like Alloo Bhaji (Spicy Potato preparation), Dal batti (lentil dumplings oozing with ‘ghee’ dipped in dal (pulses)), Karhi “(“chickpea dumplings in yogurt sauce) are sure to tantalize your taste buds.

Indian cuisine is never complete without the sweets. Similar to the main courses the different traditions of Indian cuisine has their own sweets. While the eastern India claims the credit for the light and tasty sweet dishes prepared from chena (cottage cheese), North India has its own sweet dishes made of Khoya (thickened milk made into a dough) which are relatively heavy. 'Rasogullas', gulab jamuns', 'malai sandwich', 'chena murkhi', 'anarkali' and 'rajbogh' are just a few of the endless delicacies served. The 'mishti doi', yogurt sweetened with jaggery, is an all time favorite specialty in Kolkata.