Dietary habits of TBs

[vgane]

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I remember that as a child we were not allowed to taste water melon...I do not know the reason for this...Is it because it was considered impure as it grew at all slushy places...Not sure..Now right from taking water melon fruit to taking juice it is considered as a heath drink

We never used to make kari (sabji) and Kootu with garlic in our Tambrahm food....Now being in North we never make a Dhal without garlic, onion and Tomato mix...Chenna tastes lousy without this masala mix...My mother does not relish the taste of masala...But I like it as I am conditioned to the masala taste from a young age

In our young days we were made to drink castor oil once in 3-4 months...It cleanses our stomach completely..Post this we used to have a garlic rasam which we used to relish...Now we have mostly forgotten this tradition

 

[Raji Ram]

......... In our young days we were made to drink castor oil once in 3-4 months...It cleanses our stomach completely..Post this we used to have a garlic rasam which we used to relish...Now we have mostly forgotten this tradition

I too remember those days!
But 'castor oil' treatment was always followed by 'jeerA rasam', which we fondly named as 'bEdhikku rasam'!! ound:

 

[kunjuppu]

I remember that as a child we were not allowed to taste water melon...I do not know the reason for this...Is it because it was considered impure as it grew at all slushy places...Not sure..Now right from taking water melon fruit to taking juice it is considered as a heath drink

We never used to make kari (sabji) and Kootu with garlic in our Tambrahm food....Now being in North we never make a Dhal without garlic, onion and Tomato mix...Chenna tastes lousy without this masala mix...My mother does not relish the taste of masala...But I like it as I am conditioned to the masala taste from a young age

In our young days we were made to drink castor oil once in 3-4 months...It cleanses our stomach completely..Post this we used to have a garlic rasam which we used to relish...Now we have mostly forgotten this tradition

vgane,

i guess you are one of the few members here, who is domiciled north of the vindhyas. good.

i look upon this with a sense of nostalgia. in the 50 thru 70s, my dad had about 60 cousins in the north, 40 of them in mumbai alone. today there is hardly any left in mumbai, delhi or calcutta. not to say of ahmedabad, cuttack, derahdun or jamshedpur - all once thriving with tambram communities i hear, but no more.

my father's cousins' children have spread themselves all over the world, or have married locally, as with this generation, the concept of arranged marriage seems to have disappeared in my family. i imagine the parents have accepted all these unions, as i have not heard of any discordant notes - most of the marriages being to north indian brahmins or banias.

i did not taste masala till i was 18 and in the hostels. took me 3 years to get liking it. nowadays, it is there for all dhal type or dhal originated food. have not tasted poondu rasam as yet.

we used to have castor oil once every 6 months, and the closing session was crowned by a simple molagu rasam and chutta pappadam, palakkad style

it stopped when i was early teens, not because of my parents' loss of faith in the purgatory process, but simply because my sister, 8 years younger than me, plain refused to take it - under the threat of screaming her head off and bringing home the whole neighbourhood. with a sibling refusing, and that too much younger, my parents gave up insistence on me taking it too.

i guess i owe my sis something for this. i had never the guts to protest the way she did. which she successfully carried out several times during her growing up years, culminating in a love marriage too (iyer boy ofcourse).

 

[vgane]

I too remember those days!
But 'castor oil' treatment was always followed by 'jeerA rasam', which we fondly named as 'bEdhikku rasam'!! ound:

I think may be there is a difference between different regions..In Tanjore we used to have garlic + Omam (carom seeds) rasam after the castor..

 

[Raji Ram]

............. 1. we used to have castor oil once every 6 months, and the closing session was crowned by a simple molagu rasam and chutta pappadam, palakkad style ...........

2. ... i had never the guts to protest the way she did. which she successfully carried out several times during her growing up years, culminating in a love marriage too (iyer boy ofcourse).

Dear Kunjuppu Sir,

1. Were you not given the special rasam (watery without much 'kAram') to make you run to the toilet, at least four times?

2. There is a proverb, மூத்தது மோழை, இளையது காளை.

மோழை = கொம்பில்லா விலங்கு. [ஏழையைக் கண்டால் மோழையும் பாயும் - (பழமொழி)]

 

[Raji Ram]

I think may be there is a difference between different regions..In Tanjore we used to have garlic + Omam (carom seeds) rasam after the castor..

I have not tasted garlic till I was in a hostel (P U C) at the age of 15.

The non bram cooks used to make 'poondu rasam' always but I never used to like it.

Till today, I avoid garlic. But my d i l is an expert in making 'poondu rasam'!! :thumb:

 

[kunjuppu]

Dear Kunjuppu Sir,

1. Were you not given the special rasam (watery without much 'kAram') to make you run to the toilet, at least four times?

2. There is a proverb, மூத்தது மோழை, இளையது காளை.

மோழை = கொம்பில்லா விலங்கு. [ஏழையைக் கண்டால் மோழையும் பாயும் - (பழமொழி)]

molagu rasam was a staple in our home, as mom was brought up in a town with thursday chandai and invariably wednesdays were molagu rasam days with chutta pappadam for dinner.

i think the rasam had reduced kaaram, but then with such a sore kundi, and a exhaustion out of about 15 visits to london (yes that is what we called our toilet when we were growing up as my father could not bear to hear the word kakkoos), anything with a taste was welcome.

till today, i shudder even at the smell of decoctioncoffee as it reminds of the castor oil mixed with it. it was a cruelty that i hated. after giving it up, i felt no better no worse over the years. mercifully both mrs k felt the same as i did, and we spared the children such agony.

my chithi used kadukkai instead of castor. i think that was worse.

 

[Raji Ram]

'Visit to London' is KLB language I guess. Even in our family, it was the usage!

:gossip: Very recently I wrote to Renu about this!

 

[vgane]

'Visit to London' is KLB language I guess. Even in our family, it was the usage!

:gossip: Very recently I wrote to Renu about this!

I guess London was used with No 2 quite frequently among others also (not only Tambrams)

 

[v arun kumar]

molagu rasam was a staple in our home, as mom was brought up in a town with thursday chandai and invariably wednesdays were molagu rasam days with chutta pappadam for dinner.

i think the rasam had reduced kaaram, but then with such a sore kundi, and a exhaustion out of about 15 visits to london (yes that is what we called our toilet when we were growing up as my father could not bear to hear the word kakkoos), anything with a taste was welcome.

till today, i shudder even at the smell of decoctioncoffee as it reminds of the castor oil mixed with it. it was a cruelty that i hated. after giving it up, i felt no better no worse over the years. mercifully both mrs k felt the same as i did, and we spared the children such agony.

my chithi used kadukkai instead of castor. i think that was worse.

hahahahhah, Castor day mostly Sundays, felt I could run away from home more than me, I remember the infants being given it through the paladai, gurgling and spitting it, but the grandmas used to one up in the babies, they used to hold the nose, and give it. we used to have molagu koyambhu, but then hardly helped in stopping the flow. It is sad sir, that you started hating coffee, because as a TB if there is one thing that we can feel attached to it is the strong filter coffee, which can put costa coffee and caffe coffee day to shame.

 

[v arun kumar]

Yes even today lot of people refer to 'London'. I wonder why it was not Paris or Rangoon.

 

[Raji Ram]

Yes even today lot of people refer to 'London'. I wonder why it was not Paris or Rangoon.

I guess because of the hatred towards 'paRangi durai-s'!!

 

[v arun kumar]

I have grown up disliking the smell of garlic, because it was never part of the staple diet, inspite of living in delhi for now 40 years, never got used to the smell, when the world is going crazy over Garlic Breads and stuff like that, and normal routine buffets both at work ensure that the garlic smell holds the upper hand because it gives them a taste of Non veg. When people are litteraly falling over the food, they seemed surprised when I am hardly impressed by the food. but yes there are pockets in UP, where Onion & Garlic are Taboo, communities like the Jains avoid them too.

 

[kunjuppu]

hahahahhah, Castor day mostly Sundays, felt I could run away from home more than me, I remember the infants being given it through the paladai, gurgling and spitting it, but the grandmas used to one up in the babies, they used to hold the nose, and give it. we used to have molagu koyambhu, but then hardly helped in stopping the flow. It is sad sir, that you started hating coffee, because as a TB if there is one thing that we can feel attached to it is the strong filter coffee, which can put costa coffee and caffe coffee day to shame.

vgane,

let me explain. i love coffee. have it daily, grind the roast and made fresh into a thick decoction in an espresso thingamajig over the gas stove. .

i take 2 kgs of narasu's coffee each time i come to india. moreover narasus is available here in toronto . so i still get my indian peaberryarabica blend. yeah!!

what i cannot stand is the thin decoction left alone in a tumbler..brings back memories that i would rather forget.

coffee? hate? me? never!!!

 

[vgane]

hahahahhah, Castor day mostly Sundays, felt I could run away from home more than me, I remember the infants being given it through the paladai, gurgling and spitting it, but the grandmas used to one up in the babies, they used to hold the nose, and give it. we used to have molagu koyambhu, but then hardly helped in stopping the flow. It is sad sir, that you started hating coffee, because as a TB if there is one thing that we can feel attached to it is the strong filter coffee, which can put costa coffee and caffe coffee day to shame.

The milagu kozhambu with paruppu thogaiyal was another great combination after taking castor oil ...A type of pathiya sappadu...Cleanses our system and supposed to give immunity too

 

[kunjuppu]

The milagu kozhambu with paruppu thogaiyal was another great combination after taking castor oil ...A type of pathiya sappadu...Cleanses our system and supposed to give immunity too

only chutta pappadam & molagu rasam in our household.

i would imagine, that paruppu thogaiyal, with coconut in it, would be a challenge to the already exhausted digestive system/track. hence had to wait till the next morn for any sign of decent food .

and molagu kozhambu? we call it vetha kozhambu and it has all the forbidden stuff - molagai, puLi and all the other spices..guaranteed to drill a hole in the stomach in their pure form

 

[Raji Ram]

Wow! How many changes in food habits in each family! We were told that the thin + less kAram jeerA rasam was to make us

visit the toilet often, till our digestive track is cleared!! Mom used to give four to five doses of about 100 ml rasam. When we

are exhausted, 'thachchi mammu' with a bit of 'nArthangAi' was the cool diet in the afternoon!


Coffee: The second decoction coffee, deliberately given to unsolicited guests, is for sure 'veLakkeNNai coffee'!! I don't make

second decoction any day! Mom presented an electric coffee maker but I use the filter jug only as the usual coffee filter

(stainless steel). Pour hot water into the jug and wait for the first extract. I drink a not-so-strong coffee but only with the first

decoction. I feel that the Indian electric coffee maker heats up the decoction and reduces the flavour in coffee.

 

[renuka]

'Visit to London' is KLB language I guess. Even in our family, it was the usage!

:gossip: Very recently I wrote to Renu about this!

Dear RR ji,

I remember!LOL

 

[vgane]

Another drink is the milagu kashayam...In case we were unwell mom always used to prepare the milagu kashayam...Supposed to be a good home remedy for coughs..It used to be served hot...Quite difficult to have..But we were advised to have it..With watery eyes & nose blocked the kasahyam used to be intense..The stomach used to burn..We then add a teaspoon of sugar to cool the tongue and stomach..But that was mom's way of treating cough.. useful though!

 

[v arun kumar]

sorry to be harping on food here, but would everyone mind listing out the one menu item that they miss in life, like something that someone u knew used to prepare, and now u cant get it anywhere