I am food adventurous and came to Indian cuisine after trying Chinese buffets.
I invited my Indian colleague to Indian restaurant for lunch. Good move. He explained me that most of the "Indian" food is the food which Northern Indian cooks prepared for brits during colonial times. Like curry - every family has own recipe in India. He was from Southern India, Goa, and they have specific cuisine influenced by being a former Portuguese colony (and they are Christians).
India is almost a continent of its own, many different cultures (and cuisines, also influenced by religion, like Jaini who not only don't eat meat, but not anything growing underground, no onion or garlic). He cannot even read the writings in his wife's language, or speak it, they need to speak English to each other.
And he gave me tips of a few real Southern style Indian restaurants in our area. You came there and there were mostly Indians, very few Caucasians. Very different food, no tandoori chicken there. Also it was not HOT, but it was very pungent. He said that without the spices, food will go bad in just hour in the heat they have there. He was trying to teach me eating Indian style, picking rice with gravy using small tortilla-like thingies, but it was too hard for me.
In another job I had a colleague from rural Pennsylvania, he was also "food adventurous" - but his style. We (with Indian colleagues) took him, his first time, to bog standard Indian restaurant on the mall. He was talking that food is meat with potato and corn with butter, and gourmet food is to add black pepper on the corn. He could try Indian, but no sushi - a bridge too far.
So yes, I do like Indian cuisine, both Northern and Southern, and many other cuisines. Not too fond of Thai, many American-style recipes are too sweet at
Awesome Cuisine, because sugar is cheaper than spices, and Americans do not like pungent spices. Some are not, but you need to go to a real Thai for that.
