Rasam and tracing the ‘essence’- the rasa – of our food

Rasam and tracing the ‘essence’- the rasa – of our food

Rasam, as we call it, is as fundamental to our food as the very air we breathe, and yet it is the simplest form of a soup. It is a comfort food for us, and to all our South Indian neighbors. When the British came to India, it was the first Indian food that got anglicized. They called it mullaga (chile) water, which eventually evolved into Mulligatawny Soup. Apparently, they liked it so much so that today, in its varied incarnations, it is available the world over.

No rasam is complete without a touch of ginger, a few tomatoes, and certainly not without a few green chilies. Final garnishing of rasam with a few fresh coriander leaves is now considered the most important part of the final presentation.  Master wedding chefs of yesteryear became known for their exquisite rasams. Exotic rasams that we have served during our elaborate wedding feasts included Pineapple rasams, Lemon rasams and even sometimes, and of course very rarely, garlic rasams.  But none of these ingredients are native to India. Even ginger and garlic are considered imports from present day Central and South China. Of course, tomatoes and green chilies are products of the Americas and were introduced to Indian cuisine only during the 16th century. Growing up, I never heard of any of our Grandmas omitting tomato rasam from their food, even though they would most certainly avoid onions and garlic. Even the last standing conservative Brahmins of the South have seamlessly introduced these vegetables into their own rasams for quite a while now.

Though we cannot ascertain when these ‘foreign’ vegetables were introduced into our cuisine, we can certainly get a glimpse of what our ancestors’ food was like by closely studying our Shraddha menu (offerings during the death anniversary of ancestors) and the ingredients that go into it. I believe it is only here we can get an idea of the food and the vegetables we ate at least in the middle ages. You can try a very good Rasam Recipe here!