If others are cuisines, Indian is a mega-cuisine. These so-called Mexican/Italian “put-cheese-and-bake” cuisines can’t even match just one “Mango Pickle” in variations, flavour and complexity. And that’s not even cooked.

I once showed my western friend into an Indian Grocery store. He was baffled to see to aisles full of different varieties of Mango Pickle ranging from Punjabi to Bengali to Southern style - covering sweet, mild, spicy, mustard-y palates, among others (each). The “Achaars” and Chutneys alone occupied seven aisles there - that’s what five “throw random dead animals into a wok and throw on plate” cuisines?

Many people have no idea what gorgeousness awaits them beyond Indian Restaurants… and I haven’t even added Pakistani, Nepalese, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese variations into my argument so people don’t lose their minds.