50 Fun Facts About Indian Food

Delhi's Moti Mahal restaurant is credited with inventing which curry by simmering leftover tandoori chicken in tomato gravy?

Butter chicken has two claimants, Moti Mahal's partners Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi: in 2024 Gujral's family took Jaggi's heirs to court over which man first rescued leftover chicken with gravy.

Which Hyderabadi stew of slow-pounded grain and mutton is widely eaten to break the Ramadan fast?

Haleem reached Hyderabad with Arabs who served the Nizams, as a version of the Arab dish harees, and took on local spices; it won geographical indication status in 2010.

Where in a tandoor does naan bake?

On the wall: the flattened dough is pressed onto the hot clay inner side of the oven, where it bakes flat, scorched on one face and puffed and blistered on the other.

Tandoori chicken is marinated in spices and what before it goes into the oven?

Yogurt and a spice blend coat the skinned chicken before it is skewered and roasted over charcoal; the famous red comes from chilli powder or simply from food colouring.

Biryani is thought to descend from a rice dish from which cuisine?

Persian: the name comes from biryan, 'roasted' or 'fried', and the dish is thought to have grown out of pilau in the Mughal court kitchens, though some argue it reached South India earlier.

Vindaloo takes its name from a dish brought to Goa by which European colonisers?

The Portuguese brought carne de vinha d'alhos, meat pickled in wine vinegar, and the name wore down to vindaloo; the 'aloo' has nothing to do with the Hindi for potato, though some cooks add potatoes because of it.

Rogan josh is a signature dish of which Indian region's cuisine?

Kashmir: rogan josh anchors the multi-course wazwan feast, its red coming from mild local chillies and alkanet rather than tomatoes; the dish came north with Mughals escaping the summer heat of the plains.

Which cooking technique defines a korma?

Braising: the meat is seared, then cooked long and slow in very little liquid; kormas began in the Mughal court kitchens and were later toned down for Anglo-Indian and then British tastes.

A dosa is a South Indian crepe made from a fermented batter of rice and what?

Lentils, hulled and soaked, are ground with rice and left to ferment overnight, which gives the thin, crisp dosa batter its slight tang.

Which soft, steamed rice cake is South India's classic breakfast, served with coconut chutney?

Idli may not be Indian in origin: one food historian has suggested the fermenting and steaming came from Indonesia, since Indian recipes before 1250 use neither rice, a long ferment nor steam.

Which fried pastry did Ibn Battuta describe at the 14th-century Delhi court, stuffed with minced meat, almonds and pistachios?

Samosa: he knew it as sambusak, a small pie served before the third course of a royal meal, and around 1300 the court poet Amir Khusrau wrote that Delhi's nobles relished samosas made with meat and ghee.

What sets naan apart from an everyday chapati?

It is leavened: naan dough rises with yeast before baking in a clay oven, while a chapati is unraised flour-and-water dough cooked on a griddle, then puffed up over direct heat.

Chapatis are made from atta, which is milled from what?

Whole wheat: atta is milled from the entire kernel, bran included. The chapati's own name comes from a Hindi word for pressing flat, after the way the dough is slapped between the hands.

Traditional papadums are made from the flour of which pulse?

Black gram flour is worked into a dough, shaped into thin rounds and dried, traditionally in the sun; the brittle discs are then deep-fried or flipped over an open flame until crunchy.

How is paneer made?

Paneer is made by curdling milk with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, then draining and pressing the curds; the acid-set cheese does not melt, so cubes keep their shape when fried or simmered.

What is ghee?

Ghee is clarified butter: butter simmered until its water evaporates and the milk solids brown and settle, leaving a pure, long-keeping fat that withstands high heat.

What does 'garam masala' literally mean?

Garam masala literally means hot or warm spices: the warmth comes from dry-roasted pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cumin, and cooks usually stir the blend in just before a dish is finished.

Masala chai is made by brewing which kind of tea in milk and water with spices?

Black tea became an everyday drink in India only in the 20th century, after the planters' Indian Tea Association promoted it at railway stations, where vendors took to adding large amounts of milk and sugar.

What are dals?

Dals are dried, split pulses, and the name says so: it comes from a Sanskrit root meaning 'to split'. The same word also covers the soupy stew cooked from them.

What does the Hindi word 'thali' literally mean?

Thali literally means a plate or tray; the word came to stand for the whole meal of small dishes arranged in bowls on the round metal platter.

By what other names is the street snack pani puri known?

Golgappa and phuchka are the northern and eastern names for the same snack: a hollow fried shell is filled, dunked in spiced water and eaten whole in a single bite.

Vada pav, a fried potato dumpling in a bread bun, is the most famous street snack of which city?

Mumbai: Ashok Vaidya is often credited with opening the first vada pav stall outside Dadar railway station in 1966, selling a cheap meal that could be eaten on a crowded commuter train.

Which two Indian states have both won geographical indication status for their versions of the rasgulla?

West Bengal got 'Banglar rosogolla' in 2017 and Odisha 'Odisha rasagola' in 2019, after a long feud over who invented the syrupy cheese ball.

Dhokla, a steamed savoury sponge, is native to which state?

Gujarat: dhokla batter of rice and split chickpeas is left to ferment and is then steamed rather than baked, which gives the cake its light, spongy crumb.

Gulab jamun is made mainly from khoya, which is what?

Milk reduced to a soft dough: khoya is milk simmered in an open pan until the water has gone. Gulab jamun means 'rose berry', after its rose-water syrup and the dark jamun plum.

How is jalebi batter shaped as it goes into the hot oil?

Piped in pretzel-like spirals into hot fat, the coils fry crisp and are soaked in syrup; the sweet is thought to have come from West Asia, where a recipe was written down by the 13th century, and Indian texts mention it from about 1450.

Kulfi is denser than ice cream because it skips which step?

Churning beats air into ice cream as it freezes; kulfi's boiled-down milk is poured into moulds and frozen still, so it sets dense and melts more slowly.

The word chaat comes from a Hindi verb meaning what?

Chaat comes from the Hindi verb chaatna, 'to lick' or 'to taste', as in licking your fingers clean after a tangy street snack.

Kheer, or payasam, is what kind of dish?

A rice pudding: kheer is rice simmered in sweetened milk. In legend, the payasam served at Kerala's Ambalappuzha temple repays a king's chess debt to Krishna, grains of rice doubled on every square.

Which spice, hand-picked each autumn around Pampore, tints biryanis and festive sweets gold?

Saffron is the dried stigma of a crocus: each flower yields just three threads, which can only be picked by hand, and that labour makes it the most expensive spice in the world.

Which tamarind-soured South Indian stew of pulses and vegetables is the classic partner of a dosa?

Sambar simmers pigeon peas and vegetables in tamarind broth; one legend has it first cooked at the Maratha court of Thanjavur, tamarind standing in for the usual souring fruit, and named after a guest, Shivaji's son Sambhaji.

Turmeric belongs to which plant family?

Turmeric belongs to the ginger family, Zingiberaceae; like ginger it grows as a rhizome, which is boiled, dried and ground into the deep yellow powder that colours curry powder.

Which chai spice, native to southern India, did a German planter introduce to Guatemala?

Cardamom thrived in Guatemala, which went on to out-produce India and ships almost its whole crop abroad, while India eats most of its own.

Asafoetida, or hing, is used in Indian cooking as a substitute for which two ingredients?

Garlic and onion: asafoetida's sulphurous smell, nicknamed 'devil's dung', mellows in hot oil into a savoury allium-like flavour, which is why Jains and others who avoid alliums rely on it.

The name basmati comes from a Hindi word meaning what?

Fragrant is the literal meaning, and the scent is real: basmati is unusually rich in an aroma compound, 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, that also gives pandan leaves their smell.

Guinness World Records named which Indian chilli, known in English as the ghost pepper, the world's hottest in 2007?

Bhut jolokia tops a million Scoville units; Indian defence scientists later packed it into chilli grenades for crowd control, and hotter peppers such as the Carolina Reaper have since taken the record.

Which foods did European colonisers introduce to India from the New World?

Tomato, potato and chilli all crossed from the Americas after Columbus and reached India with European traders; before that, Indian cooks took their heat from black pepper and long pepper.

According to its best-known origin story, chicken tikka masala was invented at the Shish Mahal restaurant in which British city?

Glasgow: chef Ali Ahmed Aslam said he improvised the sauce for a customer who found his chicken tikka too dry; in 2001 Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called the dish 'a true British national dish'.

The balti, a curry cooked and served in a thin steel wok, was developed in the 1970s in which English city?

Birmingham: its cluster of balti houses became known as the Balti Triangle. The name is usually traced to the Hindi and Urdu word for a bucket or pail, though the pan itself is a small wok.

What do the famous dabbawalas of India's biggest city deliver?

Home-cooked lunches: the tins are collected late in the morning, moved by bicycle and train and returned empty by afternoon, sorted by painted colours and symbols rather than written addresses.

Pav bhaji is said to have begun as a quick lunch for which workers?

Textile mill hands are said to have been its first customers: their lunch break was short, so a vendor came up with a cheap, light dish of spiced vegetables and bread rolls, which later moved into restaurants.

A Kerala sadya, the Onam feast of two dozen or more dishes, is traditionally served on what?

A banana leaf holds the sadya, and every dish has its set place on it, pickles at the top left, so servers can tell at a glance what needs refilling; the leaf is folded shut when the meal is over.

Bhel puri, the tangy street snack sold on city beaches, is built on a base of what?

Puffed rice is the base, with crisp puris, sev and sweet-sour chutneys; vendors add the ingredients one at a time, at the last moment, so that each keeps its own texture.

Which fudge-like sweet of chickpea flour and ghee was reputedly created by a Karnataka palace cook?

Mysore pak is said to have been the work of Kakasura Madappa, cook to Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV; in one telling, asked what his new sweet was called, he made up the name on the spot.

Litti, a roasted dough ball stuffed with spiced sattu and served with chokha, is a staple of which state?

Bihar: litti is eaten with chokha, a mash of roasted aubergine; local legend has Rama eating the dish at Buxar, where pilgrims still cook it on the yearly Panchkosi pilgrimage.

The Tamil rice dish pongal, cooked for the harvest festival of the same name, literally means what?

Pongal means 'to boil over' in Tamil: newly harvested rice is cooked in milk until it spills over the rim of the pot, and the dish is offered to the gods before anyone eats.

Bebinca, Goa's layered Christmas pudding, is made from coconut milk, sugar, ghee, flour and which other ingredient?

Egg yolks enrich the batter, which is spread and grilled one thin layer at a time, traditionally seven to sixteen layers in all, which is why making a bebinca is such slow work.

Kedgeree, the British breakfast of rice, smoked fish and eggs, takes its name from which Indian comfort dish?

Khichdi, rice boiled with pulses, gave kedgeree its name and its base: the British of colonial India took it home and turned it into a breakfast of flaked smoked haddock and hard-boiled eggs.

Which chilled Punjabi drink comes sweet, salted or blended with mango?

Lassi was traditionally served in a kulhar, an unglazed clay cup thrown away after one use; at Holi, licensed shops in Uttar Pradesh sell bhang lassi, a version laced with cannabis.

The word chai, as in masala chai, goes back to the word for tea in which language?

Chinese gave both words: Mandarin chá passed into Hindi as chai, while 'tea' comes from te in the Amoy dialect of coastal China, by way of Malay and Dutch traders.