Why would somebody's hair/eye color matter when it comes to their culinary preferences?
It's often cultural guilt, in my experience. The most non-Indian person often feels compelled to be the loudest voice in some sort of over-compensation for acceptance amongst those he seeks validation from. Food is seriously the most political thing in existence,.
Also, I don't think St. Louis, where he was from, was exactly a beacon for Indian cuisine, either.
I've seen it enough times to see through it.
Then again all my German and Austrian friends loved Indian food and had all traveled there at one point, most were vegan and vegetarian which kind makes sense, but still was kind of repetitive in theme.
Saying 'food is political' doesn't mean anything. Of course it's 'political', just as all art is 'political'. But it would be ridiculous to suggest that I like rock music because I have 'cultural guilt', or because I'm 'over-compensating' - as if I'm trying hard to like it so I'm "woke".
All your comments in this thread have a serious lack of foundation. As it turns out, people generally just find Indian food either tasty (usually on account of the spices, salt, and oil - like most food) or convenient (for vegetarians or vegans). You can read as much as you like into it, but at this point you're just making guesses and shoe-horning it into the culture war topic de jour.
from a previous comment:
> Whereas in Italian and Japanese cuisine (both being my repertoire) a greater emphasis is in exalting humble ingredients with skill, prep and elaboration and an emphasis and an eye for in-season quality and utilizing them in smaller portions than other countries...
We're all entitled to opinions about things, especially something as subjective as food. But this sounds a lot like the pot calling the kettle black to me.
It is not normal to make these assumptions about what people like because of assumptions about them due to where they are from.
It is bizarre, judgemental, and completely unsubstantiated. Let people like food (and things in general), stop over-complicating things and injecting your own political biases into it. Everything in life is political, what of it? Humans need to eat.
Also, good food and good food prep is not limited to any country or nationality.
> It's often cultural guilt
Cultural guilt over what precisely?
> The most non-Indian person
What precisely makes a person more or less Indian?