Indian cuisine is the general name for the foods of the Indian subcontinent, characterized by the extensive use of various spices, herbs, and other vegetables, and sometimes fruits grown in India and also for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society.
Indian food is almost always prepared with fresh ingredients along with delicate mixtures of many different fresh and dried spices and the exact recipes often vary greatly from one household to the next.
The classification of the Indian cuisines is broadly based on the three regions-
North India, Southern parts of India and Western India.
North Indian food - A typical North-Indian meal would consist of chapatis or rotis (unleavened bread baked on a griddle) or paranthas (unleavened bread fried on a griddle), rice and an assortment of assessories like dals, friend vegetables, curries, curd, chutney, and pickles. For dessert one could choose from the wide array of sweetmeats from Bengal like rasagulla, sandesh, rasamalai and gulab-jamuns. North Indian desserts are very similar in taste as they are derived from a milk pudding or rice base and are usually soaked in syrup.
South Indian food - South Indian food, particularly Tamil Nadu, brings to mind idlis, dosas, sambhar and vada. Beside these immensely popular classics, there are more tasty fares. In south India there are hugfe numbers of vegetarian dishes. The food in this region use generous amount of spices and coconuts.The final tempering with oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilies and urad dal is similar for most of the dishes.
Western India food -
The original cuisine of western India is principally vegetarian. This is largely due to the enterprising, but strictly vegetarian, Marwari community from Rajasthan, who have now spread all over the country.Even within west Indian cuisine, there are distinct regional influences, with individual styles arising out of several states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. Climate and geography have played a role in the development of the variety of West Indian culinary traditions.
