[senbarryobama]

Ironically, Indians barely use black pepper in their cuisine.

[samatman]

This is completely untrue!

South Indian pepper chicken masala is amazing.

Black pepper is a key ingredient in sambar masala, chaat masala, it's added to most garam masala, cracked pepper rice is quite common. Black peppercorns are added with other seeds to flavor oil (tadka), it's everywhere!

Most black pepper is grown in India, black pepper is native to India. Why would you think this?

[psankar]

Absolutely not. We use pepper in every meal while cooking. Omeletes, Chutney, Sambar, Pongal. In fact I do not remember a single day where I had food without Pepper and Cumin mixed in some form.

[sandGorgon]

south india.

North indian cuisine doesnt use black pepper...but south indian cuisine does. in fact it is the core ingredient in rasam and sambhar (two of the most iconic every day dishes).

all the south indian curries use it.

P.S. also during traditional south indian festivals, you cook dishes exclusively with black pepper - never chillies.

[yumraj]

We’re North Indians and we do use black pepper. it may be used less than in the south can’t say.

And like you said, in some festivals with fasts, meals use just black pepper and pink salt.

[adrianN]

"Indians" are a group of more than a billion people with very diverse culture. I would be careful with generalizations like that.