I'm surprised you do know quite a bit about Andhra cuisine being a US based Pakistani. Do you happen to live in Texas, NJ or CA's Bay Area by any chance since those areas have significant Telugu population?
I occasionally visit the west coast ( mostly LA and Orange) but my work takes me all over including NJ and TX. But on work I have visited Hyderabad too, and Singapore, KSA, and Dubai. I developed a taste for South Indian food when eating out with my spouse who often accompanied me on my extended duration assignments. My spouse is somewhat strict in her cultural preferences on all types of cuisine, so for her South Indian vegetarian food is a preferred "safe" option. I personally do not have any preferences, and I don't mind lard in a Chinese dish or bacon bits in my house salad at company dinners. My spouse is an Udupi fanatic with
dosas of all types. I find dosas a little bland so will go for a
thaali meal whenever I can find it. Andhra vegetarian
thali is my overwhelming favorite but it is not so easily available.
Andhra cuisine in known to be the spiciest among all of South and South Indian cuisine is spicier than the rest of India. Andhra & Telangana are known to have the best non-veg curries followed by Tamil Nadu. What's interesting is the cuisine changes every 100 miles which is why you can't put them all in the same category but for outsiders to get a better picture, people just club all of South Indian cuisine.
Yes, agree with you entirely, and my Telugu colleagues have told me exactly the same thing; how the cuisine varies every 100 miles. I however cannot tell the difference. In pickles too, Andhra reigns supreme, and even though the Hyderabadi ( Telengana ) pickle is delicious it is bland and not at all hot. I have learned to differentiate between different South Indian cuisines ( some what) though Karnataka and Tamil cuisine are so close it is hard to tell which is which.
If you're into biryanis and pulaos, I'd suggest you do give a try for Andhra's Raju Gari Goat Pulao and Vijayawada chicken biryani along with Tamil Nadu's Dindigul Thalapakatti and Ambur Biryani. Karnataka's Donne Biryani and Kerala's beef/mutton roast are also damn good
I think I may have occasionally eaten very modified versions of the Andhra dishes you mention ( can't say for sure) at buffets at Indian restaurant chains.
Will look for the Tamil and Karnataka biryanis, next time I am in Artesia.
Regarding NE vs Bengali, I really like NE's beef & pork dishes. Their momos are to die for
Would like to try these out. I suspect your NE has a South East Asian or Chinese influence on the cuisine. In China I got addicted to sweet sour pork.
Btw let me know if you're aware of any good Pakistani restaurants in the US. I've been to quite a few but didn't find the biryanis/pulaos to be appealing but the curries were good though. I've recently been to Dallas and there's a Pakistani grocery outlet which has an in-house restaurant called Al-Markaz...their mutton biryani is lit AF, the best Pakistani biryani I've had
Try Bundu Khan in Houston, Kabab King in Islyn New Jersey; Luqma, and Zaika in Atlanta, Sabirs in Devon Avenue in Chicago, Jackson Heights in New York has a number of excellent Pakistani restaurants. Artesia in LA is another area where you can look. The UK of course takes the lead in having the best Pakistani restaurants outside Pakistan. When visiting Manchester try "East is East ".
Pakistani food has a variation in " spicyness "and is generally far more bland than its Indian counterparts. The Punjabi food most closely resembles its immediate counterpart across the border. However as you go west and north the food is far less spicy but with inputs of more dried fruit, yogurt and ricotta cheese. The bread (
naan) is larger, and softer and is the chief staple instead of rice. The furthest west in Baluchistan and KPK the food is not spicy at all and resembles Middle Eastern or Central Asian food. The type of vegetables and fruit consumed changes as well. Instead of bananas, guavas, crab- apples and mangoes, there are nuts ( dried fruits like walnuts, almonds; pistachios; pine-nuts, ) , apples, grapes, apricots, plums, strawberries, cherries, and melons.
The majority of the regions in the territory of Pakistan has a cuisine very distinct in the sub-continent. The similarities with Indian cuisine fade away once you move 100 miles west of the Indian border. The majority of the Pakistani cuisines are not represented in the restaurant chains abroad because these tend to stick strictly to Punjabi cuisine mimicking their Indian competition.
I wish you could visit us and see for yourself how diverse we are in language, dress, and of course cuisine.