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*a post received from a friend. Enjoy munching, in case of constipitation
I should not be held responsible !!*
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>
> It is assumed by all of us that Idli, Sambar and Coffee are absolutely
> native to us, with an authentic Tamil stamp on them ; and that they are
> integral to our cuisine culture. Interestingly, not so.
> Please read this informative article from The Hindu of date.
> nbs.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From The Hindu. 17 March 2012.
> 21st Century Idli.
> By JANAKI LENIN.
> ( Under the Column My Husband and Other Animals. )
>
> Idli's fermented batter.
>
>
> During these past winter months, my mother went through a lot of
> trouble keeping idli batter warm enough through the night. She even wrapped
> an old woollen sweater around the container. During fermentation, as many
> as 276 species of bacteria belch carbon dioxide and ooze lactic acid into
> the batter. Like all women who are proud of the soft, light fluffiness of
> their idli, my mother made life comfortable for the microbes.
>
> Idli - Not indigenous - Entered South India about 1000 years ago.
>
> For being so quintessentially south Indian, the process of making idli may
> not be indigenous at all. Between the 8th and 12th centuries, we south
> Indians borrowed fermenting and steaming techniques from Indonesia, both
> critical to idli preparation as we know it today. { Note : Learnt
> actually from China, through South East route.}
>
> Sambar - Not a Tamil Nadu original - Got it from Marathas, just about 300
> years ago !!
>
> Idli is a vehicle for sambhar to go down. And my compadres are renowned to
> put it away by the gallon. The disappointing news is sambhar is not south
> Indian either.
>
> Marathi amti is flavoured by kokum, a concentrate made from the fruit of a
> forest tree in the Western Ghats. When Sambhaji, a Maratha king who ruled
> Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, in the 18th century, ran out of kokum from his
> homeland, he substituted tamarind which was brought to India thousands of
> years ago from Africa. Thus sambhar was born and named for its gourmet
> progenitor, Sambhaji. South Indians uniquely coupled Idli, whose texture
> is Indonesian with Sambar, an Afro-Marathi stew and made it our own.
>
> Coffee - From Ethiopi - Entered Tamil Nadu two generations ago only.
>
> We wash that delectable Idli - Sambar breakfast down with cups of coffee.
> Coffee
> may be from Ethiopia but south Indians brew a sweet and mean ‘filter kapi'.
> In my family, the “tradition” of drinking this beverage began with my
> parent's generation. My grandparents and great-grandparents drank coffee
> only on special occasions. One great-grandmother drank a non-caffeinated
> beverage made of roasted coriander seeds and dried ginger called ‘coriander
> coffee'. She may not have known that coriander was domesticated in the
> Mediterranean and ginger probably in Southeast Asia.
>
> Europe - Chinese noodles lead to spaghetti.
>
> Cooking techniques and foreign ingredients fertilised Europe too.
> According to one story, Marco Polo introduced Chinese noodles, which later
> became spaghetti, to his homeland in the 13th century, while another story
> suggests that noodles may have followed ancient trade routes preceding the
> intrepid traveller by centuries. However, many believe pasta is a
> home-grown invention. Whatever be pasta's past, tomatoes in the sauce are
> without a doubt American. Like south Indians, Italians borrowed elements
> from elsewhere to come up with spaghetti smothered in tomato sauce.
>
> Non- Indian origin vegetables - Includes Pumpkin !!
>
> Many of the vegetables we use every day – cabbage, potato, pumpkin, carrot,
> and beans – are not Indian.
>
> What did we eat before this cornucopia arrived on our shores? Perhaps
> some gourds, leafy vegetables, some legumes, a range of yams, parts of
> banana trees like pith, flowers, and green fruit. None of which Rom (
> Author's husband ) will touch, not even with a fork at the end of a barge
> pole.
>
> Our elders ate a lot of wild games.
>
> However, any mention of the wild game ancient south Indians may have eaten
> is enough to make his carnivorous palate salivate.
>
> Should we continue with the same type of Idli and sambar - Frozen in Time.
>
> Two decades ago, friends and cousins of my generation left for the U.S.
> with heavy pressure cookers in their suitcases. Now, for grinding idli
> batter, nephews and nieces pack heavier “wet grinders” which even come in
> 110 volt versions. Not content serving us idli in their homes, when we
> visit them in California, they proudly take us to the nearest Udupi
> restaurant. It's as if we never left home.
>
> Our fore fathers did not mind adding foreign origin foods.
>
> The origin of plant species interests me greatly. If African tamarind
> flavoured many a dish long before Sambhaji concocted sambhar, I wondered
> what our cuisine was like before being influenced by foreign elements.
> Instead of finding recipes with native plant parts, I discovered that,
> unlike us, our forefathers and mothers were global citizens borrowing
> cooking techniques and experimenting with imported ingredients.
>
> We, their conservative descendents, however, have eaten the idli in the
> same form for nine centuries at least. Even in the far reaches of the
> globe, we stick to ancient recipes, instead of allowing spores of change to
> take the dumpling through another gastronomic leap.
> *
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