Most of the food that is available at Indian restaurants worldwide is commonly referred to as Mughlai. However, I was reading a book on the history of the Mughals (Mughal; Hindi/Urdu for Mongol) and found out that the Mughals,originally Mongolian tribesmen and warriors, were living in Ferghana, modern day Uzbekistan for a couple of centuries before they invaded India. I asked a friend of mine who lived in Central Asia for a number of years what the cuisine there was like. NOWHERE close to what we know as Mughlai food! The cuisine, flavours and cooking styles are very different (though one can liken the shashlik somewhat to the Indian kabab minus the masala)......none of the rich curries, their version of the Biryani is totally different, no Dal Bukhara even the famous Mughlai breads were nowhere to be seen. What then is the origin of Mughlai cuisine? Did it come from Afghanistan (As many Indian restaurents would like us to believe...Kandahar, Peshawar, Frontier and all the dishes named after towns in the region), where Babur traversed before coming to India? I was in an Iranian restaurant recently and kept commenting on how similar the food and cooking style was to Indian muslim cooking (much more subtle without all the masalas ofcourse). So could it be Persian in origin? This brings us to another question, if Mughlai food is really foreign....what was Indian food like before the Mughals came? I am sure many of these questions have come into your mind at some point, so lets brainstorm and try to find out about the origins of Indian cuisine
