History of Indian food

Ask any Brit and he'll tell you our national dish is chicken tikka: a curry invented by Indian immigrants using British ingredients. For years we have loved spicy Indian food and every decent-sized town has at least one curry shop. Spices, originally used to disguise the taste of rotten meat, became a flavor in themselves: throughout Europe and Asia sauces became a sign of high-status as the rich sought to set themselves apart from the poor. Who invented the first curry and how did it become the national dish of India?

Originally posted by Nick1986 Ask any Brit and he'll tell you our national dish is chicken tikka: a curry invented by Indian immigrants using British ingredients. For years we have loved spicy Indian food and every decent-sized town has at least one curry shop. Spices, originally used to disguise the taste of rotten meat, became a flavor in themselves: throughout Europe and Asia sauces became a sign of high-status as the rich sought to set themselves apart from the poor. Who invented the first curry and how did it become the national dish of India?

curry's were largely invented by Mughals and the muslims rulers of india who came from central asia in the 15th / 16th century. In india itself the main indian cuisine that we eat in the west is known as (Mughali Cuisine)

Mughals brought with themselves central asian cuisines like kababs, pulaos etc... to India but they also innovated a lot of stuff in India in their Royal Kitchens. Basically every popular indian dish can be traced to royal kitchens of the Mughal empire. I believe BBC itself did documentary on this years ago

Of course south indian food is different


Edited by balochii - 16-Oct-2011 at 20:56

^ before muslims came, i would assume mostly vegetarian, i know only some hindus caste were allowed to eat meat. i have heard that indian food was very bland back then

Also yes there are similarities between some middle eastern dishes and mughal indian food, mostly because of the trade in the muslim world in the middle ages. India was part of the muslim world for almost a 1000 years

Don't agree that vegetarian Indian food was bland .... completely disagree with you, since I've eaten many and know the taste.  Also, agree there was influences from Middle-east food on Inidan food due to Mughal, etc rule but it created a new fusion of new flavour , thats why these food are made in India and not native of Middle - East and not eaten by them in their daily food.

Basically original Dravidian food is best and most expensive food to make. We consider any other cuisine as very inferior, especially Hindopak cuisine. Even our Veg food alone is better than anything else in the world. 

If you want to taste the food you need to have a Dravidian family connection, because 90% of Dravidian restaurants make food veryyyy cheaply. There are also private/public marriages, where you will get original Dravidian food. Don't eat anywhere outside of India. Most of these "Indian" restaurants prepare "curries" we even won't give our street dogs.

The food advertised outside of India as "Indian" food is actually eaten by only a very miniscule portion of the general Indian population and that too only on special occasions.  It should more properly be termed as Mughlai cuisine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughlai_cuisine

More about "real" Indian food:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cuisine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry


Edited by Parashuraman - 12-Nov-2011 at 21:15

Done.  Thanks .

Edited by Toltec - 15-Nov-2011 at 04:55

Originally posted by Toltec I love Indian food, when in India I live off Thalis not curry.   However curry means something completely different in India to what it does in Britain. What the British eat is highly influenced by the portuguese using new world ingredients such as chilli, potato, tomatoes, ect, that didn't exist in India before the Portuguese took Goa.   I took an Indian friend to a British Indian restaurant a while back because he wanted to try a British curry I suggested he try a Phall, he ordered a Tikka Masala, he wasn't impressed with the Tikka Masala at all and complained they took out all the spice and replaced it with sugar. I offered to share my Phall, he ate one mouthful, drank three glasses of water, went back to his Tikka Masala and said the Tikka Masala was ok after all.