Around the world in an Indian plate
What if you could experience the world on a plate? From the sands of Arabia to the far away world of south and North America, and pretty much everything in between, and all around - you will find the world in your plate if you just look.
The story of foreign influence on Indian food is a story written all over the world and across millennia of history. It is a culinary ride that leaves you dizzy and exhilarated. It is a veritable time machine that transports you to a different world in a different time.
Our first taste of the foreign flavor was in the times of antiquity. Trade with Greeks, Romans and Egyptians gave us many of the important herbs and spices without which we cannot think of Indian food. The head of the pack - the romantic spice - saffron. By the time Alexander the great came to India, saffron was already cultivated all over northern India. Alexander wept with joy when he saw the beautiful field after field of saffron in India. Today saffron is cultivated only in Spain and India, but they used to grow as wild flowers in Persia and parts of Asia. The Mediterranean also gave us spices like fenugreek (methi) and fennel (saunf in Hindi and mouri in Bengali).
Our second influence of another world through our stomach was more than 1500 years ago from the Arabs. Arab traders were trading with Indian kingdoms (specially Keralian malabar kings) even before the rise of Islam. What did they bring us? Why they brought us coffee! an Arab contribution to the whole world actually. Even today coffee is extremely popular in South India. We changed it though, to our own way of drinking coffee with steamed milk and sugar. They also gave us asafoetida (hing) and pista. The Arab world has also left an indelible mark in Kerala's as a specialized kerala muslim cuisine.
The Arab world made another stamp on our food soon after the rise and expansion of Islam. Syrian Arab christians fleeing persecution at the hand of the muslims took refuge under the king of kerala. They left a heavy influence in the cuisine of Kerala, which might explain why Keralian food is so different from its neighbor tamilian cuisine. It also explains the prevalence of non-vegetarian food in keralian dishes. Syrian Christian dishes from kerala are richly flavored and specialize in fish, seafood, duck, lamb and chicken dishes. They are now a fascinating part of Indian cuisine. Don't forget to have some on your next trip to Kerala.
The expansion of islam sent many more refugees to India, and they all brought their food with them (cuz they tasted yummy!). After Syrian Christians arrived in India, Persian Zoroastrians were next. They gave rise to Parsi cuisine, which is a mix of Gujarati and iranian cuisines. Some say that it was the Zoroastrians who first brought biryani to India, before the muslim moghuls made is wildly popular. The dishes meld sweet and sour and spicy and salty to an unbeatable flavor. Popular parsi dishes are dhansak (mutton or chicken in lentil), khichdi (you know khichdi c'mon), patra ni machhi (steamed fish wrapped in banana leaf). Parsi's later adopted many european styles in to their cooking, but that's another story for another day (which basically means I don't know much about it). If you go to Mumbai, I suggest strongly that you visit some parsi restaurants.
Then there were hindu refugees from Afghanistan. Yes sir, Afghans were hindus and budhhist before they were converted to Islam, and I promise to tell you that story soon. And yes, it does have a lot to do with our food (think why all of a sudden hindus were not supposed to eat beef and turned vegetarian, think why there are no budhhists now in its birth nation, think why the kashmiris converted to Islam while rest of India largely did not - I will tell you all soon; don't worry). Anyway, so these hindu refugees brought with them a style of oven, which led to an entirely new stream of dishes - tandoori anyone?
The refugees were soon followed by the muslim invaders - Turks, Arabs, Persians, afghans - yep they all showed up and had a great potluck party, until the mughals showed up and broke it all up. But they left us dishes like kababs, and their own variations of the biryani.
It was now time for the big boys of the timurid mongols to revolutionize Indian cuisine. The persian-muslim-moghul gastronomic heavyweights were central asians of turkish origin (descendants of mongols). They adopted the persian culture inherited from mongols who converted to islam. They even called themselves moghuls from the persian word for mongols. They though persian culture was superior culture even though the mongols had conquered Persia (kind of like how some Indians think european culture is superior, only we didn't conquer them they did it to us). The moghuls revolutionized Indian food with their introduction of persian cuisine. From biryani, to pulao, to samosas. Rich relishes, meats with cream and butter sauces, dates, nuts, and sweets were the characteristics of Moghul food. These eventually gave way to the modern korma and the butter chicken dishes, and the whole world of mughlai cuisine. Needless to say these were all heavily indianised, and they are sooo t-a-s-t-e-e-e. There are regional variations in flavor based on the regional administrative divisions of the moghul empire, from lucknowi, hyderabadi, calcuttia, to delhi.
The mughal influence simmered and fried and "dum"ed its way in to our stomachs for a couple of centuries till the Portuguese exploded literally a "new world" of flavors on to the Indian palate. Europe had discovered America and Vasco Da Gama had found his way to India via sea. We got the taste of never before imagined flavors. For the first time in our history, we tasted chilli, potato, tomato, corn, capsicum, sweet potato, cashew nut. Portuguese also gave us refined sugar, before which we used fruits and honey as sweetener. They also brought yeast that would make our bread rise, and we would call it "double roti". We called potato batata from the Portuguese word "batata" for potato. And not to forget, we got vinegar from them! Today we cannot even imagine Indian food without these Portuguese gifts. Before the Portuguese we used black pepper and clove to add heat to our food. The chilli changed all that, and today India is one of the largest producers of chilli in both volume and variety. They also brought their cuisine, not just ingredients. Portuguese cuisine has left its mark in konkani and goan food, with their use of chilli and vinegar. The most famous of these is the vindaloo, which is an Indian mispronunciation for Vinho de Alho. It gets its name from Portuguese words vinho=wine and alho=garlic because traditionally Vinho de Alho is made with red wine vinegar and garlic. The British liked it so much than they took goan chefs back with them when they left India. Today vindaloo is the most popular and the biggest selling dish in UK. We also use the Portuguese term "pao" for bread, because they were the first to introduce leavened bread to India. For all those bengalis who wondered "what the hell does pau in pau-ruti mean?", its just Portuguese for bread.
By the way, the Portuguese also introduced the cantilevered chinese fishing nets to Kerala. You can still see them today in Cochin.
The european influence did not end with Portuguese. The British infected us with their taste for tea. With the perfect tea growing climate of north east India, we rapidly joined the ranks of tea lovers of the world. But we did changed the face of tea with an assortment of spices such as ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. The British introduced soups to our recipes. They also brought us the whiskey. We learnt how to make sandwich, cutlets, croquettes, sausages, cakes, puddings, jams, and biscuits. The British not only influenced what we ate, they also changed "how" we ate. For the first time we used knives and forks to eat, and plate instead of banana leaves to eat from. The dining table replaced the kitchen floor. The concept of afternoon tea gave us our custom of tea and snacks in the afternoon (or evening to us indians - bikel in bengali, shaam in hindi).
Indians have absorbed the foods and spices and vegetables from all over the world throughout our history, to give rise to one of the most rich and sophisticated culinary traditions in the world. As Madhur Jaffrey has said, no foreign food was rejected. It was just made Indian. I hope you enjoyed this story of how we got there. Hope you also agree that history is not boring; and sometimes it even tastes good :)
Appendix (Yeah, I'm an IT guy, I like appendixes and bullet points and tables like they were salt, chilli and sugar)
Foreign Dishes and Beverages
Foreign Ingredients
Potato (Portugese/America)
Chilli (Portugese/America)
Tomato (Portugese/America)
Maize (Corn) (Portugese/America)
Aniseed (Greek/Roman/Mediterranean)
Fennel (Greek/Roman/Mediterranean)
Fenugreek (Greek/Roman/Mediterranean)
Clove (South Asia/Indonesia)
Nutmeg (South Asia/Indonesia)
Pista (Arab)
Asafoetida (Arab)
Saffron (Greek/Roman/Mediterranean)
Vinegar (Portugese)
Refined Sugar (Portugese)
Sweet Potato (Lal Aloo)
Cashew nut (Portugese)