The Hindu Diet in America: Culture and Food

Many cities around the United States have formed Indian shopping centers in response to large communities of immigrants. The centers always include a grocery/spice store and occasionally snack/sweet shops, which allow Indian immigrants to re-create food from home or buy it ready-made. This is essential to immigrants in America, as Indians believe their food should be symbolic of Indian culture.

The typical Indian grocery/spice shop will carry ingredients that allow one to make Indian food from scratch, dried goods like rice, chapati (wheat) and besan (chickpea) flour, and lentils, as well as fresh produce like fenugreek leaves, mangoes, specialty squash, and chile peppers. Condiments like chutneys and pickles and flat breads like naan and paratha that would traditionally be made by Indian housewives are purchased premade in America due to lack of time.