Indian food is well-loved in Malaysia and all around the world. With a delicious blend of spices and a variety of other ingredients, it has a uniqueness that cannot be matched.
It is not accurate, however, to say all Indian cuisine is alike. Indian food, like its people, has a great deal of diversity.
Most Indian Malaysians are descended from southern Indian immigrants. Correspondingly, most Indian food here has similarities to what is served in southern India.
Geography plays a big part – India is one of the largest countries in the world and is home to the second-largest population.
Naturally, over the centuries, its people came up with cuisines based on the local ingredients that were available to them.
Compared with the wet and humid lands of the south, northern India is cooler and drier. This makes it suitable for wheat cultivation, which is why flatbreads such as naan and roti are essential during mealtimes.
Southern India found a staple crop in the form of rice, which is why it is more common in southern Indian meals.
Palak paneer (spinach and cheese) and aloo ghoobi (potato and cauliflower) are the mainstays of any proud northerner’s meal. On the plates of a southern family, you will be hard-pressed to find an absence of rasam (spicy soup) and sambar (vegetable stew).
As any Indian chef will tell you, the spice rack is the kitchen’s most treasured item. North and south clash again on which spice deserves to have the most prominent space, with northerners rooting for garam masala and southerners electing sambar powder.
Likewise, while most northerners resort to amchoor (mango powder) to give their dishes a sour tinge, cooks in the south are content with using tamarind.
The favoured herb of the north is often cited to be fenugreek, while the south relies mostly on curry leaves.
Southern Indian curries tend to have a spicier taste and soupier consistency when compared with their northern counterparts. The thicker northern sauces are easier to scoop up with flatbreads, while the southern sauces easily soak into rice without turning it into mush.
History also matters, as northern India cuisine has some influence left over from the Mughal Empire, which ruled until 1857. Mughal cuisine was in turn influenced by Arab and Persian cuisines, which is why some northern Indian dishes would not look foreign to a visitor from the Middle East.
The Mughal influence can still be seen in northern food, which is rich in cream and uses generous amounts of ghee in the cooking process. Southern cuisine mostly draws influence from Dravidian culture.
Speaking of cream, yoghurt is important to both halves of India, but the south also makes do with coconut and coconut milk.
Proteins are also dependent on geography, with the south having better access to seafood. Hence the inclusion of fish, prawns and other oceanic delights in southern Indian cuisine.
Northern Indian cuisine makes good use of meat and dairy, while vegans and vegetarians tend to gravitate toward its vegetable-centric dishes.
At the end of the day, though, these are generalisations that do not do justice to each region’s cuisine. What one town calls a feast might be called heresy the next town over.
Still, there is something amazing about how age-old culinary traditions have survived the ages and are thriving in many Indian Malaysian households today. As it turns out, history is being flavoured each day in kitchens across Malaysia, India, and the rest of the world.