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Indian Cuisine:

Indian cuisine is synonymous with spices and herbs. Arguably considered to be the world's most diverse cuisine, each category of this cuisine is characterized by a wide assortment of dishes and cooking techniques.

Food is an important part of Indian culture, playing a role in everyday life as well as in festivals. In many families, everyday meals are usually sit-down affairs consisting of two to three main course dishes, varied accompaniments such as chutneys and pickles, carbohydrate staples such as rice and roti (bread), as well as desserts.

Diversity is a defining feature of India's geography, culture, and food and Indian cuisine varies from region to region. Generally, Indian cuisine can be split into four categories: North Indian, South Indian, East Indian, and West Indian. Despite this diversity, some unifying threads emerge in the art of Indian cuisine.

Varied uses of spices are an integral part of food preparation, and are used to enhance the flavour of a dish and create unique flavours and aromas.

The staples of Indian cuisine are rice, atta (whole wheat flour), and a variety of pulses, the most important of which are chana (bengal gram), toor (pigeon pea or yellow gram), urad (black gram) and mung (green gram). Pulses may be used whole, dehusked, for example dhuli moong or dhuli urad, or split. Pulses are used extensively in the form of dal (split). Some of the pulses like chana and "Mung" are also processed into flour (besan).

The most important/frequently used spices in Indian cuisine are chilli , pepper, black mustard seed (rai), cumin (jeera), turmeric (haldi), fenugreek (methi), asafoetida (hing), ginger (adrak), and garlic (lassan). Popular spice mixes are garam masala which is usually a powder of five or more dried spices, commonly comprised of cardamom, cinnamon and clove; and Goda Masala, a popular spice mix in Maharashtra. Some leaves are commonly used like tejpat (cassia leaf),coriander leaf, fenugreek leaf and mint leaf. The common use of curry leaves is typical of all Indian cuisine.

In sweet dishes, cardamom, nutmeg, saffron, and rose petal essence are used.