AHC - Make Noodles displace Rice as an Indian staple

While aware of how diverse India's regions are along with the existence of Vermicelli-like Noodles such as Sevai and Idiyappam, am inspired by this Hindustan Times article asking whether Noodles will become an Indian staple in the future.

With pre-1900 PODs, the challenge is to instead have Noodles (both Rice or non-Rice versions including such as Durum Wheat / Sooji, etc) displace regular Rice as an Indian Staple food to the point where Noodles are as ubiquitous as the rest of Asia.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like a good Tamil wank could make this happen. Have a Tamil empire establish hegemony over the Deccan for a few centuries and cuisine traditions (like both of the noodles that you mentioned) will seep northward.
 
I'd try to answer this PoD but it makes me sad. Rice is the best grain.

(Apart from the obvious answers, more widesp use of noodles among the Turkic peoples who invaded India from the West might help. Perhaps if the Chinese spread noodles to the Turks somehow?)

I admit you'd need a more agricultural central Asia for this though
 
Last edited:
Was thinking of a scenario where Noodles become widespread in India as a result of indigenous Rice (particularly Aromatic Rice) / Wheat / Millet / Buckwheat / Mung Bean (plus this) / possibly even Chickpea* based variations being developed either independently or as a result of some outside influence (e.g. Thukpa, plus aforementioned Sevai and Idiyappam), as opposed to Noodles becoming ubiquitous as a result of a few groups managing to conquer different parts of India.

*- Essentially a soft non-crunchy version of Sev or an earlier Indianized version of Banza Chickpea pasta / noodles.

Would be interesting if one popular version of ATL Indian noodles draws inspiration from Biangbiang Noodles or the similar Papardelle Pasta, along with Noodle versions of OTL Indian rice dishes such as Biryani, etc.
 
Last edited:
All or most of India? Not likely. South India, and I mean the really southern parts, is doable, but not much else, as north of the really southern parts of India, the only noodles Indians eat are falooda - which is extremely tasty, but doesn’t count. We have records of rice as an Indian staple during Vedic times, for goodness sakes. I guess, if you had Sinicized Turkic peoples invade India, you could have them introduce noodles to India, but I really can’t see it displace rice unless Vishnu comes to Earth and proclaims rice to be the food of demons. And even in that scenario, I suspect various forms of roti to be more prominent than noodles.
 
There's always the potential of some kind of disease that targets rice (and not other grains like wheat and whatnot) that just happen to occur, and by sheer necessity the staple crop shifts to other grains, and noodles end up filling the void.
 
There's always the potential of some kind of disease that targets rice (and not other grains like wheat and whatnot) that just happen to occur, and by sheer necessity the staple crop shifts to other grains, and noodles end up filling the void.

The issue with that, beyond the implausibility of every kind of Indian rice being impacted, is that even in that scenario, roti, or Indian flatbread, are much more likely to fill the void.

You can have more popular Indian noodles, sure, but it will never displace rice.
 
Am not talking about a scenario where Rice completely disappears from the Indian diet in favor of Noodles (especially since its population size would mean cooked Rice remains a staple for a significant number of people in India), just that Noodles (suited to local tastes) end up being a prominent food staple in ATL India as in East and Southeast Asia by managing to become part of India's culinary tradition earlier on via one or more PODs.
 
Top