The Indian cuisine is over 4,000 years old and is very divers, because India is a vast country with many different regions, religions, cultures and on top of that has seen several foreign invaders go in and out over the centuries. Spices are used in almost every recipe, sometimes for the taste and sometimes for the color. Recipes exist for a long time within families and every family has its own version of for instance a certain curry. In North India, the tandoori (clay oven) is very popular, whereas in South India a lot of coconut and tamarind is used. In coastal areas obviously fish is often on the menu. Indian influences can be found all over South East Asia, one example is Mussaman curry, which was exported by the Muslim community to Thailand. Currently, Indian restaurants are among the most popular foreign restaurants in Great Britain, even though there is disagreement about the authenticity of the Indian food, especially about curry. Interestingly, most of the British Indian restaurants are run by Bangladeshi, even though the Bangladeshi food is considerably different from Indian.
Special days and historical events in India, on which you may decide to serve these dishes, are 10 February, when New Delhi was made capital in 1931; 13 April, Vaishakhi; 16 May, when Sikkim became an Indian state in 1975; 15 August, India became independent from the rule of Great Britain in 1947; 2 October, Ghandi Day (1869) and 14 November, Children's Day. Click on culinary calendar for more links between cooking and worldwide history.