Food is something that everyone enjoys, and everyone has to eat in order to stay alive and healthy. Even more, most people love to discuss food. It is a topic that can keep us engaged in conversation for a very long time. Many of you must have enjoyed Indian food at home or at Indian restaurants, especially in foreign lands.
Also, you must be familiar with a variety of Indian dishes and recipes. Well, how much is it that you actually are familiar with the long and complicated Indian food history? How many interesting facts about Indian cuisine are you familiar with? Here are a few very interesting facts about Indian cuisine that you probably did not know. Next time you enjoy your meal at an Indian restaurant, you will also have a rich history of it in mind. Let’s see what these interesting facts are.
- India is known as the “Land of Spices,” and with good reason. It is the only country that produces such a vast array of different spices.
- Greeks, Romans, and Arabs were among the first traders to introduce new flavors to Indian cuisine, and their contributions were significant. Who do you think was responsible for bringing the incredible saffron to India?
- Potatoes, tomatoes, and chili peppers are not native to India despite being fundamental components of Indian food. It was the Portuguese who were responsible for their arrival in India.
- In addition, the Portuguese were the ones who first brought refined sugar to India. Prior to that, honey and various fruits were utilized as the traditional sources of sweetness in Indian cuisine.
- Chicken Tikka Masala, a dish that is exceedingly popular Indian food near me, is actually not an authentic Indian dish. It was first developed in Glasgow, which is located in Scotland.
- In the middle of the 1960s, the United States saw the opening of its very first Indian restaurant. There are approximately 80,00 Indian restaurants in the United States as of today.
- Since the ancient language hasn’t yet been deciphered, there is too little information regarding the food and eating customs of the earliest civilization in India that has been discovered so far.
- The Indian Food Theory posits that there are six distinct flavors that can be found in our cuisine, i.e., salty, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and sharp.
- A traditional Indian meal features a harmonious combination of all six flavors, whereas one or two flavors take center stage. You now have the ability to evaluate the quality of your food when you sit down to eat at home or at an Indian restaurant.
- Chutney, a mouthwatering accompaniment in Indian food, is essential to a proper meal of authentic cuisine. But were you aware that people in Britain adored chutneys just as much as Indians do? They were so impressed with Major Grey’s chutney that they gave it its own name. It is quite famous in India, where it’s available to date.
- In Indian culture, sweets known as mithais play a significant role in both the cuisine and the festivities. Payasam is one of the most popular dessert dishes in South India, and it is traditionally served at significant events like weddings. In South Indian culture, a wedding isn’t considered complete until the Payasam dessert has been served to the guests.
- The traditional cuisine of Kashmir, known as Wazwan, bears a strong influence from Central Asian cuisine. The spices are cooked in water rather than fried, which is a distinctive feature of this method of preparation. It imparts a flavor and aroma that are unique to the food.
- Because it pairs so well with a wide variety of dishes, pepper is often referred to as the “king” of spices. When you add some salt to it, you get that tried-and-true flavor combination that we all adore. Just try to picture how tasteless our food would be if we didn’t use this spice.
- Dum pulao or dum biryani is delicious food, and people love to eat piping hot pulao and biryani. Are you familiar with where this method of cooking first appeared in India or how it evolved there? This is how it went down: The Nawab of Awadh noticed that there was a lack of food in the area, so he gave the order for food to be prepared for all underprivileged individuals using enormous handis. The handis were covered and sealed using a lid using of dough. It made it possible to prepare a large quantity of food using only a small amount of resources; however, who could have predicted that it’d one day give rise to an entirely new method of cooking that is now commonly referred to as dum?
I guess you are already feeling hungry after reading so much about food, so it is time to search “Indian restaurants near me” and heat to it to enjoy your meal.