India is a country where you will find different traditions and cultures in every state, a traveling distance of around 4 hours can bring you to a new world, where the dress sense is different, the accent is different, and sometimes even the language is different and not to mention the food. Every state in India has its specialty food. You will find a whole difference from North Indian food to South Indian food. This thread will give an insight of the typical Indian breakfast you will find in India according to the different parts of India. You are most welcome to add in additional information and be more specific with the breakfast in the different states too. Typical Indian breakfast in North India The typical North Indian breakfast item is parantha, which is stuffed roti (flat bread). The paratha is cooked on a tava (skittle) using a lot of ghee or butter. It is more like shallow frying it. Some different stuffings can be used such as aloo (potato), gobi (cauliflower), paneer (cheese), methi (fenugreek leaves) and mooli, sometimes a mixture is also made of two stuffings. This is then served with freshly made yogurt and some pickle, and not to forget lots of butter or ghee on top of the parantha. Another option for a typical North Indian breakfast is channa bhatura, (chickpeas) served with deep fried bread which is soft and fluffy. The channa are cooked like any other North Indian gravy dish, but are thicker, so you get more channe than the gravy. Channa bhatura is also known as chole bhature . Again with this people have the pickle of their choice and some salad. Typical Indian breakfast in South India The South Indian breakfast is very common and many people across India love and eat it any time of the day. South Indians have food items made from a batter which consists of rice and urad dal (lentils), which has been soaked and blended and then left for it to be fermented. From this batter, you can make dosa (thin pancake), idli (steamed dumplings), uttapam (a thicker version of a dosa with veg on top, something similar to pizza but without the cheese). Another item which is also made is vada which is only made from soaked and blended urad dal. There is a variation of dosas which you can get. There is the regular plain dosa or the stuffed dosa which can have stuffings such as aloo or paneer. A plain dosa is more crispy, and a stuffed dosa is a bit moist. It doesn't end there, as the dosa batter can be different too according to the area in South India, for example, a Mysore dosa would be a bit spicy than the regular dosa. With these items, sambhar and different chutneys are served. Sambhar is lentils boiled with veg with added spices, and the typical chutney served is made from freshly blended coconut with added spices, there are many variations and types of chutneys, some which include peanut chutney and tomato chutney. Plain Dosa Idli Uttapam Vada Typical Indian breakfast in East India East India consists of places like West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and others. Between these states the food differs quite a bit. Typical Indian breakfast in East India is something similar to a poori called a luchi but instead of being made with wheat it is made from refined flour, this is accompanied with a thick potato sabji. Another common accompaniment with luchi is cholar dal which is bengal gram lentils. Luchi with cholar dal
In Goa, where the area was heavily influenced by the Portuguese, do you know if there breakfast is any different? I would imagine they incorporate some of the European ideas in cooking.
Thank you for the thorough post. It's a delight to see such tasty food. Makes me wish I could just hop in a plane to Bangladesh and be there by sunrise.
Wow! Those pictures are mouth-watering. They made me go hungry. I usually don't eat breakfast, but I guess I can have those for lunch right? Or perhaps I can eat them anytime of the day. I hope that in India, they also serve it anytime of the day, not just during breakfast
I love that roti is quite commonly served for breakfast. It was the same way when I visited Malaysia. There's a sizable Indian population there, so getting to order roti with banana filling there for breakfast was a common thing! I'm excited to be able to get to eat roti with different fillings again when I get to India!
If I ever come to visit India it will be because of the food. I am simply amazed by all these. I do not eat meat and these things are just perfect for me. The firs one sounds delicious and it is actually very similar to what I generally like to eat. I mean the combination. I was curious about that pickle. We do not make anything like that. It is like stuffed pickled red pepper? Can you tell me something more about it?
It's look really delicious. Perhaps I could make my own but not fry it in butter and make use of coconut oil instead. We also have lots of local herbs and tasty fillings that would go great with the bread. I'm currently researching healthy meals that would be perfect for a person who's dieting for better health. I also love that Indian food has a lot of spices that would help boost metabolism and help improve the general well being of its consumers.
All of that looks amazing! I think I could too easily over indulge though. I'm now trying to think of something to eat at home that would be similar but I just don't have the right ingredients. All that butter though, tasty but fattening!
I'm pretty sure this all depends on the living conditions of the individuals. You can't really expect the poor people to have enough funds to host this every morning. Some of them would be happy to just have bread at their table. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, although this may be the "common" breakfast pattern, it definitely does not apply for everyone, and even then, some people would prefer Western type of meals, such as cereals, grains, and toast.
Not just in Goa there are restaurants all over India where you can get different types of dishes that are not of Indian origin. They may include ham, bacon, eggs, bread, butter, jam, sausages porridge, fruit juice and such items.
