The reasons may lie in climate, diet structure, religion and diet.

Thali is a common Indian set meal, which generally includes a variety of sauce and Hu materials.

India is located in South Asia with a hot climate. In high temperature climate, food goes bad easily. In order to prevent deterioration, it is necessary to preserve food (kimchi) by pickling, or add a lot of spices during cooking (because spices often have antiseptic and bactericidal effects). On the other hand, high temperature will reduce people's appetite, so it is necessary to use spices to enhance the flavor of food, or to enhance people's appetite through frying (people who have seen Indian hawker videos should be impressed by Indian frying).

Studies have shown that as early as 4,600 years ago, during the Indian Valley civilization, Indian ancestors began to add a lot of spices to their diet. In this natural environment, cooking food thoroughly, making it into paste and adding a lot of spices can fully release the aroma of spices, kill bacteria, delay deterioration, improve the flavor of food and make it more suitable for eating. This is a very natural choice.

Injera in Ethiopia is a porous fermented pie, which can also be eaten with sauce.

On the other hand, India's agriculture is underdeveloped, and people's diets are mainly staple foods such as bread and rice. The taste of these staple foods is unremarkable, but the thick sauce can add a lot of flavor to the staple foods and make them serve. In fact, in ancient times when agriculture was underdeveloped, and in most countries where food was eaten by hand at present, paste (or sauce) was one of the most common foods, such as Injera in Ethiopia, which was very similar to Thali in India. Limited solid paste can save food and feed more people.

Many European soups, such as the Salmorejo soup in the picture above, are very thick, and from the appearance, they are also a little close to Indian paste.

Before the popularization of tableware and other tableware and the development of agricultural technology and living standards, the daily diet of ordinary people in Europe was often mushy porridge, soup and stew. Similar to the thick soup or stew in the picture above, with porridge or bread (in fact, ancient bread is not common because the production process is relatively complicated, and porridge is a common civilian food), this is a meal for ordinary people.

Indian long-grain rice and Dahl biscuits made from beans.

In addition, India is a country with a strong religious atmosphere. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, born in India, all emphasize not killing, so most Indians live on vegetarianism. It is not easy to make vegetarian food delicious (and not easy to deteriorate). The common practice is to add a lot of spices and make it into a paste. Indians who lack meat need chickpeas and other beans to supplement protein. Paste beans boiled with various spices can not only stimulate appetite, but also supplement protein. Therefore, this bean paste called Dahl has become a very important Indian food.

Indian women eat with their hands.

Finally, in Indian food culture, people think that eating is a sensory activity and touch is an important part of experience. Chalak Sanghita, the founder of Ayurveda, a traditional Indian medicine, believes that the eating process needs to mobilize the five senses of human beings, including hearing, smell, vision, touch and taste. Through your own hands, you can feel the temperature and flavor of food more directly. Therefore, Indians are used to eating with their hands, and mushy sauces are very suitable for dipping in pies or rice. If eating by hand was a last resort in ancient times, it can only be said that it is a cultural reason that people are still used to eating by hand in the 2 1 century.

Native American Yulok spoon

Interestingly, China is not only the birthplace of chopsticks, but also the earliest fork was born in China. Spoons were born at the end of the Neolithic Age, so it is really interesting that ancient India, with its splendid civilization, did not have the tradition of using tableware to assist eating.

However, not all Indian dishes are mushy. For example, curry jiaozi samosa, all kinds of pit-roasted meat, kimchi (yes, there are kimchi in India), Indian fragrant rice, all kinds of cakes in the staple food, and all kinds of fried snacks are not sloppy at all.

Shouldn't the more obvious characteristics of Indian food be all kinds of spices? At least in the eyes of Indians themselves, India is one of the countries with the strongest dietary diversity in the world, because hundreds of spices have thousands of collocation methods.