Indian Food Culture

Explore the rich history, politics, religion, geography, language of India… through the lens of food culture.

What you'll learn
Explore the rich history, politics, geography, language of India… through the lens of food culture.
Learn to navigate the menu at an Indian restaurant.
Expand your repertoire of interesting topics of conversation.
Discover a wealth of information about spices and their uses.
Requirements
All levels welcome
Description
There is a great deal of current interest in the topic of diversity, but corporate diversity training programs are not the best fit for all audiences.

Encountering unfamiliar beliefs or practices can be challenging and there are now more barriers to getting to know our neighbors in person than ever before. This course is designed to provide online enrichment materials that address practical, concrete ways of building bridges.

The most effective way to step out of one’s comfort zone is through education and entertainment on neutral topics, such as food or art or holiday traditions, conducted in a neutral “safe” space. While there are lots of online groups formed with the express intent of creating diverse networks, in practice, homogenous groups are talking amongst themselves, but not talking to each other.

So, there might be any number of reasons why you might benefit from learning more about the rich history and diversity of Indian culinary traditions.

You have a coworker who is of Indian decent and you’re hoping to discover some shared interests so as to create a more inclusive work environment.

You’re trying to eat healthy… and you’ve heard that Indian food features a wide variety of vegetarian dishes or, you’ve heard about the health benefits of some spices and you’d like to know how to use them in your cooking.

You’re bored with the same old take out and/or you’re bored with the same old shows on TV.

You’ve always wanted to travel to India and you figured, quite correctly, that this course is cheaper than a plane ticket.

So, whatever your personal motivation is, I’m glad you found your way to this point and I’m excited to be your guide in what I hope to be an entertaining and transformative experience.

About the structure of this course

We will be breaking the lessons down by menu categories: Appetizers, Vegetarian Main Dishes, Non-Vegetarian Main Dishes, Breads and Rice Dishes, Beverages, and Desserts.

First off though, we will begin by addressing three overarching topics that will help to make sense of things by putting the ingredients and techniques into a relevant cultural context

Spice levels

The differences between typical North Indian and South Indian cuisine. Influences of

Geography

Religion and politics

The British

· Language

I will also be providing external links to references, recipes, and other topics of possible interest as we go along.

So, by the end of this course, I guarantee you will have a wealth of trivia and conversation starters at your fingertips.

Who this course is for
Foodies looking to become experts on Indian culture and food traditions