What are typical Indian habits, food customs, recipes and philosophies in India?

Typical Indian habits, food customs, recipes, and philosophies in India?

What are the customs in India regarding food?
What are the best recipes in India?
What are the best drinks in India?
What are notable holidays and festivals in India?
What are the remarkable habits in India?

What are the customs in India regarding food?

Make sure you don't eat with your left hand in the presence of Indians. That's happening. Indians eat with their right hand, the left hand is used to clean the bottom.
Indian food is very varied and, especially in the North, vegetarian due to Hinduism.
According to Hinduism, the cow is a sacred animal and should therefore not be eaten.
Characteristic are the many spice mixes (massalas) that you eat together with rice on coconut leaves. In the north there are mainly biryanis, tandoori and creamy sauces with yoghurt.

What are the best recipes in India?

Thalis: The thalis in the south are served on large steel plates with all kinds of small containers with spice mixtures and vegetables. This is eaten with rice, on a coconut leaf. It is also accompanied by bread (chappatis or naan) and yoghurt (raita).
Tandoori: This dish is mainly eaten in the north. It contains tandoori spices, often in combination with ordered chicken.
Naan: This is a leavened bread and is suspected in various Indian dishes.
Jalebi: Fried dough in syrup.
Dosa: Fermented pancake with vegetables, meat and sauces, a typical dish from South India.

What are the best drinks in India?

Lassi, a sweet yogurt drink that is often used to cool spicy food.
Chai (tea) is a favorite in India and is spiced differently, often with sugar, ginger and cardamon.
Numbi Pani: lime water with sugar and often salt.
Kingfisher is the most consumed brand of beer in India.

What are notable holidays and festivals in India?

Carnival: This four-day festival in February is mainly celebrated in Goa.
Independence Day: August 15 (1947) India became independent from Great Britain. There are festivities all over the country.
Navratri: This is a 9-day Hindu Festival to honor the god Durga. It is celebrated even more exuberantly in Guajarat and Marashtra. (October-September).
Naga Panchami: The snake festival. A festival celebrated by the Hindus in which they worship a real cobra or pictures of one.

What are the remarkable habits in India?

Namaste is a common way to greet, it involves pressing the palms together and bowing slightly. It means "The divine in me honors the divine in you."
Eating with your bare hands is prefered for digestion and taste and texture purpose. Eat with your right hand only (you shake hands with your right hand), with your left hand is considered dirty, you wipe your butt with your left hand.
It is custom to sit cross-legged on the floor while eating, which increases flexibility and aids digestion.
People in India wiggle with their heads, that means what it means.
Do not touch heads, that is considered not done.
Touching the feet of elders as a sign of respect and receiving blessings is widely practiced.
It is customary to remove shoes before entering homes and temples as a sign of respect and cleanliness.
Cows are holy and walk around freely everywhere.

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Recipe: Indian chapati recipy

What to do when in Diu? Borrow the flat pan from the hostel buy some flour and pick a nice spot for a campfire where you make your own chapati!

Fair is fair the local indian chapatis were way better, or to speak in Indian terms: Same, same but different.

Back in Europe though, these Indian wraps win the taste contest by far with the ones you can buy in the stores. If you can even find them in your local store.

INSTRUCTIONS

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix well.
Add 3/4 cup of the water.
Stir gently in a circular motion until the flour starts to gather.
Add 1-2 tablespoons more flour if the dough looks too sticky.
Add more water if it looks too dry and firm.
Knead the flour until it becomes soft and pliable and doesn't stick to your fingers.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for at least 1 hour, at room temperature.
Know you can make the chapatis! Heat a (flat) pan over medium-high heat.
Divide the dough into 10 equal sized dough balls.
Roll a dough ball in the flour and flatten it a bit with your hands.
Transfer the flatten ball to a clean flat surface, roll it with a rolling pin into a 15 cm disc.
Place the chapati on the pan and cook for 30 seconds or until its starts to get golden dots., flip over and cook the other side.

…and ready to serve with a delicious curry… Enjoy!

Ready In: 90 min.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour or atta (chapati flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of water
Some extra wheat flour for rolling

Recipe: Indian pumpkin curry

Years ago, long before I went to India and knew anything about Indian cuisine, I learned to make my first Indian curry in New Zealand. It tasted terrible, nothing like the Indian curry with the delicious smooth pumpkin flavour I tasted for the first time in a backpackers hostel in rural Australia.

But… after many travels and try outs, this might just be getting close to that original taste….

Directions

Peel pumpkin and scrape out seeds. Cut into bite sized cubes. Finely dice onion and tomatoes.
Heat oil in a large frying pan until very hot. Add chilli and stir fry but don't allow to blacken.
Add mustard then saute until the mustard seeds begin to burst.
Reduce temperature to medium. Saute onion for 4-5 minutes until it begins to brown. Add tomatoes and stir.
Stir in turmeric and curry (only a little at first then taste and adjust if required). Remove chilli and discard.
Add pumpkin and mix well. Add a little water and simmer covered over low heat for 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin can be pierced easily with a knife.
While cooking stir from time to time and add water if necessary. The pumpkin should not boil dry but it should not be soupy.
At this stage you can add various other vegetables like cauliflower, carrot, green peas or even potatoes. They soak up the curry taste in wonderful way.
At the end of cooking stir in coconut and season with salt and pepper.

Serve the meal on an Indian steel plate, add naan, chapati or roti and a side dish or two and your in business ;-)

Ready In: 40 min.

Ingredients: