Category:Indian Restaurants 
From Singapore Hotels & Singapore Lifestyle
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Indian Restaurants serve Indian Cuisine, characterised by its complex use of spices to make its staple curries, is not always hot and spicy.
Northern Indian Cuisine
Northern Indian cuisine is more aromatic than spicy, its rich flavour resulting from a complex use of spices tempered by yoghurt and Ghee, or clarified butter. Food cooked in a Tandoor (or clay oven) is one of the highlights of the exquisite cuisine of northern India. It is used for baking leavened Roti bread or Naan, and to produce delicious marinated fish or chicken dishes, using either whole (Tandoori) or small pieces (Tikka) of meat. The bread is perfect for sopping up the yoghurt-based gravies, an influence of the nomadic tribes and their hill-grazing cattle.
Southern Indian Cuisine
In the south of India, fiery curries are a speciality and coconut milk is often used in the gravy instead of yoghurt. Southern food is also distinctive for its use of mustard seeds and fragrant leaves such as mint, curry leaves, fenu-greek and coriander. Dishes called Korma are generally mild, although anything prefixed by Masala is likely to be hot and will be reddish in colour. The so-called banana leaf restaurants of Serangoon Road are well-known for their spicy fare served on banana leaves. Ice-cold beer or lime juice is the perfect accompaniment to douse the fire.
Indian Muslim food is very popular in Singapore. One speciality is Murtabak, which is leavened bread stuffed with lamb or chicken. When the bread is served plain, it is called Pratha. Another is Nasi Briyani, a fragrant rice dish redolent of saffron and cooked with seasoned mutton or chicken.
Religion plays a fundamental role in Indian Cuisine. Muslims eat no pork, Hindus no beef, while strict Buddhists kill nothing and will not even crack an egg. As a result, vegetarian cooking has reached heights of excellence unparalleled elsewhere in the world. A superb variety of vegetarian dishes, savoury snacks, lentils and breads have been created, as well as cloyingly sweet milk-based desserts. Vegetarian meals are often served on a banana leaf, or on a Thali, a large tray holding a mound of rice, on which smaller bowls or Katori are placed, filled with the accompanying dishes.
