Just noticed the bit about you not liking Indian food after I posted, sorry. But you might actually find that what you don't like is the fare you've been offered in Indian restaurants in the US -- most of which tend to focus on North Indian/Moghul cuisine. There are an awful lot of subcultures on the Indian subcontinent, so it might be worth looking at recipes to see if an ingredient list catches your fancy. Like I said, the SDahni books are great, and you can sometimes find some of her recipes reproduced online by bloggers and so forth.