What is a good cuisine for a college student and enthusiastic cook to learn?

I'm not the type of college student who lives off ramen and kraft dinner. I love cooking, and keep my kitchen full of fresh vegetables, meats and grains. I have a reportiore of some really good meals, but I'd like to expand my horizons and learn the ins and outs of a particular cuisine.

I originally wanted to do Indian food, but a little bit of research showed that all the Indian restaurant dishes I love take the better part of a day to prepare. I'm busy, so I want food that takes 1 or 2 hours, tops. I'm thinking Thai- I looooove the flavor, but I'm worried that the fresh seasonings like limes, basil, and lemongrass might run up my expenses.

My food budget is about $50 a week. I have a pretty well fitted kitchen, and I could drop some money on 1 or 2 reasonably priced new pieces of equipment. I would prefer to use foods that can sit in a fridge for a while, because I can't shop that often.

Thanks for all input!

I would go with Mediterranean: it's healthy, versatile & wont break your bank! Rice, pasta, couscous, veggies, olive oil...

It encompasses: spain, italy, greece,france, turkey, morocco, tunisia....best of all worlds

If you aren't to worried about health, you have good weather most of the time, you college has the little waist high grills outside etc., and maybe you could purchase a bbq pit on of these days... bbq and grilling might be somethin for ya. The strong points for this type of food would be 1)Longevity... that bbq lasts a long long time in the fridge 2)You can prep alot of it at once making it time consuming... but not so much so 3)It can be social... if you've got time for friends that is 4)Extremely versatile and much room for impovisation.

If you do try this... try charcoal out at first... then depending on what you have access to, try different types of woods (mesquite is my personal preference). Try all sorts of meats and lots of marinades, rubs, and sauces. Don't like what a recipe tells you for a spice rub? Make it up. Great genre of food if you can get into it. And no... its not fancy Greek or Indian but damn its gooood :)

roasted garlic herb chicken
so simple i know---
but there is so much you can do with it
you can add whatever herbs and spices to chicken
to get the flavor/cuisine you want

There are many Indian dishes that can be prepared in a short time. You must have many ingredients though, to make an authentic curry for example. The ingredients you mentioned for Thai cuisine will not break you. They are "seasoning" not huge parts of the dish.

You might try Greek food (sans the garlic, if you're eating it for lunch). That's what I did in college- it's not expensive, and dishes like moussaka (eggplant, beef, onions and spices) and spanakopita keep great in the fridge, and are even better the next day.
You might also try Morrocan or Middle Eastern food (skewered meat and veggies don't keep long, but they are easy to make in under 10 minutes)
Italian is also good, and some dishes keep great. Thai is awesome, and it's not all that expensive if you plan in advance.For example, buy basil, use some of it in a Thai dish, then make pesto with the rest. The pesto will keep in the fridge, and if you use pistachios instead of pine nuts, it's not expensive.

Don't know who gave you info on Indian cooking. Most Indian house holds have one ready made family curry mix that serves as base for most of their cooking and then it takes hardly ten minutes to cook any Indian curry dish.Here is the recipe for
Curry - in - hurry

2 tbs veg. oil
2 large onion sliced
Whole spice (5/6 peppercorn, 4/5 clove, 3/4 cardamon pods)
1 inch ginger chopped
7/8 garlic flakes chopped
1 green chili chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala (mix spice) powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander seeds powder
1/2 tsp cumin seed powder

Heat oil in large frying pan
Add ginger, garlic, green chili and fry for 1 minute.
Add onion and whole spice and fry till onion is golden brown.
Add tomato and rest of the spices and further cook on slow fire till tomatoes are cooked and oil starts to leave the mixture. Stop cooking and allow the mixture to cool completely. Put the mixture in blender and make a fine paste. Fill this in a air tight jar and store it in a refrigerator (Will last up to 10 days). Use as and when necessary with veg or non-veg dishes and garnish with finely chopped fresh coriander leaves.
Usually one would add yogurt, coconut milk, tomato paste, cashew paste as per recipe and you are home.

I'll give you a curry recipe that won't take much of your time. I learned this recipe from my Punjabi husband.

Chicken or Pork Curry
1 medium sized chicken or 1 kilo pork, lean if you want or with a bit of fat - it'll taste nicer.
Blend the following ingredients: 4 medium sized onions, about 4 cloves garlic, 2.5 cm ginger
Make into paste: 3 tbsp Curry Powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp chili powder (turmeric and chili powder is optional but it gives an oomp to the dish and you can adjust it accordingly.)
1 cinnamon stick
2 or 3 star anise
curry leaf - optional
oil
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in the wok. Put in the cinnamon stick, and star anise, fry until fragrant.
2. Add the blended ingredients, together with the curry leaf. The add in the curry paste. Fry until oil starts to come out.
3. Add the chicken or pork. Add a bit of water. Lower the fire. Stir it once in a while. Add salt according to taste, stir.
4. When the oil starts to come out, close the fire and dish out.

This is best eaten with hot rice, salad made of onion, red chili, pineapple, capsicum, tomatoes with a bit of vinegar or lemon and salt.

Hope this help.

i would recommend to not just stop at one cuisine why not try a lot off diff one start out with the dishes that are basic in that cuisine and that way it wont get that expensive and you wont get tierd of the same cuisine for example start out with the basic italian with pastas and fresh herbs! when you get to the italian dishes that get to complex well that means your bill will go up right!! well then stop italian cuisine uses alot of fresh items but it used alot of aged items aswell you could use pastas that can sit in your pantry for a reasonable time!! you can go to your local farmers market and buy fresh herbs that are still in their pots for about $2 to $4 dollars that way they will last you along time if you take care of them the worst you can do it go to your local grocery store and buy herbs that are packed up and pay more than $6 bucks for them and the most you can get out of them would be one week!!!
you can go into central american cuisine we use alot of root veggies that are not expensive if you go to a latin grocery store that focus on latin food!
for me its all about changing up