Similar Posts

24 Comments

  15. Why Indian cuisine is so diverse?

    Well the answer lies in geography and history.

    Look at western food groups which minly consume lentils and millets a lot. It's simply due to climate and the fact the western hemisphere of India was mainly dominated by rajashthan which had barely any coastline causing much of the western Indian cuisine to not have seafood at all.

    Look at northern food groups who use a lot of different varieties in their food which is mostly vegetarian. The non-veg part was mainly introduced after Mughal invasions.

    Southern cuisine is dominated by seafood and rice which were easily available in south india. There is also use of multiple lentils and dals. Lot of different recipes can be found in the ancient sangam literature also.
    Eastern India more specifically bengal has been dominated by grains and fishes due to historicla presence of rivers (now in bangladesh) and closeness to shores.
    The far east had a sad history under British which changed their diet and cuisine due to famines under the british raj. But you can find mountain based products easily available in their cuisine.

    In china too the cuisine is very similar to north eastern style, not because of chinese influence but their own history. China has many dishes which use dogs, cats , ants, snakes,etc. but that's because of the large number of casualties and famines caused in chinese wars and successions. Which was a similar case in the far east of India during british raj.

Leave a Reply