Food

The main foods of India include rice, wheat, millet and vegetables such as chickpeas, beans, pigeon peas or lentils.  Most meals consist of rice, which is grown in paddi fields or dal, a porridge made with the vegetables mentioned above.  They also enjoy soft, wheat flour pancakes called chapatis.  Some other breads are made from rice or pulse flour.  When Indian people want to have a snack, they usually eat samosas, deep - fired pastries stuffed with potatoes, vegetables or meat.

Chicken and lamb is eaten for special meals.

Indian people like hot food.   Spices are important in their cooking.  The word curry comes from the Indian kahri, meaning spice sauce.  There are over 100 spices.  Some of them are pepper, ginger, coriander, cumin, clove, sesame and chilli.  Can you think of any more?  Whether the curry is hot or mild depends on the mixture and amount of the spices.  Chutneys which are a mixture of fruit and spices, flat bread called naan or cool raita, which is yoghurt mixed with fruit and vegetables are served with the meal.  

The Madras curry which is very famous and very hot is called after the city in which it is made.  Can you find Madras on the map?

Tea is a favourite drink in India although the Indians in the south prefer coffee.