What Westerners call a curry covers a variety of dishes, each made with a different masala, or mix of spices. Curry powder does not exist in India, the nearest equivalent being garam masala ("hot mix"), a combination of dried ground black pepper and other spices, in theory added to a dish at the last stage of cooking to spice it up, but often used as a substitute for other aromatics. Commonly used spices include chilli, turmeric, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, coriander - both leaf and seed - cumin and saffron. These are not all added at the same time, and some are used whole, so beware of chewing on them. The spice that gives British and Caribbean curry powder its distinctive taste, fenugreek, is actually used much more sparingly in India.

 

It's the Indian penchant for chilli that alarms many Western visitors. The majority of foreigners develop a tolerance for it; if you don't, you'll just have to stick to mild dishes such as kurma and biryani where meat or vegetables are cooked with rice, and eat plenty of chapati. Indians tend to assuage the effects of chilli with chutney, dhai (curd) or raita (curd with mint and cucumber, or other herbs and vegetables). Otherwise, beer is one of the best things for washing chilli out of your mouth; the essential oils that cause the burning sensation dissolve in alcohol, but not in water.

Vegetarian curries are usually identified (even on menus in English) by the Hindi names of their main ingredients. Terms like "curry" and "masala" don't really tell you what to expect; meat curries are more often given specific names such as kurma or dopiaza, to indicate the kind of masala used or the method of cooking.

Regional variety is vast: Bengalis love fish and cook a mean mangsho (meat) curry as well as exotic vegetable dishes such as mo-cha - cooked banana flower. They also like to include fish bones for added flavour in their vegetable curries - a nasty surprise for vegetarians. Biharis were known for their satu - a staple flour used instead of rice - but satu has become unfashionable outside the rural communities. Tibetans and Bhotias from the Himalayas have a simple diet of thukpa (meat soup), and momo (meat dumplings), as well as a salty tea made with either rancid yak butter where available, or with ordinary butter. In Punjab and much of northern India, home cooking consists of dhal and vegetables along with roti (bread) and less rice than the Bengalis. Food in Gujarat, predominantly veg, is often cooked with a bit of sugar.

In the north of India especially, but as far south as Hyderabad, the influence of the Moghuls lives on in the form of Mughlai cooking. Mostly non-veg, the food is extremely rich, using ingredients such as cream, almonds, sultanas and saffron. Mughlai as the name of a masala normally indicates a mild, creamy one. Mughlai paratha is spicy fried bread with egg.

The other big northern style is tandoori. The name refers to the deep clay oven (tandoor) in which the food is cooked. Tandoori chicken is marinated in yoghurt, herbs and spices before cooking. Boneless pieces of meat, marinated and cooked in the same way are known as tikka; they may be served in a medium-strength masala (tikka masala), one thickened with almonds (pasanda), or in a rich butter sauce ( murg makhani or butter chicken). Breads such as naan and roti are also baked in the tandoor.

Certain combinations are traditional and seasonally repeated, such as makki ki roti (fried corn bread) with sarson ka sag (mustard-leaf greens) around Punjab and other parts of north India. Baingan bharta (puréed roast aubergine) is commonly eaten with plain yoghurt and roti (plain bread). In good Muslim cooking from the north, delicately thin rumali roti (handkerchief bread) often accompanies rich meat and chicken dishes. Dhal is a safe bet with almost any meat or vegetable dish, and easy to eat with rice or bread.

Set meals are quite common in the north, and even more so in the south, where they are generally referred to simply as "meals" . They generally consist of a mound of rice surrounded by various delicious vegetable curries, sambar dhal, chutney and curd, and usually accompanied by poppadums, vadas and rasam , a hot pepper water. Traditionally served on a round metal tray or thali (also found in north India), with each side dish in a separate metal bowl, set meals are sometimes served up on a rectangle of banana leaf instead. In most traditional restaurants, you can eat as much as you want, and staff circulate with refills of everything. In the south even more than elsewhere, eating with your fingers is de rigueur (you want to feel the food as well as taste it) and cutlery may be unavailable.

Wherever you eat, remember to use only your right hand, and wash your hands before you start. Try and avoid getting food on the palm of your hand by eating with the tips of your fingers