Were you able to leave this 'burning' lifestyle after migrating to West ?

living in shanghai for past 2 n odd years has not changed my temptation for "mucosal irritents" i love food Indian way otherwise its just pheeka pakwan which can be hardly tolerated for 1 or 2 times a week.

 

How about visiting few more states in India, and visiting few more eating places/homes to change your this view?
Its not fair to indian cuisine to pass such generalized statements/judgements. In India, both in north as well as south, there is fair usage of non-spicy gravies etc and they as for sure tasty as well. Take example of cuisine from Gujarat, they all have right amount of sweetness in them and the gujju thali is famous as well.
Explore some more and let us know what you find!

 

Ah, the everlasting food debate ...

I live myself between east and west. Visiting India often, having my indian colleauges/friends coming over. I like indian food but eating every day that stuff?! And they ask the same vice versa.

When you have a nice, delicate filee or mussels and your indian friend want to smother the thing with ginger/garlic/chili? Or you manage to get almost a western pizza and then they have spoilt it with ginger/garlic/chilithing?

 

I think it depends on what cuisine we cook. For example, a number of (almost all) Indian recipes call for chilli/pepper powders to it with the exception of desserts. Even in raita we end up putting spice mix! Its just the way Indian food is. Its not just Indian food, most of the Asian countries use strong spices. Talk about Hakka Chinese and not to mention Thai food. Of course I am generalizing since there are number of states in India.

Coming to West, yes, I was able to ease into Western/European cuisine with no problems. Things like roasted salmon or ravioli or chicken pot pie do not call for the regular Indian spices we use. You need to allow your body to enjoy other tastes. that comes with time and even then, if one person in the family likes only Indian food, we would end up cooking that on a regular basis. The taste buds and the body need time to adjust to the new change. Once that is established, its a breeze (at least for me it was).

Another point to note is that a lot of people do not like the spices we use in indian food, like garlic. Its weird though, they would have no problem having pasta which uses cloves of garlic or honey-garlic sauce which is famous. Anyway, leaving the prejudice aside, if we let ourselves open, we should have no problem accepting new tastes. Many a time we find no reason to adapt to the new food. thats totally fine too.

One last thing to note is that the comfort food would always remain Indian food.
At this point, I cannot eat Indian food on a daily basis. But is it my comfort food? Hell ya!!

 

Answer to the question is 'No'. I don't want to debate on food taste or health or quality as this is individuals choice but on other way It's also not good to say other's food as nasty or spoiled. It's your choice..I am vegetarian and could not change (would say don't want ) myself even though staying in a country where we face lot of difficulty . But I have no rights to say meat, chicken or fish is not good..It's individuals choice. I really felt bad when some one said Indians spoil food by putting some spices ..that's our choice..they may get food more tasty after putting spices (No offence means)

For me .I can not survive without spices whether it's India or America..I too like some western cuisines like Pasta, burritos etc..but can not eat as everyday meal.. after all my (that's me only) tongue like the taste of spices (specially garlic and ginger)