A portrayal of the many tastes and flavours it represents would be much
like the six blind men in the story trying to describe an elephant.
To begin with, given India's cultural, religious,
ethnic, geographic and climatic diversity, it is hard to describe
Indian food under a single catch - all title. The British, in an
overly simplified attempt, called all Indian food 'curry'. It is
much like saying that all Western food is roast beef and potatoes. Basically, Indian food is the inspired use of ingredients
meant to bring out in every meal the six main flavours or rasas - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. The inherent heating and cooling properties of
food also
determine when in the year they will be served - dahi - based(curds/yoghurt) preparations are recomended in summer, while
dried fruits and nuts feature in winter meals, particularly in north
India.
Indian food is not so much hot as it is spicy.
Of course, no two cooks agree on the balance of spices to be used.
In all, some 25 spices, herbs and condiments, always added in a
specific sequence, produce wonderfully aromatic and excitingly flavoured
Indian cuisine.
Very loosely, the food habits of Indians revolve
around the wheat - eating north and the rice eaters of the south
and east. Western India draws a mix of both.
