Cuisines of India
¤ Diverse Cuisine
All those who think Indian cuisine begins and ends with curry, get
ready for a big surprise. The character of cuisine in India is
essentially regional; reasons for this must be found in the sheer size
of the country which forced every area to develop a style of cooking
of its own. In times gone by transportation was a problem, and this
meant that each area had to come up with a style of food which made do
with the locally available materials. As a result, not only dishes,
but flavors, colors, methods of cooking, down to even the style of
cutting the vegetables prior to be cooked changes as often as the
landscape does.
¤ Cuisine Adopted By Different Religion
What has helped along this diversity is the amazing number of
religions and the sects and sub-sects within them; each of them often
have strict dietary codes. For example, Hindu Brahmins may not eat
onions, ginger and garlic, meat which meant that a special cuisine
came up around that bias and so on. Whereas Christians and Muslims
favors meat eating.
The most striking contrast in eating habits shows up between the
meat-and-bread eating northern regions and the pulse-and-rice southern
regions.
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