Indian Cuisines: India is country with many religions and diversity. With this diversity there are people from different cultures, different religions, and different beliefs. Their food differs according to their ethnicity or geographical influence. The cuisine of India can be divided into four parts according to their zones. There are four zones in India like four directions East, West, North and South. Let’s see what kind of cuisine we will get in India from different zones:
- East India: Being home to beaches and mountains, Eastern India grows lots of rice. Green vegetables and fruits are also grown here in abundant and so are the food cooked using them. People here are balanced mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian. East Indian Cuisines has the strong influence of Chinese and Mongolian cuisine. Simplicity is the style of Eastern India’s food. Preparation of food is not dilate and neither are most of ingredients used in it. Steaming and frying are the popular methods here and fist is the most lovable non-veg food over here. Some of the popular dishes in Eastern India are Momos, Thupka, Tomato Pickle, Fish Curry and Jhaal—Muri.
States included in Eastern India are: West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Orrisa.
- West India: Culturally, this part of India has largely Hindus and vegetarians. This region has the most diverse styles of cuisines in comparison to the rest of India. Gujarat’s cuisine is traditionally entirely vegetarian and it is known for its slight sweet touch. The Gujratis love snacks and cook a huge variety of them. While Gujrati Thaali can consist of as many as 10 different types of vegetable dishes, rice, chapatti and sweets. On the contrary, Rajashtani food is spicy and largely vegetarian but includes many delicious meat dishes like Red Meat Curry. Goa with its lush green coastline has abundance of fresh fish and sea food. While coastline areas of Maharashtra are famous for Coconut cuisines like Malvani Cuisine which is a fresh coconut based hot & sour curries with fish & sea food.
States included in Western India are: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa.
- North India: With the changing climate, hot in summer and cold in winters, there is abundance of seasonal food. This part of India has strong influence of Central Asian cuisine. Mughlai and Kashmiri styles are very much popular in across India and worldwide. The use of dried fruits and nuts are common here and north Indian curries are usually thick and spicy. Dairy products like milk, cream, cheese, ghee, curd and yogurt are very much common here and are very much important in daily food. People here prefer wheat based chapattis over rice. This region is known for its chapattis, stuffed paranthas, naans, bhature and kulche.
States included in Northern India are: Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
- South India: This region has hot and humid climate. People here have crush on rice. Cuisine of South India is the hottest of all India foods. Southern Indian foods are centered on rice or rice based dishes. No south Indian food is complete without rice. Tamil Nadu has Chettinad cuisine and it is the fieriest of all Indian food and this style is largely vegetarian. Kerala is famous for its Malabari cooking that includes tasty seafood dishes. On the other hand Hyderabad food is full on nuts, dried fruits and exotic, expensive spices. Dosa, Sambhar, Rasam and Uttapam are the famous dishes in south India.
States included in Southern India are: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Kerala.