Ask ten people from India what “Indian food” means and you will get ten different answers. One will describe buttery naan and tandoori chicken. Another will describe steamed rice cakes and coconut chutney. A third will talk about fish in mustard sauce. They are all right.
There is no single Indian cuisine. There are dozens. Regional Indian cuisine changes every few hundred miles, sometimes every few villages. At Krish’s Indian Bistro in Sewell, NJ, our menu draws on several of these traditions, and the same curiosity is shaping Indian food trends in New Jersey. So here is the story of how one country ended up with so many kitchens.
Start with scale. India has 28 states, more than 20 official languages and around 1.4 billion people. It stretches from the snow of the Himalayas to tropical beaches, with deserts, rainforests and river deltas in between.
Expecting one cuisine from all of that is like expecting Sweden and Sicily to cook the same dinner. Five big forces shaped the differences.
People cook what grows near them.
The cool, dry plains of the north are wheat country, so meals are built around roti, paratha and naan. The hot, wet south and east are rice country, so rice appears at every meal, and is also ground into batters for dosa and idli.
In the dry west, where neither grows easily, hardy millets like bajra and jowar became the staple. That one difference in grain changes everything else on the plate. Our Indian bread guide shows how many breads came out of the wheat belt alone.
Geography decides the rest of the pantry.
India has roughly 4,700 miles of coastline. In Kerala, Goa and Bengal, fish and coconut are everyday food. In the mountains of Kashmir, long winters led to slow-cooked meat dishes and dried vegetables.
In the deserts of Rajasthan, where water and fresh greens were scarce, cooks learned to use dried lentils, gram flour, yogurt and plenty of ghee to make food that would keep for days.
This is the detail most people miss. Change the fat and you change the whole flavor of a dish.
A simple potato dish cooked in mustard oil in Kolkata and in coconut oil in Kochi will taste like two unrelated recipes.
Religion has shaped what Indians eat, and what they do not, for thousands of years.
Many Hindu communities are vegetarian, which is why India has the richest vegetarian cooking on earth. Jain food goes further and avoids onion, garlic and root vegetables. Muslim communities brought a great tradition of halal meat cooking, kababs and biryani. Christian communities in Goa and Kerala cook pork and beef dishes found almost nowhere else in the country.
Often, several of these traditions exist side by side in the same city.
India sat at the centre of the world’s spice routes, and everyone who came left something behind.
The Mughals, who ruled much of North India from the 1500s, brought Persian tastes: cream, nuts, saffron, dried fruit, kababs and slow-cooked rice. Korma, biryani and much of what we call Mughlai food comes from them.
The Portuguese landed in Goa and brought vinegar and, more importantly, ingredients from the Americas: chilies, potatoes and tomatoes. It is hard to believe, but before the 1500s Indian food had no chili at all. Heat came from black pepper and ginger.
The British added the tea habit, and gave the world the word “curry” as a catch-all for dishes that had dozens of names of their own. We untangle that in our post on the difference between curry and masala.
North India (Punjab, Delhi, Kashmir). Wheat breads, the tandoor, dairy-rich gravies. Home of butter chicken, dal makhani, paneer dishes and tandoori kababs. Most Indian restaurant menus in America lean this way.
South India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra). Rice, lentils, coconut, tamarind and curry leaves. Dosa, idli, sambar and some of the spiciest food in the country.
East India (Bengal, Odisha, Assam). River fish, mustard, rice and famous milk-based sweets like rasgulla.
West India (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan). The widest mix of all: sweet-and-savory Gujarati vegetarian thalis, Mumbai street food, fiery Goan vindaloo and Rajasthani desert cooking.
Hyderabad and Lucknow. Two cities famous for refined, slow-cooked Mughal-influenced food, especially dum biryani and melt-in-the-mouth kababs.
For all the differences, a few things tie every region together. Almost every kitchen has dal in some form, whether it is a thin yellow lentil soup in the south or a creamy slow-cooked version in the north. Almost every meal has a cooling element, like yogurt, raita or buttermilk, to balance the heat. Pickles and chutneys appear on nearly every table, adding sharp, salty or sweet contrast.
The other shared technique is tempering, called tadka or tarka. Whole spices like cumin or mustard seeds are sizzled in hot fat until fragrant, then poured over a dish at the start or the end of cooking. The spices change from region to region, and so does the fat, but the idea is the same everywhere. It is the quickest way to see how one method can sound completely different across the country.
Because many of the first Indian restaurants in Britain and America were opened by cooks from Punjab and nearby regions. Their tandoori dishes and creamy gravies became what the world knew as Indian food.
That is changing fast. Diners today are discovering dosas, regional biryanis and coastal curries. Even the classics have their own origin stories, like how butter chicken was invented in a Delhi restaurant.
The best part of regional Indian cuisine is that you do not have to choose. At Krish’s Indian Bistro, one table can hold a North Indian tandoori starter, a Mughlai-style biryani, a Goan-inspired vindaloo and a comforting Punjabi dal, all made with halal meat and fresh spices.
Our lunch buffet is an easy way to try several styles in one visit. Not sure where to begin? Read how to find the best Indian food wherever you are. Ready for the tour? Order online or reserve a table in Sewell, NJ.
