Rasam

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Any meal gets interesting with this South Indian speciality 'Rasam'.. I am tempted to talk about it today as I had made Rasam this afternoon and all of us had a hearty meal with Rasam receiving applause:-)

It is wonders of wonders coming to think of the simplest tactic of making water as tasty as it can get :) Rasam has water, tamarind, chilli, asafoetida/garlic, sugar, a special powder that has a lot of spices and grams, tomatoes and coriander... If you want to learn to make Rasam contact the nearest South Indian home... if there are no South Indians around, try Google. :-)

Rasam in Today's Tamil language means "Juice", in Malayalam means "nice and entertaining", in theory means "taste".. Hey, wait I have not had a chance to Google this.. these are just my thoughts.. :)

Karnataka, India takes the first place in making Rasam.. followed by Tamil Nadu...

Northern India has a dish called Shorbha which seems to belong to the Rasam family...

In some of the South Indian homes, no meal is deemed complete without this dish called 'Rasam'.

It is a South Indian equivalent of today's soups... a good appetizer... :)

Rasam is the first dish that any South Indian baby is introduced to after the regular Farex stint gets over.... :)

There are so many varieties of Rasam.. I know of a house where they make at least fourteen varieties of Rasam .. So in effect you get to have the same kind of Rasam only once in two weeks... :)

Rasam has medicinal values... If you have a bad cold/fever and you are in a South Indian house, you will get to have Pepper Rasam for sure...

People love Rasam so much that they have managed to add pineapple pieces in it thus making a new, " not-bad-after-all" Rasam called Pineapple Rasam..

Rasam although simple to make, is an art... as much as coffee making is... :)

Comments

shobs said…
Being an Iyengaar, Rasam or Satumadu as we call it, is an integral part of our food. When I think of home food, rasam is the MOST imp part of it. My mom makes probably 5 varierties of rasam, but I have an aunt who know 25 rasam recipes. I plan to document and publish them soon :)
8:54 AM
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