Why India’s Food Is the Best in the World

India’s culinary excellence can be traced to both the strengths and weaknesses of its economy.

December 17, 2024 at 10:00 PM UTC

By Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the Marginal Revolution blog.

A partial explanation for why India’s food is so good. 

I write this from Kerala, on the southwest coast of India, on one of the last days of my eighth trip to this country. I’ve been to most of its major regions and cities, and over the decades I have traveled to more than 100 countries. All of which is setup for an admittedly bold claim, and one I don’t make lightly: India has the best food in the world.

For me, it is common for a random meal here, sometimes costing only a few dollars, to be more enjoyable than one from a starred Michelin restaurant in Paris. In India, the flavors are more vivid, the vegetables are at least as fresh and varied, the astonishments more common. Food in India is just flat out better than most of what you get elsewhere, with the possible exception of China, which I have not visited in several years.

Why is the food so good? I have several overlapping hypotheses, most of them coming from my background as an economist. Interestingly, India’s culinary advantages can be traced to some good and some not-so-good aspects of Indian society.

First, food supply chains here are typically very short. Trucking, refrigeration and other aspects of modernity are widespread, but a lot of supply chains are left over from a time when those were luxuries. So if you are eating a vegetable, there is a good chance it came from nearby. That usually means it is more fresh and tastes better.

The sad truth is that India still has very high rates of food spoilage, especially when food is transported longer distances. The country is making significant progress building out its transportation networks, but in the meantime the American culinary tourist enjoys the best of all worlds: Our purchasing power is high, and we can spend our money eating super-local.

For many of India’s citizens, of course, the bargain isn’t nearly so good. The spoilage rate is a major problem in a country where a lot of people go hungry. And in general, food is more expensive relative to wages than it should be. Adjusted for purchasing power, India’s per capita income is only about $10,000.

India also has high income inequality. That means there is plenty of cheap labor competing to cook for diners with higher incomes. The “thickness” of the competition leads to innovation and experimentation — there are a lot of restaurants, food stalls, truck stops and the like. It is a buyer’s market. Furthermore, some of India’s best dishes, such as Bengali sweets, are very labor-intensive. Indian desserts that are mediocre in US restaurants receive the proper care and attention in Kolkata.

India’s many religions also help make its cuisine distinctive. Many Hindus are vegetarian, so there is high demand for quality vegetables. Vegetarians in India also seek out dosas, uttapam, and other yummy carbohydrate-heavy entries. Jains do not eat onion or garlic, which induces yet further innovation in flavors. The Christian communities, such as one finds in Kerala, eat a lot of beef. Pork is typically neglected in Indian cuisine, but the former Portuguese territory of Goa has produced some splendid pork dishes.

Geography also plays a role. A lot of India’s population lives near the coasts, which in turn raises the quality of the seafood available. The ocean connections also helped the spice trade to flourish, and that remains a prominent feature of India’s varied cuisines.

Then there is the cultural side. India is a “food nation.” When I ask locals which are the best places to eat, which I regularly do, I am repeatedly struck by how many have strong opinions. When everyone is a food critic, standards rise accordingly. It also makes it easy for the visitor to get quality recommendations.

Since labor is plentiful, Indian restaurants are usually open long hours, and unlike in London or New York, reservations are not usually a problem. Often the concept of a reservation does not even apply. My wife and I just ate a wonderful meal on a river houseboat in Kerala, and it was perhaps the best lobster I have ever had, and for her the best lentils. The “chef” was simply a member of the boat crew who cooked what I had bought from a local fisherman.

Indian restaurants also tend to be well-integrated into their surroundings. There is usually interesting people-watching and connections to the local culture, and rarely do tourists dominate the clientele. All that adds to the overall dining experience.

One final point: I’ve had almost 400 meals in India, including in canteens, truck stops, university cafeterias, shopping malls, friends’ homes and India’s fanciest hotels — and never once have I been sick or queasy.1 I enjoyed every one of them. Such good fortune is at the very least possible without paying a price somewhere else down the line.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5652409&forum_id=2#48471772)

But it really is just a bunch of shit boiled in a cauldron. Not that impressive

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5652409&forum_id=2#48471790)

do agree abt the freshness, not sure he mentioned that its not just supply chain being local but when u have so many furking turds its easier for restos to just prepare each day with fresh ingridients versus the jew processed frozen slop shit in the US

i didnt read entire thing so not suer if he mentioned hotel food but its quite 180 at even 3 star hotels u can get room service for furking like $5 and some place the food is really good, there's a whole culture of this eating at hotels its unlike anywhere ive seen lots of hotels go out of their way to have good food unlike most countries where its just overpriced shit

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5652409&forum_id=2#48471831)