5 Interesting Facts About Indian Cuisine And Food Traditions

The history of traditional Indian cuisine is as old as our civilization. This very appetizing past is rooted in social custom, religious belief, and the influences of those who invaded our land and brought to it their food traditions.

Traditional Indian Food History

India has one of the longest and strongest food traditions in the world. India’s known food history dates thousands of years to beyond the Indus Valley Civilization. Historical texts on the civilization point toward the use of wild grains, herbs, and plants used by the inhabitants of the cities of this period. The people of the region cooked with oil and used salt, pepper and turmeric root in their preparations. Not only that, but pulses like wheat, barley, and rice also found their way into the clay pots of the era. As for the vegetables, eggplant and cucumber were part of the perpetrations as well along with edible wild berries and roots.

The Exotic Land of Spices

Centuries before the ancient cities of Greece and Rome had been discovered, ships were sailing out of India carrying spices to Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt. There was a land route as well popularly known as the spice route. In India the role of spices and herbs, in fact, goes well beyond just traditional cooking, many spices and herbs used in Indian cooking have therapeutic value as well. Ancient Ayurvedic texts are replete with examples of the use of herbs in curing illness. From the now internationally recognized turmeric to ginger and pepper the ‘Indian spice garden’ is not only an important ingredient in the recipe list but a healer of illness as well. India is rightly called the Land of Spice. No country in the world produces as many varieties of spice as India does.

Eating with Your Hands

This tradition of eating with your hands has its roots in the Indian medicine tradition of Ayurveda. Eating is supposed to be a sensory experience that evokes the added feeling of touch to the sights smells and sounds of the meal. Feeling your food becomes a way of signaling to the stomach that you are eating. It is documented in the Vedic texts that this, in turn, helps in stimulating the digestive juices in the stomach. Besides India, it is also common in some parts of Africa and the Middle East.

The Complete 3-Course Meal

According to Indian Food Tradition, every complete Indian meal will have 6 different flavours to it. Indian food is a fine blend of sweet, salty spicy, sour, bitter and astringent. A proper traditional Indian meal is a perfect balance of all 6 flavors in which different flavors are highlighted during the course of the meal.

This Curry Has an Indian Flavour

The word curry is an anglicized pronunciation that finds its origins in Tamil an Indian language where the word ‘Kari’ literally refers to a spice blend used for a sauce in which vegetables or meats are cooked. Traditionally the spices or herbs used in a curry included dried hot chilies, coriander, cumin, and turmeric. All of these used in a measured manner to form a sauce along with onions and tomatoes in many cases. In India, eating is an elaborate ritual and a very important part of the Indian cultural identity. At The Yarra Indian Restaurant, it is our singular mission to help you explore some of the ancient food traditions from our exotic land. All you have to do is, come to The Yarra Indian Restaurant! Source: thecurrydoor