Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets Ancient India

Indian Food and a Short History of Spices Ancient India

---

Indian Food and a Short History of Spices
Print Indian Food and a Short History of Spices Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print Indian Food and a Short History of Spices Reading Comprehension


Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.52

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		Biryani, cardamom, dosa, long-held, mace, peppercorn, Roti, tandoor, Tandoori, travelogue, turmeric, cuisine, monopoly, coriander, foothold, unleavened
	content words:		Sri Lanka, In Tamil, Spice Islands, Molluca Islands, Middle Ages, Marco Polo, Il Milione, Far East, Christopher Columbus, North America

---

Indian Food and a Short History of Spices By Vickie Chao

---

¹     When it comes to Indian food, the first thing that comes to most people's minds is probably curry. Curry is thought to have derived from a Tamil word called "kari." Tamil is a language spoken by the Dravidian people of southern India and northern Sri Lanka. In Tamil, kari means sauce. It is basically a mixture of spices and herbs. This mixture (called curry powder) can change its ingredients from one region to another. It can be mild. Or it can be spicy. Regardless of what goes into the concoction, there is one thing for sure. When cooked with rice, meat, fish, or vegetables, curry powder gives the dish a unique, savory taste. It makes some of us want to eat more!
 
²     Of course, Indian cuisine is more than just curry. Roti is a round, flat, unleavened bread. Dosa is a thin, folded pancake. Tandoori chicken is marinated chicken chunks skewered and cooked in a type of clay oven called a tandoor. Biryani is flavored, orange-colored rice cooked with meat or vegetables. All of these are popular items that we can find in almost every Indian restaurant. What the four dishes, along with the rest of Indian foods, have in common is that they owe their flavors entirely to a wide variety of spices, such as cumin, coriander seeds, pepper, cloves, and turmeric.
 
³     Using spices in cooking has had a long history. It may go back as far as 52,000 years ago. Though we cannot know for sure how primitive men came across this practice, it is quite possible that it was by chance. Since then, spices have played a vital role in our diet. In earlier centuries, spices were considered very valuable. Thus, traders of seasonings were destined to become rich. Spice trading was long dominated by the Arabs. They transported their spices to Europe via Egypt. To protect their profits, the Arabs were always very vague about where they got their supplies. When asked, they would invent crazy stories to convince the listeners that they had to go through a lot of dangers to obtain the spices they were selling. They never told them that they got their goods from India, China, the Spice Islands (present-day the Maluku or Molluca Islands of Indonesia), and other nearby regions.

Paragraphs 4 to 6:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on Indian Food and a Short History of Spices

Leave your feedback on Indian Food and a Short History of Spices   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Ancient India

Ancient India

---

Social Studies

Social Studies

United States History and Theme Units         American Government         Ancient America         Ancient China         Ancient Egypt         Ancient Greece         Ancient India         Ancient Mesopotamia         Ancient Rome         Biographies         Canadian Theme Unit         Country Theme Units         Crime and Terrorism         Economics         European History: 1600s-1800s

Explorers         Famous Educators         Geography         Grades 2-3 Social Studies Wendy's World Series         History of Books and Writing         History of Mathematics         How Can I Help?         Inventors and Inventions         Middle Ages         Renaissance         World Religion         World War I         World War II         World Wonders

Copyright © 2018 edHelper