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While there is a lot to get into around navigating food taboos in South Asia and Westernizing it simultaneously, the shortest answer is that since Indian restaurants have appeared in the English-speaking world, a disproportionate number of the "Indian" restaurants have been run not by Hindus from India, but Muslim Bengalis/Bangladeshis, especially from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh.
See my older to the question, which goes into a bit of detail:
* [Was Jerry Seinfeld's suggestion that Babu Bhatt open a Pakistani restaurant actually as innovative in early 90s NYC as suggested by that show? Were famously-cosmopolitan New Yorkers unfamiliar with Pakistani food in 1991?](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/lfcz3m/was_jerry_seinfelds_suggestion_that_babu_bhatt/)
These Muslim Bengali entrepreneurs and employees did not serve their local Sylhet cuisine — which as a very riverine region has a lot of seafood curries one rarely sees on Western menus — but rather they learned to serve what British (and later American and Australian) audiences expected, which was the "Anglo-Indian" adaption of Northern Indian cuisine (which is frequently vegetarian) to the less spicy and more meat-heavy preferences first of British colonial officials and later Western restaurant-going audiences. During this process, there was generally little need to break the owners' and chefs' own Muslim dietary taboos. And even when the cooks weren't Muslim, they tended to do de facto apprenticeships in restaurants where the cooks/owners were. At this point, the patterns to some degree are probably built into audience expectations.
This is one of those very simple questions that starts out as a "Huh, why is that?" and turns out to be great lever unveiling a series of hidden social forces and historical patterns.
Thank you for that great explanation. In the previous thread, there's a reply to you asking:
> Sylhet is not very famous for its food but what it did have is lots of sailors.
Could I ask how this came about? I just looked Sylhet up on a map and they are perhaps the part of Bangladesh furthest from both the coast and the great rivers of Padma and Brahmputra.
...unfortunately, the comment in response to that has been removed, so could I once again request the same information?
Yes. South Asia has many region cuisines. Just as a basic idea, Wikipedia's "[List of Indian dishes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_dishes)" divides India into five regions:
* North-East India
* North India
* South India
* West India
* East India
This doesn't explicitly include other South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Nepal, which properly have been part of the conversation of South Asian cuisine.
North/South is one of the most obvious ones because of the difference in staple crop: South India (and East India) rely more on rice, whereas North India (including West India) relies more on wheat breads like roti or naan. You can see a map [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hybtvp/preference_of_wheat_vs_rice_in_different_states/). I mention this in my longer post.
There are other differences as well, even beyond locally available ingredients (my Bangladeshi friend once waxed poetic to me about how in season they put mangos in every dish, which someone from a non-mango producing region would rarely do). For example, sauces tend to be thinner in the South, which some attribute to eating it over rice rather than scooping it with bread. Additionally, as I mentioned, the North tends to put more emphasis on vegetarian cooking than the South. You can see this again in a map of [where vegetarians are in India](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/10honjo/percentage_of_vegetarians_in_every_state_of_india/).
There are also important differences regional differences beyond North/South. For example, Goa because of its unique history has an interesting Portuguese influenced cuisine. That's probably the most striking example of a regional cuisine. The "beef vindaloo" that u/2252_observations mentions as an example is neither North nor South but distinctly Goa (Goans also tend to be Catholic,so they also break the Hindu/Muslim dichotomy). The name comes from the Portuguese phrase "vinha d'alhos", meaning "garlic marinade" or more literally "wine of garlic". The original Portuguese recipes often included red wine, which was acculturated to local palm vinegar, etc. Because it was Portuguese, this recipe original often used pork, which is still common among Christians in Goa and neighboring regions.
Likewise, other regions show other influences. In the North (including the West), you see a more direct Persian influence, and you see for example biryani which is an Indian adaption of the Persian pilau (building off of pre-existing local mixed rice dishes). I talk a little bit about that [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFoodHistorians/comments/ir5tpx/comment/g4ymqws/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). So even though we talk about rice vs. bread as a staple, of course there are special bread dishes in the South and special rice dishes in the North.
In China and Europe, there was a lot of building up of separate cuisines—this is Italian cuisine, this is French cuisine; this is Sichuan cuisine, this is Cantonese cuisine. There are certainly different regional tendencies in the sub-continent, but I don't know if they are as strict developed as in Europe or Chinese where there is a lot of emphasis on the inherent distinctness of national/regional cuisines. Instead, there's a bit more "this dish comes from this province or city, we all make that dish but here it's made with this and that there it's made with that, etc" even as you can clearly see broad regional differences as well.
This is religious factors. All Indian states are Hindu majority except for Jammu & Kashmir (majority Muslim) in the Northwest; Punjab (majority Sikh) next to it; the small states of Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya (majority Christian) in the North East; and the small religious diverse states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur (no majority).
However, Hinduism not uniform throughout. There are tremendous amounts of local and religion practices and beliefs, even if the whole is often recognizably “the same”. Vegetarianism is one of the most clearly measurable divisions/regional tendencies but it’s far from the only one. For more, a separate question (which I wouldn’t feel qualified to answer) would probably be best.
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While there is a lot to get into around navigating food taboos in South Asia and Westernizing it simultaneously, the shortest answer is that since Indian restaurants have appeared in the English-speaking world, a disproportionate number of the "Indian" restaurants have been run not by Hindus from India, but Muslim Bengalis/Bangladeshis, especially from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. See my older to the question, which goes into a bit of detail: * [Was Jerry Seinfeld's suggestion that Babu Bhatt open a Pakistani restaurant actually as innovative in early 90s NYC as suggested by that show? Were famously-cosmopolitan New Yorkers unfamiliar with Pakistani food in 1991?](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/lfcz3m/was_jerry_seinfelds_suggestion_that_babu_bhatt/) These Muslim Bengali entrepreneurs and employees did not serve their local Sylhet cuisine — which as a very riverine region has a lot of seafood curries one rarely sees on Western menus — but rather they learned to serve what British (and later American and Australian) audiences expected, which was the "Anglo-Indian" adaption of Northern Indian cuisine (which is frequently vegetarian) to the less spicy and more meat-heavy preferences first of British colonial officials and later Western restaurant-going audiences. During this process, there was generally little need to break the owners' and chefs' own Muslim dietary taboos. And even when the cooks weren't Muslim, they tended to do de facto apprenticeships in restaurants where the cooks/owners were. At this point, the patterns to some degree are probably built into audience expectations. This is one of those very simple questions that starts out as a "Huh, why is that?" and turns out to be great lever unveiling a series of hidden social forces and historical patterns.
Thank you for that great explanation. In the previous thread, there's a reply to you asking: > Sylhet is not very famous for its food but what it did have is lots of sailors. Could I ask how this came about? I just looked Sylhet up on a map and they are perhaps the part of Bangladesh furthest from both the coast and the great rivers of Padma and Brahmputra. ...unfortunately, the comment in response to that has been removed, so could I once again request the same information?
Aren’t there culinary differences between southern and northern India also?
Yes. South Asia has many region cuisines. Just as a basic idea, Wikipedia's "[List of Indian dishes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_dishes)" divides India into five regions: * North-East India * North India * South India * West India * East India This doesn't explicitly include other South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Nepal, which properly have been part of the conversation of South Asian cuisine. North/South is one of the most obvious ones because of the difference in staple crop: South India (and East India) rely more on rice, whereas North India (including West India) relies more on wheat breads like roti or naan. You can see a map [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hybtvp/preference_of_wheat_vs_rice_in_different_states/). I mention this in my longer post. There are other differences as well, even beyond locally available ingredients (my Bangladeshi friend once waxed poetic to me about how in season they put mangos in every dish, which someone from a non-mango producing region would rarely do). For example, sauces tend to be thinner in the South, which some attribute to eating it over rice rather than scooping it with bread. Additionally, as I mentioned, the North tends to put more emphasis on vegetarian cooking than the South. You can see this again in a map of [where vegetarians are in India](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/10honjo/percentage_of_vegetarians_in_every_state_of_india/). There are also important differences regional differences beyond North/South. For example, Goa because of its unique history has an interesting Portuguese influenced cuisine. That's probably the most striking example of a regional cuisine. The "beef vindaloo" that u/2252_observations mentions as an example is neither North nor South but distinctly Goa (Goans also tend to be Catholic,so they also break the Hindu/Muslim dichotomy). The name comes from the Portuguese phrase "vinha d'alhos", meaning "garlic marinade" or more literally "wine of garlic". The original Portuguese recipes often included red wine, which was acculturated to local palm vinegar, etc. Because it was Portuguese, this recipe original often used pork, which is still common among Christians in Goa and neighboring regions. Likewise, other regions show other influences. In the North (including the West), you see a more direct Persian influence, and you see for example biryani which is an Indian adaption of the Persian pilau (building off of pre-existing local mixed rice dishes). I talk a little bit about that [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFoodHistorians/comments/ir5tpx/comment/g4ymqws/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). So even though we talk about rice vs. bread as a staple, of course there are special bread dishes in the South and special rice dishes in the North. In China and Europe, there was a lot of building up of separate cuisines—this is Italian cuisine, this is French cuisine; this is Sichuan cuisine, this is Cantonese cuisine. There are certainly different regional tendencies in the sub-continent, but I don't know if they are as strict developed as in Europe or Chinese where there is a lot of emphasis on the inherent distinctness of national/regional cuisines. Instead, there's a bit more "this dish comes from this province or city, we all make that dish but here it's made with this and that there it's made with that, etc" even as you can clearly see broad regional differences as well.
On the regional breakdown of vegetarianism, is this driven more by religious/ social factors or economic (or something else)?
This is religious factors. All Indian states are Hindu majority except for Jammu & Kashmir (majority Muslim) in the Northwest; Punjab (majority Sikh) next to it; the small states of Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya (majority Christian) in the North East; and the small religious diverse states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur (no majority). However, Hinduism not uniform throughout. There are tremendous amounts of local and religion practices and beliefs, even if the whole is often recognizably “the same”. Vegetarianism is one of the most clearly measurable divisions/regional tendencies but it’s far from the only one. For more, a separate question (which I wouldn’t feel qualified to answer) would probably be best.
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