Cuisine

Indian

भारतीय व्यंजन

There is no single Indian dinner. The useful question is which region, which fat, which grain. A masala dosa is a fermented rice-and-lentil crepe from the south, stuffed with spiced potato. Lamb biryani is a layered rice pot with a logic that changes from Hyderabad to Lucknow. Aloo gobi is a dryish north Indian stir of potato and cauliflower. Kerala fish curry is coconut, kokum or tamarind, and curry leaf — not a tomato-cream gravy. Raita and mango lassi are yoghurt used as a cooler. Butter naan is a Punjabi restaurant bread that now appears nationwide.

The subcontinent's kitchens share spices and techniques — tempering whole spices in fat, grinding wet masalas, reducing gravies — and then disagree about almost everything else. Portuguese chilli, Mughal-period rice and meat pots, temple vegetarian cooking and coastal coconut all predate the modern republic. Restaurant 'Indian' abroad often means Punjabi-derived gravies plus a dosa on the vegetarian list. Naming Punjabi, Kerala, Bengal or Tamil cooking is the respectful start. Butter chicken belongs to that Punjabi-Delhi restaurant line; it should not stand in for the country.

Spice is structure: bloomed in oil, ground into a paste, or dusted at the end. Heat is optional; bitterness, sourness and aroma are not. Bread or rice is the centre of the plate. Vegetarian cooking is not a substitution track; it is a full repertoire of dals, vegetable fries and fermented batters. Tadka — spices crackled in fat and poured over — can finish a dal more loudly than an hour of simmering.