The cuisines of India, mapped

There is no such thing as “Indian food” — there are dozens of cuisines, each rooted in a region’s climate, crops, faiths and history. Wheat and dairy in the north; rice, coconut and tamarind in the south; mustard and fish in the east; fermented and smoked flavours in the North-East; one of the world’s great vegetarian traditions in the west. The restaurant menu most of the world knows — butter chicken, naan, vindaloo — draws on perhaps two of them.

The map below places every state and union territory on a tile grid, arranged by rough geography and coloured by culinary region. Tap any tile for the state’s cuisine and its signature dishes; tap a region in the legend to highlight it. The full written guide to each region follows below the map.

The North

The land of wheat, dairy and the tandoor. Punjab’s farms, the Mughal courts of Delhi and Lucknow, Rajasthan’s desert thrift and the Himalayan kitchens of Kashmir and the hill states all sit here — this is the cooking (much filtered) that the world’s “Indian restaurants” serve.

Punjabi (Punjab, Chandigarh)

Robust farmhouse cooking: wheat breads from the tandoor, lavish dairy (butter, ghee, paneer, lassi), and slow-simmered dals. Winter means sarson da saag with makki di roti; Amritsar adds its stuffed kulchas and fried river fish. Eat: dal makhani, chole, Amritsari kulcha, sarson da saag, tandoori chicken, lassi.

Kashmiri (Jammu & Kashmir)

Two intertwined traditions: the Muslim Wazwan — a formal multi-course feast of lamb cooked by hereditary chefs (wazas) — and Kashmiri Pandit cooking, which builds deep flavour without onion or garlic. Saffron, dried cockscomb flower and Kashmiri chillies colour the pot; rice, not bread, is the staple. Eat: rogan josh, yakhni, gushtaba, dum aloo, haak greens, kahwa (saffron green tea).

Ladakhi (Ladakh)

High-altitude, Tibetan-leaning food built on barley, wheat and butter tea: noodle soups, steamed dumplings, and skyu — a hand-pinched pasta stew for cold nights. Eat: thukpa, momos, skyu, tsampa (roasted barley flour), gur gur cha (butter tea).

Himachali (Himachal Pradesh)

Mountain cooking centred on the dham — a festive vegetarian banquet of yoghurt-based curries slow-cooked in brass by hereditary boti cooks and served on leaf plates. Eat: chana madra, sepu vadi, siddu (stuffed steamed bread), babru, trout from the Beas.

Kumaoni & Garhwali (Uttarakhand)

Frugal, nourishing hill food from finger millet, barnyard millet and local pulses like the black bhatt soybean, finished with hemp-seed and bhang chutneys. Eat: kafuli, bhatt ki churkani, aloo ke gutke, jhangora ki kheer, bal mithai.

Delhi & Mughlai (Delhi)

The capital is two kitchens: the Mughlai line of Old Delhi — kebabs, korma and nihari in the lanes around Jama Masjid — and one of the world’s great street-food cities: chaat, stuffed parathas and, since 1947, the Punjabi refugee cooking that invented butter chicken. Eat: butter chicken, nihari, seekh kebab, chaat (papdi, golgappa), paranthe wali gali parathas.

Awadhi & Banarasi (Uttar Pradesh)

Lucknow’s courtly Awadhi cuisine perfected dum pukht — sealed-pot slow cooking — and kebabs so refined they melt (the galouti was made for a toothless nawab). Downriver, Varanasi answers with a vegetarian street tradition: kachori-sabzi, chaat and winter milk desserts. Eat: galouti kebab, Lucknowi biryani, korma, sheermal, Banarasi tamatar chaat, malaiyo.

Haryanvi (Haryana)

Plain-spoken farm food from the dairy belt — millet rotis and khichdi, wild desert vegetables, and milk in every form; ghee is the measure of hospitality. Eat: bajra khichdi, besan masala roti, kachri ki sabzi, singri, lassi.

Rajasthani (Rajasthan)

Desert cooking born of scarcity: dishes that need little water or fresh produce — dried beans and berries, gram-flour dumplings, buttermilk curries — beside the fiery red laal maas of the hunting courts and the great vegetarian sweets-and-snacks tradition of the Marwari merchants. Eat: dal baati churma, laal maas, gatte ki sabzi, ker sangri, pyaaz kachori, ghevar.

The West

Three coastlines and three temperaments: Gujarat’s sweet-savoury vegetarian thali, Maharashtra’s spectrum from fiery Kolhapur to Mumbai street food, and Goa’s Portuguese-Konkani fusion.

Gujarati (Gujarat)

One of the world’s great vegetarian cuisines, shaped by Jain and Vaishnav traditions: steamed and tempered gram-flour snacks (farsan), a touch of jaggery in the dal, and the layered winter vegetable feast undhiyu. Kathiyawadi food is spicier and more rustic; Surti cooking has its own street canon. Eat: dhokla, khandvi, thepla, undhiyu, fafda-jalebi, shrikhand, Gujarati kadhi.

Maharashtrian (Maharashtra)

A spectrum, not one cuisine: Konkan-coast Malvani seafood soured with kokum, Kolhapur’s scorching red and white mutton broths (tambda and pandhra rassa), inland Varhadi heat, homely Brahmin cooking with goda masala — and Mumbai, whose vada pav, misal and Irani cafés form a street cuisine of their own. Eat: vada pav, misal pav, puran poli, Malvani fish curry with sol kadhi, Kolhapuri tambda rassa, bharli vangi.

Goan (Goa)

Four and a half centuries of Portuguese rule folded into Konkani coastal cooking: vinegar and chillies (the Portuguese brought them from the Americas) meet coconut and kokum. Vindaloo is vinha d’alhos gone native; fish-curry-rice is the daily anchor; feni is the local spirit. Eat: fish curry rice, pork vindaloo, chicken xacuti, prawn balchão, sorpotel, bebinca.

Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

A coastal union territory eating between its neighbours — Gujarati vegetarian food inland, Portuguese-touched seafood on the Daman and Diu coast: crab curries, grilled fish and rotli.

The Centre

The wheat-rice crossover zone, and the least exported cooking in India.

Madhya Pradesh (Malwa, Bhopal, Bundelkhand)

Indore’s Malwa region runs on poha-jalebi mornings and the all-night Sarafa snack bazaar; Bhopal keeps a Nawabi meat kitchen of kebabs and biryani; Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand eat wheat, gram and coarse-grain rotis. Eat: poha-jalebi, bhutte ka kees, dal bafla, Bhopali seekh kebab, sabudana khichdi.

Chhattisgarhi (Chhattisgarh)

The “rice bowl of India”: rice-flour crepes and steamed dumplings, fermented rice water on hot days, forest produce — mahua flowers, bamboo shoot — and the famous fiery red-ant chutney (chapda) of the Bastar tribes. Eat: chila, faraa, aamat, muthia, chapda chutney.

The East

Rice, fish, mustard oil and a sweet tooth. The Gangetic plains of Bihar, the tribal plateaus of Jharkhand, Bengal’s river-fish cuisine and Odisha’s ancient temple kitchens.

Bihari (Bihar)

Earthy and smoke-kissed: roasted wheat balls (litti) with mashed, fire-roasted vegetables (chokha); sattu (roasted gram flour) in drinks, parathas and stuffings; and Champaran’s sealed-handi mutton. Eat: litti chokha, sattu sharbat, Champaran (ahuna) mutton, khaja, thekua.

Jharkhandi (Jharkhand)

Plateau and forest food: fried rice-batter dhuska, wild rugra mushrooms, bamboo shoot, greens of every kind, and rice-beer handia in the tribal belt. Eat: dhuska, rugra, chilka roti, bamboo-shoot curry, thekua.

Bengali (West Bengal)

A cuisine of courses and seasons, eaten in a fixed order from bitter to sweet: river fish above all (ilish, the hilsa, is close to sacred), mustard oil and the five-spice panch phoron, bitter shukto, slow-burnished kosha mangsho — and the subcontinent’s greatest sweets tradition, built on fresh chhena. Eat: machher jhol, shorshe ilish, kosha mangsho, luchi-alur dom, rosogolla, sandesh, mishti doi.

Odia (Odisha)

Gentle, temple-rooted cooking that Bengal quietly borrowed cooks from for centuries: fermented rice-water pakhala against the heat, dal with vegetables (dalma), mustard-paste fish — and the kitchen of the Jagannath temple in Puri, where the mahaprasad runs to dozens of dishes cooked in stacked earthen pots. Eat: pakhala bhata, dalma, machha besara, chhena poda, rasagola (Odisha claims it first).

The North-East

Eight states, hundreds of communities, and a food logic unlike the rest of India: fermentation, smoking and boiling over frying; bamboo shoot, local herbs and some of the world’s hottest chillies over heavy spice blends. Rice with everything.

Assamese (Assam)

Light, tart and barely spiced: alkaline khar made with banana-ash filtrate opens the meal, sour fish tenga closes it; mashed sides (pitika), duck with ash gourd, and the bhut jolokia chilli used with respect. Eat: masor tenga, khar, aloo pitika, duck curry, pitha (rice cakes).

Naga (Nagaland)

Smoke and ferment: smoked pork with bamboo shoot or with axone (fermented soybean), fermented yam leaves (anishi), and the Raja Mircha — the king chilli — among the hottest on earth. Eat: smoked pork with axone, pork with bamboo shoot, anishi, galho (rice-and-greens porridge).

Manipuri (Manipur)

Herb-driven and oil-light: fermented fish (ngari) underpins the chilli-mash eromba and the fresh salad singju; vegetable stews (kangshoi) are simmered, not fried; the black rice chak-hao becomes a purple kheer. Eat: eromba, singju, kangshoi, chak-hao kheer.

Khasi, Jaintia & Garo (Meghalaya)

Pork-loving hill cooking: rice cooked with pig’s blood and offal for jadoh, pork in black-sesame gravy (dohneiiong), and fermented-soybean tungrymbai. Eat: jadoh, dohneiiong, tungrymbai, putharo.

Mizo (Mizoram)

Boiled, smoked and herbal: the gentle one-pot bai of vegetables, pork fat and local herbs; smoked meats; rice at the centre of every meal. Eat: bai, vawksa rep (smoked pork), sawhchiar (rice-and-meat porridge).

Tripuri (Tripura)

Mui borok — the indigenous table — is built on berma, a pungent fermented fish, and is famously cooked with little or no oil. Eat: berma chutney, chakhwi, mosdeng (roast-chilli mash), panch phoron tarkari.

Arunachali (Arunachal Pradesh)

Dozens of tribal cuisines cooking inside bamboo tubes and over smoke: millet and rice, yak and mithun meat in the highlands, and home-brewed rice beer (apong) everywhere. Eat: bamboo-tube pork, pika pila (Apatani pickle), thukpa, apong.

Sikkimese (Sikkim)

Nepali, Bhutia and Lepcha traditions in one small state: dumplings and noodle soups from the Tibetan side, fermented greens (gundruk) and ring-shaped rice bread (sel roti) from the Nepali side, and chhurpi cheese in both. Eat: momos, thukpa, gundruk soup, sel roti, chhurpi-ningro curry.

The South

Rice country: fermented rice-and-lentil batters (idli, dosa), tamarind sourness, curry leaves and mustard seeds popped in hot oil, coconut deepening as you go west and south. Also home to India’s greatest coffee culture — and to Hyderabad’s biryani.

Tamil (Tamil Nadu)

The tiffin culture that conquered India — idli, dosa, pongal, vada, filter coffee — plus a deep vegetarian meals tradition served on banana leaf. Within it: Chettinad, the fiercely aromatic kitchen of a merchant caste; Kongunad’s mild, coconut-and-turmeric cooking; and Madurai’s meaty street food. Eat: masala dosa, idli-sambar, Chettinad chicken, kuzhi paniyaram, pongal, Madurai kari dosai, jigarthanda.

Kerala (Kerala)

Coconut in every register — oil, milk, flesh — across three communities: the Hindu sadya, a banana-leaf feast of two dozen vegetarian dishes; Syrian Christian duck roasts and fish moilee; and the Mappila (Muslim) Malabar kitchen whose Thalassery biryani uses tiny kaima rice. Toddy-shop fish curries supply the heat. Eat: appam with stew, puttu-kadala, Thalassery biryani, meen moilee, Kerala fish curry, sadya with payasam.

Kannadiga (Karnataka)

Several cuisines under one flag: Udupi temple vegetarianism (which gave the world the modern masala dosa and the darshini fast-food format), Mangalorean coastal cooking (neer dosa, ghee roast, kori rotti), North Karnataka’s sorghum-roti plate with fiery chutneys, royal Mysore’s sweets, and Kodagu’s pork pandi curry soured with kachampuli vinegar. Eat: masala dosa, bisi bele bath, neer dosa, chicken ghee roast, jolada rotti oota, Mysore pak, pandi curry.

Telugu: Hyderabadi & Telangana (Telangana)

Hyderabad’s Nizami court cuisine is Mughlai technique on Deccan heat: the kacchi biryani (raw marinated meat and rice cooked together under a sealed lid), Ramadan’s slow-pounded haleem, tangy mirchi ka salan. Rural Telangana eats millet rotis, souring greens and robust pickles. Eat: Hyderabadi biryani, haleem, mirchi ka salan, sarva pindi, double ka meetha, Irani chai with Osmania biscuits.

Telugu: Andhra (Andhra Pradesh)

A serious claim to India’s hottest food: Guntur chillies, the sour gongura leaf, avakaya mango pickle stirred into rice with ghee, stuffed baby aubergines, fiery fish pulusu on the coast and ragi-ball sangati in Rayalaseema. Eat: gongura pachadi, avakaya, gutti vankaya, chepala pulusu, pesarattu, Nellore fish curry.

Franco-Tamil (Puducherry)

A creole kitchen from three centuries of French rule: Tamil spice through French technique — fish stews that nod to bouillabaisse, mustard vindaye, baguettes beside dosas. Eat: meen puyabaisse, vindaye, kadugu yerra (mustard prawns), coconut crème caramel.

The Islands

Lakshadweep

A tuna-and-coconut cuisine close to Kerala’s Malabar coast and to the Maldives: fresh and dried tuna, coconut rice, breadfruit and banana. Eat: tuna curry, mas (cured tuna), coconut rice, octopus fry.

Andaman & Nicobar

Settler cooking from across the mainland — Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Ranchi — wrapped around exceptional seafood: crab, lobster, red snapper and coconut-milk prawn curries. Eat: coconut prawn curry, grilled lobster, fish tikka, amritsari fish (yes, really).

Threads that cross the map

Some of India’s most important cuisines follow a community or a court, not a state border.

• Mughlai — the Persian-Central Asian court cuisine of the Mughals (korma, biryani, kebabs, dum cooking) radiated from Delhi and Agra into Awadh, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Bengal, mutating in each: compare a Lucknow biryani (gentle, aromatic) with a Hyderabadi one (hot, tangy) or Kolkata’s (potato, egg, a whisper of sweetness).
• Temple kitchens — Udupi in Karnataka, Puri’s mahaprasad in Odisha, Tirupati’s laddu in Andhra: strict, onion-and-garlic-free vegetarian traditions that shaped everyday eating far beyond the temple walls.
• Parsi — the Zoroastrian community of Mumbai and Gujarat: dhansak, salli boti, patra ni machhi, and the Irani cafés with their bun maska and berry pulao.
• Sindhi — carried into India after Partition, strongest in Mumbai and Ulhasnagar: sindhi kadhi, sai bhaji, dal pakwan, koki.
• Anglo-Indian — the Raj’s kitchen legacy: mulligatawny, railway mutton curry, country captain chicken, kedgeree.
• The vegetarian belt — Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Jain and Vaishnav communities everywhere sustain the world’s largest vegetarian tradition; the coasts and the North-East sit at the other pole, where fish or pork anchor the plate.
• Street food — every region has a canon: Delhi’s chaat, Mumbai’s vada pav and bhel, Kolkata’s kathi rolls and phuchka, Indore’s Sarafa bazaar, Lucknow’s kebabs, Chennai’s sundal on the beach.

Some of the figures in the charts and tables on this page were compiled with the help of AI tools and may contain errors or be out of date. They are shared in good faith for general interest only — not as professional, financial, investment or purchasing advice — and should be checked against the cited primary sources before you rely on them.