The Influence of other Cuisines on Indian Cooking

India’s passion for food and cooking dates back to centuries ago, and since then to now, it is constantly being updated and evolving with inputs from other cuisines and cultures from all across the world. The love of eating and trying out various new types of food that all Indian people enjoy has led to a lot of experimentation and fusion cooking and the rise of a number of new cuisines and culinary techniques, like Indian Chinese cuisine or Hakka Chinese cuisine, Indo-European cuisine and many others.

This is also the case with our neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and the likes having a sizeable influence on the Indian culinary world. Similar is the influence of Tibet, with traditional Tibetan cuisine granting many delicacies to the Indian cuisine scene, like thukpas and momos.

With the rise of fast food restaurants and chains of eateries, the rise of quick and easy to make snacks has been on the rise. Although this share of the market has been dominated by Indian snacks like samosas and pakodas and rolls, a fair share of this market has been captured by momos. Not only are momos a much healthier alternative, but they are also tastier and have a variety of options to choose from. Nowadays, people are opting more and more to cook food indoors, not only for health reasons but also because people are more comfortable with cooking, thanks to the easy availability of recipes online, and one of the most popular searches is for momos recipes. 

Momos recipes originated in Tibetan, and it is a local and traditional cuisine there. Momos are small dumplings or pockets made of flour, stuffed with various kinds of stuffing. This style of cooking dumplings with stuffing is common in many East Asian cuisines like dumplings in China, gyozo in Japan and momos in Tibet.

Momos are primarily available in two types, steamed and fried. In steamed momos, the dough is made into a pocket, stuffed and closed and traditionally steamed in a bamboo basket over boiling water. It is served steaming hot. In fried momos or pan-fried momos, the steamed momos are further fried lightly in a shallow pan. Both varieties of momos are equally popular.

The best thing about momos is that there are a lot of momos recipes and different kinds of stuffing. There is something for everyone, including vegetable momos, chicken momos, lamb momos, pork momos and even fish momos. Momos are usually served with a vegetable or chicken clear soup. It is generally eaten as a standalone dish and not accompanied with rice or noodles.

Momos recipes are the most popular in the North Eastern states of India, including Sikkim and Assam, and the northern mountain parts of West Bengal. It has become increasingly popular in other parts of the country with the advent of affordable chain restaurants, and it is now quite famous as a quick snack, that is also easy to cook at home and healthy for one’s body.