Goku: I think it’s okay, but sometimes I feel like it’s too overdone. But it’s just not about India. In America, there is something called Americanised Italian food, and there is also Americanised Indian food in the sense that it will be subtle, without bold Indian spices. So in the US the whole Italian-American cuisine started from immigrants who moved from Italy, typically southern Italy, to places like New York. And the food that was cooked when they immigrated 100, 150 years ago, or 200 years ago was a lot richer in spice, salt and garlic, because back then they didn’t have refrigerators. So everything they ate had to be preserved, and that’s why even Indian food in many places is really rich in spice and garlic, because back in the day, when there was no fridge, you just had to put in enough pickling, enough fermentation, and enough spices.
So when these immigrants moved to the US, they brought that flavour, that idea of it. Whereas in Italy, after the invention of refrigerators, after the change in times, and after the war, the cuisine evolved. Today, it is a lot more delicate, nuanced, seasonal and subtle. Whereas American-Italian food continued that tradition.
Dining and Cooking