The sour divide between North and South

Do you like sour flavours? It may have something to do with which part of India you come from

Foreigners are always asking me what the difference between North Indian and South Indian food is. I usually give the same answer. It is difficult to generalise, I say, because the distinction is much more complex than just North and South. It is a mistake to talk of India – in cuisine terms – as a single country with two different cuisines. In fact, India is a continent – in cuisine terms again – so the parallel is not with say, France or Italy, where you can make some North-South divisions.

Many dishes in Kerala get their sourness from tamarind and a variety of other ingredients, including raw mango(iStock)

Solkadhi, a tangy Goan drink made of kokum (iStockphoto)

In Kerala, they have many uses for tamarind (Shutterstock)

Moti Mahal had access to local tomatoes for its butter chicken

Punjabis like imli chutneys, they use aamchur for channa. Then why do they treat these flavours as add-ons?

Tomato to Punjabi gravies was a late 20th century-addition (Shutterstock)

North India has remained immune to the flavours of Thai, which is about balance and prizes sourness (iStockphoto)

Unlike the West, Indians have very few sweets that merge with lemon or other sour flavours of sweetness (Shutterstock)