Indian Cuisine is considered to be one of the three great and distinctive cuisines of the world,the two other being the Chinese and the French.To most people outside India,Indian food means curry and rice and in recent years the tandoori chicken. However in a sub-continent as vast as India with so many races,languages,customs and life-styles,the food is as varied as the country itself.Indian cuisine aims to satisfy the needs of the tongue and body from sweet to sour,bitter or hot,from heatening to cooling foods,from food for the body to food fro the brain,from food for the young and for active persons to saatvik food (which is believed to aid control of senses).Within these parameters,each region has nurtured its own culinary tastes using different combinations of spices.Also no other country in the world has developed such as elaborate and tasty range of vegetarian cuisine as India.
In addition to physical heat and cold,Indian medicine speaks of internally heatening and cooling qualities of different vegetables,fruits and cooked food.The interaction between the climate and the food has been well studied and has influenced Indian eating habits greatly.For example in hot weather, only salads are eaten in the west. On the other hand,the hotter the region in India,the spicier the food as,in order to work up an appetite,it is believed that spices and flavoring are necessary as this activates saliva as also stomach juices for digesting the food in summer. Mango,a heatening frit of summer is followed by a glass of cooling milk or buttermilk to cool the system internally.Indians mostly eat with their fingers in their home and Indian food is served on crockery,silver plates,stainless steel table-ware or the banana leaf,as in the south of India. However western style crockery and cutlery is used for service in all hotels and restaurants visited by tourists.Water always accompanies an Indian meal.however overseas tourists stick to mieral water and aerated drinks of which there are many ad beer,wine coffee or tea with their meals. Some of the popular Indian drinks are tendercoconut water,lemon juice,sweet and salted,butter milk,again sweet or spiced and fresh lime juice (the juice of a fruit similar to the orange).
Liquor is available at most restaurants especially those in hotels.It is either imported (when it is expensive) or made in India.In addition there variations like Asha,the saffron liqueur of Rajasthan and Feni,the strong brew of Goa,usually available only locally.You could live on fruits in India.In addition to those that tourists are familiar with (like the apple,banana,pear,melon and grapes), there are exotic fruits like the mango,custard apple,papaya,water-melon,pineapple sweet lime, chickkoo, jackfruit, pomello, lichees and many more.There are dozens of varieties of bananas, yellow,red and green in the markets of the south.Although the local food of the region is available at many restaurants,the cuisine of the Punjab has become standard Indian fare in most of the middle and high priced restaurants throughout the country. Similarly,Udipi restaurants serve vegetarian South Indian cuisines all over India at low prices.There are restaurants in all the major hotels which serve Indian and Continental cuisine and many offer Chinese cuisines and other specialty cuisines also. There are in addition a number of Department Of Tourism approved restaurants in cities and at major tourist centres.One of the interesting aspects of travel in India is to taste the local food of each region.For stomachs not used to spiced food,it is advisable that only one India dish should be eaten per meal the first few days and to have the chef cut down on chillies.
