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 Religions
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. |
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For example, Hindu Brahmins may not eat onions, ginger, garlic and meat, which meant that a special cuisine came up around that bias and so on. Whereas, Christians and Muslims favor eating meat.
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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