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

I think that one should distinguish between "spicey" and "hot." You can have plenty of spices and not have huge heat. I think that North Indian cooking is exemplary of that. South Indian, from my experience, uses a level of chilli that masks other flavors. There have been a few jabs by one poster about westerners inability etc etc and also that everything is boiled. Thank you other posters who have actually been in the West for correcting.

I would like to also point out that what some feel is Indian cooking is actually on some continuum of evolution. Prior to the Portugese bringing food stuffs to India in approximately 1500, there was NO chilli, eggplant, potato, tomato in Indian cooking. I asked a knowledgeable friend from Sri Lanka and she said what was traditionally used in South Asian cooking was black pepper. So now this has changed. As to genones, perhaps the correct genome is black pepper and not chilli?

Another note on blandness: I know of nothing more bland that the idli.

 

Tashi,

Good one.

But you know that we dont have idly alone right ;-) we have all sort of spicey hotttttt chutneys to go along with every bite of that small idli ;-)

 

Nandhu:
Yes I know you don't have them alone. My God, you have to give them some flavor somehow!

 

Darmesh
Most of the Indians in the Western countries do not relish the bland food as in the Western cuisine, but some are trying to adapt to the food may be out of necessity. But you can see such Indians making long lines during weekends in the Indian restaurants or the cafeteria in the Hindu temples where there is a spread of mouth-watering aroma of the Indian foods which is highly irresistible.

Dear honeycomb.
Relishing foods depend on one's taste and like. Accordingly, you might like good number of foods in the Western cuisine but really not many. As mentioned, some of them, particularly the job holders, go for Western foods out of necessity as they hardly find time to cook various delicacies of the Indian cuisine. And these people go to Indian restaurants and cafeterias in the Hindu temple during weekends.

 

I'm a non vegetarian, that might explain why I enjoy bland food as well. My favourite western dishes are of Italian origin like lasagne, pasta carbonara, pizza, risotto, ravioli. I also like a good sunday roast, steak pie, irish stew, quiche and fish & chips.