Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Myths About Indian Food And Why You Shouldn't Believe Them

If you have just got interested about Indian cuisine, you may have been bombarded with myths and misconceptions. Yes, it is easy to be completely mystified about what Indian cuisine is or is not. A lot of people are of the opinion that Indian food is very difficult to cook and a person who has not been born and brought up in the country will not be able to cook it. Other than this particular one, there are a lot of other myths as well, which have no relation with the truth. Here are a few myths busted about Indian food. Read on to find out what they are.

1. All Indian food is rich and oily

That is so not true. The fact is that Indian food is such that one can change the richness and the oil content according to one's wishes. If you want you can cook a dish with a single or 8 teaspoons of oil. You can add a lot of masalas into a dish or almost none at all, depending on what you want on that particular day. Moreover, India has a variety of cooking techniques that require no oil at all, like steaming, boiling, roasting, grilling, etc. Indians have a variety of beautiful techniques to cook both vegetables and meats that require minimal oil but taste wonderful.

2. All Indian food is very high on the hot quotient

This too is not true. Yes, Indian food uses 'masalas' but that is not something that makes dishes hot. One can easily change the amount of chillies depending on how hot he wants his food. In fact, most Indian dishes can be cooked without any amount of 'hotness' added to them.

3. Indian food is difficult to cook

Yes, for a beginner. But that is true of Italian and Thai food too. In fact, any new cuisine is difficult to cook for a beginner. But as with all other cuisines, once you master the basics of Indian cuisine, it becomes easy. Once you get the hang of it, cooking simple meals is not at all difficult.

4. Forget dieting when it comes to Indian food

No, that's not true at all. It is just a misconception that Indian food is unhealthy and one cannot diet while eating Indian. The truth is that a lot of simple Indian meals are very healthy and contain very little fat and lots of proteins and fiber. In fact, you can include food in your diet that is healthy very easily.

5. Curry powders synonymous with Indian cuisine

That is like saying that all Italian food contains pasta! No, curry powder is just one of the various spice mixes used in Indian cuisine. In fact, most Indian households don't even use curry powder at all, but spice mixes that suit the palate of its family members. 'Garam masala' is a much more important spice mix. Also it may interest you to know that it is possible to cook simple Indian dishes with almost no spices at all!

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