The Road Best Traveled: Indian Cuisine

            Indian cuisine is incredibly flavorful, utilizing a variety of spices and herbs to create colorful sauces with pungent tastes. For example, chili pepper, black mustard seed, cumin, turmeric, coriander, garlic, and clove are all on hand in all their dishes. Though, of course, Indian food varies from location to location. In Northern India, dairy and lentils are main ingredients. Their most popular items include tandoori chicken and samosa. East India makes popular deserts and poppy seed foods. Southern India focuses on rice and coconut oil. Meanwhile, Western cuisine has vegetarian dishes and seafood.

            Popular Indian dishes found in America include samosas, tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, and aloo gohbi. Samosa is an appetizer, a stuffed pastry in a triangular shape. Inside, there is a mixture of potatoes, onions, pea, coriander, lentils, and sometimes meat, as well. It has been eaten for centuries. Tandoori chicken is grilled, marinated in yogurt. In contrast, chicken tikka masala, has a lot more sauce and is considered a curry dish. The sauce is orange and slightly spicy. Variations of this dish are quite common and it is considered the most popular dish in the United Kingdom. Actually, it is unknown whether or not tikka masala actually originated in India or the UK. Lastly, aloo gohbi is a vegetable dish including potatos and cauliflower with a yellow sauce.

            Naan and long grain rice are often eaten with these foods. Naan itself is like a tortilla or pita, the bread is oven baked and helps absorb the many sauces of Indian cuisine. As Indians traditionally eat their food with their hands, naan also helps scoop up all the food.

            Drinks include chai and lassi. Chai tea has a combination of spices and herbs within it, creating a strong and fragrant taste.  Meanwhile, lassi mixes yogurt, water, and milk. Mango lassi is a popular overseas invention of this type, mixing mango with yogurt.

            Indian cuisine is incredibly popular in North America, Europe, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia. Find a restaurant or try a recipe today!