India International Food & Wine Show, presents the most suitable and qualified platform for you to mark your entry or consolidate your presence in the Indian market

INDIAN FOOD FOR SUAVE PAIRING
- by Sabina Sehgal Saikia (The Times of India)

There is perhaps no cuisine that is more misunderstood than Indian cuisine. For starters, quite literally, there is a singular absence in the Indian cuisine repertoire of the phenomenon which appears to have captured the western world's imagination and which goes by the nomenclature of "curry''! This suspicious Epicurean epitome of Indian food is a creation entirely divorced from the subcontinent. Similarly, if you asked the average Indian what the psychedelic Chicken Tikka Masala is, you'd probably get the answer: Now, what's that? Never heard of it!

Of course, there would be those who would argue that no cuisine is frozen in time, it constantly evolves and is the ever-changing result of a myriad influences. To that extent, the resounding popularity of the ubiquitous Indian curry and Chicken Tikka Masala -- in the UK for instance – may be as valid as the centuries-old Awadh Dum Biryani or a Hilsa cooked in Mustard Sauce -- in India.

Whichever side of the argument you might take, there is no denying that, as it happens, the concept of a generic Indian cuisine doesn't exist at all. Quite like most world cuisine, Indian food too varies -- often dramatically at that – from region to region, being influenced by history, climate, tastes, proximity to a river or sea…. So if you have the lard-rich mutton dishes of Tabak Maaz, Gustabas, Rishtas and

Rogan Josh in the mountainous reaches of the Kashmir valley, you have the lighter fish jhol and rice, Kosha Mangsho and Chorchoris in the temperate, humid regions of the East. In equal measure, you have the spicy offerings – which get spicier as you traverse down the Western coastal belt of India -- the coconut-infused Prawn and Fish curries of Goa give way to the more intense and spicy flavours of the South – the Mangalorean Gassis, the Andhra pickles, the fiery Malayali Karimeen, the Mulakusathams, the Rasams, the Inchi Curry…. Yet, given the climate and the gastronomical compulsions of the inhabitants, a typical South-Indian meal ends with the Thayairsadam, the compulsary, cooling curds (yoghurt) and rice.

The most omnipresent of all, of course, is North Indian Cuisine -- more specifically Indian food as influenced by the successive invasions from the North Western Frontier. The Kebabs of different hues, for instance, with each having evolved around a story quite its own – such as the melt-in-the-mouth galaoti which was ostensibly created in the

Awadh region for a toothless Nawab who couldn't satiate his lust for them, at a time when dentures were yet to be invented! A later-day variation of the kebab, thanks to the displaced post-partition Punjabi, was the tandoor and the singular most-popular Indian dish – the Tandoori Chicken. Much as aficionados might turn their nose up to the contribution of the Punjabi to popular Indian cuisine, the three dishes that pretty much sum up Indian cuisine today are Butter Chicken, Dal Makhani and Tandoori Chicken. Add to that the breads, the Naan and the Tandoori roti and you have a composite meal which is the hottest seller from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Bombay to Calcutta!

Other than these regional variations, there are a multiplicity of cooking styles, mediums, utensils, spices, herbs – each lending just that subtle difference from region to region, village to village, family to family and house to house. It's a complex business, this Indian food! Curry on discovering it!

For more information log on to :
http://www.lotusexhibitions.com