How India’s Flavours Connect Global Cultures | World Food Day
Just as ingredients from India sailed out in the past, foreign flavours arrived at our shores, blending into what we now call 'home food'.
Published : October 16, 2025 at 12:21 PM IST
If human history could be served on a plate, it would taste like fusion. Every civilisation, every migration, every conquest and conversation has found its way into our kitchens. More than flags or borders, food tells the story of who we are and how deeply we are connected.
On World Food Day, as we celebrate nourishment in all its forms, it’s worth remembering that Indian cuisine (rich, layered, and regional) is also global. For centuries, Indian spices, grains, and cooking techniques have travelled the world, shaping the way people eat from Lima to Lisbon, Colombo to Cairo. And just as our ingredients sailed out, foreign flavours arrived at our shores, blending into what we now call “home food.”
Take paella, Spain’s iconic saffron-tinted rice dish. Its essence (rice simmered with seafood, vegetables, and spice) is not very different from an Indian prawn pulao cooked along the Konkan coast. The Spanish saffron could well be replaced by Indian turmeric, the olive oil by ghee, and you’d still taste the same soul: a sea-loving culture expressing abundance through a single pot of comfort.
This isn’t coincidence. The saffron of Spain came via Arab traders from Persia. The rice that fills Spanish and Indian plates alike originated in Asia. The spice routes that wound through Kerala, Gujarat, and Goa carried culinary imagination.
Closer in the Asian continent, Sri Lanka's coconut milk-based curries, sambols, tempered spices could be equally at home in Kerala. Traditional Kerala recipes also use curry leaves, tamarind, and rice.
Portugal Meets The Spice Coast In Goan Cuisine
When the Portuguese arrived in Goa in the 16th century, they brought with them not just Christianity and architecture, but an entire culinary worldview.
The fiery red vindaloo, now a Goan signature, began as a Portuguese dish called carne de vinha d’alhos (meat marinated in wine and garlic). When the cooks here replaced wine with palm vinegar and threw in a few red chillies, it became a distinctly Goan dish called vindaloo. Pork Sorpotel and Chouriço Sausages have roots in Iberian kitchens.
You may have gobbled popular Goan sweet Bebinca during Christmas. The layered coconut pudding bears the imprint of Portuguese egg-based sweets.
British Influence On Bengali Cuisine
A few thousand miles east, another colonial fusion was taking place. The British influence in Bengal’s cuisine went far beyond fish and rice.
British officers living there were obsessed with tea, which in turn made Bengal the centre of India’s tea industry during Colonial rule. The Bengali cutlet has evolved from the English meat chop, with the difference of local spices and technique of frying. Kolkata’s legendary bakeries Nahoum’s and Flury’s still serve pastries and puddings from that era. The introduction of custards, puddings, and pish-pash (a rice-and-meat porridge) into Bengali homes reflected a genteel hybrid of comfort and sophistication.
Even the city’s fondness for afternoon tea and snacks remains a pleasant colonial hangover.
From Borders To Banquets
Food historian KT Achaya once wrote that every Indian meal is a map of history. To that we might add: every global dish is a mirror of migration. The Portuguese brought chillies to India, the Indians took chutneys to Britain, and the British introduced tea to the world—only to have it redefined by India’s milk-and-masala version. In a strange, poetic loop, the world keeps feeding itself back. When we eat, we are participating in a story that began thousands of years ago. The turmeric in a Peruvian dish, the cardamom in a Scandinavian dessert, the rice in an African stew... all carry traces of India’s trade winds and ancient connections.
Today, when chefs talk about “fusion cuisine,” they’re simply continuing a process our ancestors started without hashtags or culinary awards. Food was the first diplomat, the first shared language, the original bridge between cultures. World Food Day is here to demonstrate that very recipe is a record of travel, trade, and togetherness. Every bite is proof that humanity, for all its divisions, has always been one long, shared meal.
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