Life without Indian cuisine is unimaginable! With its use of spices and other ingredients, you'll find indulgence in food at its best in India. Collectively, India has more dishes to offer than possibly any other culture in the world. The list of even the culinary specialities is too large to cover here, let alone mentioning all the casual food types on offer.
The wide array of dishes, with everything from colours to tastes, in Indian food culture is mind-boggling. With many regionally diversified cuisines, cooking cultures and eating habits, it is impossible to define what constitutes the 'Taste of India'. However, on the whole, it can be said that there are very distinct spices and cooking styles for a wide variety of regional and festive dishes. Spices galore can be found—strong and sweet—as India is home to some of the world's finest and favourite spices. Turmeric, cardamom, dried coriander seeds, fenugreek, tamarind and saffron are just a few which are added to mouth-watering mixes.
Staple grains, such as wheat and rice, come in a few dozen varieties and get made into a couple of hundred dishes. Even the vegetables of the daily diet are prepared and cooked with special effort and effect. Typically, Indian women spend hours in the kitchen every day making the families' usual food, as well as occasional specialities. Vegetables for daily meals come either fresh, dried or in a sauce (in wet form). They are either roasted, curried, partially cooked, deep fried, stuffed, baked, mashed or made into fritters. Home-made dishes are often exclusively vegetarian, typically involving a mix of vegetables, onions, herbs, spices and/or fruits.
More recently, Indian food has grown beyond the bounds of being just vegetarian, and often includes meat, poultry, fish and seafood. Religious taboos forbid consumption of pork for Muslims and beef is prohibited for Hindus. For this reason, at most popular restaurants, an excellent selection of vegetarian food is on the menu, as well as a good choice of meat-based dishes.
Any talk of Indian food would be incomplete without a mention of the superb, regional marmalades, pickles, chutneys and relishes. These could be a casually made mix of day-to-day spices or sauces, or an exquisite preparation of selected ingredients, spices and condiments. Invariably, these are all quite spicy, to add that tingling sensation for the taste-buds.
Sweets are another of those delicacies without which no Indian function, festival or dessert is ever complete. Made from a wide variety of assortments, typically milk products and wheat or rice flour, some of the regional specialities are a must to try.
A word of caution with Indian food though: some of the dishes could be amongst hottest, most tongue-burning things a person can ever come across! Taking things slowly initially and gradually building up your resistance to the spicy hotness is highly advisable when trying new dishes.
When visiting India, it is a good idea to seek out average restaurants, the help of local people and waiters in hotels to get an idea of the regional specialities the country has to offer, as they are so diverse.
