Indian food: Why is it so incredibly good?

Everything you need to know about Indian food can be found in a single phrase in a cookbook by the otherwise reasonable Anupy Singla.

The book “Indian for Everyone” contains a recipe for Chana Aloo, a meal of curried chickpeas and potatoes. Calling the dish comforting and wholesome, she adds that it is “an easy dinner option.”

The recipe for Chana Aloo contains 19 ingredients, and two of these are complicated spice mixes that she suggests you make yourself. One of the spice mixes is created from six ingredients, the other from 17 ingredients.

That, to an Indian cook, is an easy dinner option.

On the other hand, and this cannot be stressed enough, it is this multiplicity of ingredients and the painstaking process of putting them together that makes Indian food so sublime. The dishes are built from layers upon layers of flavors, combining in an unworldly melange of complex tastes.

In other words, Indian food is worth the effort.

India, a vast and multifaceted nation with 22 official languages and nine recognized religions, is home to more than 17% of the world’s total population. In culinary terms, that means the country is not defined by one single style of cooking.

The residents of Hyderabad, in the south, are known for their biryani — rice dishes topped with shredded meats. Punjab, in the north, is where tandoori cooking comes from. Goa, on the west coast, specializes in fish and is influenced by the cuisine of Portugal, which once colonized it. Food in Bengal, in the east, is often cooked in mustard oil and is noted for the subtlety of its flavors.

The one thing that remains constant across the entire country is spice. Sometimes the food is hot, sometimes it is hotter and sometimes it is not hot at all, but it is always cooked with plenty of spices. It is the way these spices are chosen and blended together that gives Indian food its highly developed, refined sensibility.

You could spend a lifetime studying Indian food and still not learn half of what there is to know. Instead, you can make one of these dishes and just call it a day.