So I've eaten everything from sardines and toast to balut. I have never really found foods I don't enjoy, except for Indian food..and balut but that's a whole other story.
I find it's always the same, overkill on spices, sauce and rice. It's very unappealing to me for some reason. Almost seems very...lacking in textures, visuals and the flavors are typically just overpowering of cumin. Sometimes it's been fancy and I had sauce on rice, with a side of more sauces. There never seems to be substance to the foods but sauce and rice.
Granted I haven't explored too much with Indian food but it always looks the same to me. Saying just sauce might be a bit harsh, sometimes it more like stew because there's chunks of chicken or whatnot but it's always the same flavor.
Can you recommend something from Indian culture that isn't what I have described above?
Pakora are fried veggies, samosa is pastry, paneer is cheese, naan is bread. You can eat any of those with rice and sauce, but you can also have them without. Indian food has a lot of variation on flavours, texture, visuals, as expected from any cuisine with such a rich history.
No because "overkill on spices, sauce and rice" is subjective. If "it’s always the same flavor" then either 1) you're keep ordering the same stuff 2) the restaurants you've been to do lowest cost easy menus 3) it's not the same flavor but it looks like so to you because you're not used to it.
Next time ask the server for "solid food, no liquids" instead.