A peek into the regional cuisines of India.

OVERVIEW

Any individual who would love to have a dissimilar culinary experience, should visit India. The wide range of food you get in this country is colossal. The Indian cuisines can be divided into North Indian cuisine and South Indian cuisine. The North Indian cuisine include the Punjabi cuisine, Rajasthani cuisine, Bhojpuri cuisine, Bihari cuisine, Mughlai cuisine, and the cuisine of states of Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh. The North Indian cuisine consists of  some notable food ingredients like potatoes, bread, spinach, paneer, cauliflower. Mostly it comprises of vegetables and rotis. They also use a lot of predominant masalas like aamchur, garam masala and chaat masala. The role of dairy products is not be missed, they are consumed in different forms like, cream, cottage cheese, milk, yogurt and ghee. The oil used for cooking are mustard oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and ghee. The street food in North India also plays a prominent role, the street food scene is totally a different world when it comes to the lives of the people in India. Some of customary street foods are vada pav, samosa, chole bhature, paani puri, kachori, and chaat items. There are few staple food in north india which are like a standard foods, like naan, biryani, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala. The desserts include gulab jamun, jalebi, ras malai, kheer.

Whereas the South Indian cuisine comprises of the Telugu cuisine, Tamil cuisine, cuisine of Kerala and Karnataka. South Indian cuisine is altogether a different world from the North Indian. As all the southern states have a coastline, they have a strong insertion of seafood in their cuisine. They include seafoods like shrimp, pomfret, shark, skate, catfish and salmon. The food cooked in South India has some of the conventional cooking styles. A quintessential Southern food will have coconut, banana leaf, jaggery, curry leaves and a lot of spice in it. A banana leaf is used to serve food traditionally, and this is followed as a customary. Ingredients like tamarind, ginger, garlic, urad dal, coconut, green chillies are frequently used in the process. The incorporation of spices in the food is vital in this cuisine. The common spices include cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, pepper, and cloves. Foods like idli, pesarattu, rasam, appam, masala dosa, puttu are widely consumed. The snacks include vada, bonda, murukku, paniyaram, kara sev. The desserts come as kesari, pal payasam, mysore pak, coconut burfi. The accompaniments for the rice also have immense relish, like sambhar, chutney, kootu, poriyal.

DELHI

This metropolis has got a strong roots of Mughals from the past, it is for this very reason the food in this city consists of foods that are influenced from Mughals. The flavorful authentic food here filled with chaats, chole bhature and kebabs. The street food is the heart of this city. Chandni Chow is know as the street food capital of Delhi. Bishan swaroop’s aloo chat, paranrhe waali gali, Kuremal mohan lal kulfi, Jung Bahadur Kachori Wala, Old Famous Jalebiwala, Prince’s Paan and Chaat Corner are some of the familiar food stalls with a long history and a huge popularity.Chole bhature, golgappe, poori aloo, kachori, aloo chaat, kebab, paranthe, rabri faluda, momo, jalebi, bhel puri are some of the lip smacking street food and drinks you get in this city. The origin of foods like kulfi and kebabs took place in this city during the Mughals period. The blissful tastes of tandooris and butter chicken is a never ending love story in this city. Also Delhi is one of the few cities to have a cuisine with a mixture of various cultures.  

MAHARASHTRA

The flavor of Maharasthra is  coalescence of Konkani and Varadi cuisine. The Konkani cuisine is prepared in the coastal line of the Arabian Sea and the Varadi cuisine consists of foods made in the interior parts of Maharashtra. So the demography of the state has its effect on its cuisine. Despite the differences in these two cuisines they have a distinct flavor of their foods. The inclusion of peanut oil in their vegetables is their quotidian dishes. Like most of the parts of the country Marathi cuisine includes masalas and coconut, kaala masala is one such masala that is used regularly in their cooking. The Marathi cuisine avoids roasting and prefers their veggies to be steamed. Puranpoli, masaley bhat, taambda rassa, varan soup are some of the quintessential foods of Marathi cuisine. Pav bhaji,vada pav, misal pav, sabudhana kichdi are the famous foods from the streets of Maharashtra.

BENGALI

Something that strikes immediately about Bengali cuisine is the conventional love they have for fish and that is because of the extensive rivers in the region. However, West Bengal is not only about fish, they have a variety of regional cuisines to relish. The Bengali food encompases wide range of spices and ingredients like halud (turmeric),  jira (cumin), dhone (coriander) , kalo jeera (black onion seeds),, shorshe (mustard), poshto (poppyseed), methi (fenugreek), mouri (fennel),, ada (ginger), narikel (ripe coconut)  and a combination of five spices called Panch phoron which comprise of cumin, black jeera, black mustard seeds, fenugreek  and fennel. An average Bengali household involves four meals a day breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. Two sequences of food are commonly followed, one for ceremonial dinners such as a wedding and the day-to-day sequence. A standard Bengali meal will consist of starters like shukto (soup with mix of veggies and ginger-mustard sauce), some steamed vegetables called shak and some dal. The main course involves fish, meat and eggs accompanied with rice. Additional to the main course a quintessential chutney with punch of sweet and tangy is also served. Bengal is famous for its desserts like mishti doi, Roshogolla, Shôndesh, Chômchôm  and Ras malai.

TAMIL NADU

Tamil Nadu is a southern state that is rich in culture and traditions with numerous temples. A meal that is pre-eminent and popular in this region is the breakfast they serve. Generally for breakfast dosa and idli (made from urad dal) are served with sambhar (lentil soup) and wide variety of chutneys. Apart form these archetypal dishes the sub-cuisines like chettinad and karaikudi dishes add a distinct flavors to them. Chettinad has some peculiar dishes with a decent amount of tanginess and spicy like vazhaipoo meen kuzhambu (fish), milagu kozhi varuval (chicken), kadai fry (quail). the delicacies like paniyaaram, idiyappam, kozhukattai are something not to be missed. Like other southern states rice is staple item in their food and the rice is often served with different range of kuzhambu (curries). The rice and curry is accompanied with kootu which is mostly done with vegetables. A proper tamil meal will consist rice, sambhar or kuzhambu, rasam and curd with some kootu. The snacks of this region are Masala Vada, Bajji, Pakora, Bonda. Often the meal is served on a banana leaf which makes it easier for the person eating to reach out all the food items on the leaf.

Kashmir

Kashmir is known for its scenic landscape and delightful weather, the food here is also similar to its geographical beauty.  Kashmiri cuisine is broadly divided into two, one being the Kashmiri  Muslim cuisines and the other Kashmiri pandit cuisines. The customary non-veg meals are something that is present in every family gathering meals. Kashmiri meals have got some influences from Afghanistan, Persia and the Mughals had a grater impact in the cuisine. Rogan Josh, a lamb based dish is common in the household of Kashmir and Ghostabeh, Riste, Matschgand are some of the food made as meatballs and curry with chilies. When you talk about Kashmiri cuisine you just cant miss out the Kashmiri wazwan, a traditional meal with diverse foods usually served in the weddings. A normal wazwan meal will generally have seek kabab, Tabak- maaz (lamb ribs), Daeni Phoul (mutton), riste (meatballs),  with a a finishing dish Ghustaba (mutton balls cooked in curd and some spices). The Kashmiri delicacies involves phirni (a dessert with milk, rice and cardamom) , roth (a roti with rice and sugar), sevaiyaan (a Muslim dessert Made with vermicelli and milk this dish is especially made during Eid celebrations).

NORTHEAST INDIAN

Apart from some of the familiar cuisines we commonly see, northeast cuisine is slightly different from them just like their geographical difference from other states. The Northeastern cuisine comprises of Assamese, Manipuri, Sikkimese, Mizo, Thukpa, Meghalaya and Naga cuisine. Unlike other parts of India there are no spices or masala used rather the food here is less spicy and a bit bland. A lot more often used method of cooking in the Northeast is to steam the veggies and meat. As the Northeast shares its border with Burma, China, Tibet and Nepal the cuisine has incorporated some of their foods like dumplings and noodles, they also prefer less of the spicy flavors. The Northeast people use a minimum amount of ingredients to cook their food efficiently. Some of the common dishes of the region are Narasingha masor jhol (fish gravy), Awan bangwi (rice cake wrapped in banana leaves),Smoked pork ribs, Galho (rice and lentils), Kumurat diya Hanhor Mangxo (duck curry), Tenga Fish, Chikhvi (deep-fried bamboo shoots and sliced pork) and any meal of Assam is incomplete without Khar, This is prepared out of the combination of red rice, beaten pulses as well as raw papaya with some additional spices to it. The states in Northeast has got some tasty desserts like Goroor Payash (rice, cashews and ghee), Qubani Ka Meetha (dried apricots), komolar kheer made with almonds, sugar, milk and orange pulp. Most of their desserts are made with ingredients like rice, milk and sugar like the Bora Chaulor Payas and Rice Payas.