Whats the difference between arab and indian spices?

Question

they use cardamon alot in indian food.

Answer 1

arab spices are less spicy

they give flavour not heat

for example cumin is widely used in arab cooking.

indians use more much more chilli

cardamon is widely used by arabs and iranians while indians dont use it in that wide scale

Answer 2

Besides ras al hanout, Middle Eastern cooking uses various other spice mixes as well:  berbere, baharat, sebeh baharat, chermoula, la kama, dukkah, tsire....

In addition, spices like sumac, harissa, zataar are characteristic of Middle Eastern food and not found in Indian cuisine.

Answer 3

Well Indian food relies heavily on spice mixtures or masalas and there are alot --- garam masala, sambhar powder, rasam powder, pav bhaji masala..... you get the idea.  Basically every dish has its own unique combination of spices.  I think Indian food also uses much more red chili powder in their dishes.

http://www.indianfoodsco.com/Submit/Indi...

Middle Eastern food uses spices as well but not to the extent of Indian food:

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/middleea...

Answer 4

I think there is a difference in the terminology of the spices.

In the Middle East, the name that is used for a spice blend is called ras-el-hanout. Each shop, company, person would have their own secret combination containining over a dozen spices. Typically they would include cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ground chili peppers (also known as paprika), coriander, cumin, mace, nutmeg, peppercorn, and turmeric.

In India, the spice blend is called garam masala. There are many variants: most traditional mixes use just cinnamon, roasted cumin, caraway seeds, cloves, nutmeg (and/or mace) and green cardamom seed or black cardamom pods. Many commercial mixtures may include more of other less expensive spices and may contain dried red chili peppers, dried garlic, ginger powder, sesame, mustard seeds, turmeric, coriander, bay leaves, star anise and fennel.

In strict terms of the spice, there really isn't that much of a difference in the spices, and probably how they are used. Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines were proberbly influenced by one another.