It was so weird being raised in the US where India was/is exoticized as some far off unique flavor of humanity that is just one country among a far east of peculiar deviations from mainstream (read: european) history.

In reality Indian history is a good chunk of human history..... The current population is what 1/7th of earth?... and India's history stretches back very deep into human history.

I wish Indian stuff was portrayed in US culture more along the lines of "look at this other thing one of humanities oldest and largest cultures figured out before the rest of us did!". Not in a way that fetishes it, rather the opposite, introduce the basic logical point that India can't be ignored as a part of human history, too much of our story as humans has happened there and is happening there.

Same thing with China, though I feel like China's immensity of population is more often portrayed negatively in the US and thus this is less of a subversive point. However when it comes to history there is the same exact weird denial of Chinese history as there is Indian history in the US, whatever you think of the present day places they are major parts of the story of the human race. US culture focuses on Western European history like it is the main course and by the numbers it just isn't.

I dunno, I guess I say that all to make that point that I love Indian food, especially how good vegetarian and vegan Indian food often is, and I would argue that actually Indian food being awesome makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Indians have been perfecting the art of cooking for a long time with a massive diversity of styles.