Comment by com2kid

The thing that gets me about how Indian food uses spices is that the flavors change so much during cooking.

If I use cumin in a Mexican or even Chinese dish, cumin will likely be a dominant flavor, it will be obvious that cumin is in the dish.

Meanwhile a similar amount of cumin in an Indian dish will get completely transformed and melded into a much more complex flavor profile.

Same goes for cardamom, I use a lot of cardamom when making American desserts, and its presence is obvious.

Meanwhile, my curries have cardamom in them and it adds levels of depth and complexity, but not in the overpowering way it does when used in western cooking.