I was watching sun TV a couple of days ago and the sanga kaala samayal caught my eye.
Apparently, ulundhu varuval was an ancient dish - 2000 yrs earlier (involved mustard,curry leaves, turmeric and ghee).
Also, there was a statement on the beginning for the dish Sambar, finding its roots from Thuvaram paruppu kalavai,in the north, Thuvaram paruppu was then called as 'Sambaram'.
Prior to that - 'Mohana kalavai' was used, a mixture between, herbs - ulutham paruppu - tender coconut.
That was different from what some one wrote in this forum on Sambar (Samboji king created the dish using tamarind instead of mango pulp etc).
I remember in 2004 / 2005 GRT grand days conducted a "sangakala samayal" - I enjoyed that. Thakkli charu, thuvarai kari and few thuvayal !! MMMmmmm. Andhu oru kaalam ;))
Do we have the recipes the way it was 1000yrs ago ?
cut out tomatoes, potatoes, chochlate, ice , chillys, refined sugar and a few hundred things from our daily menu and it would closely resemble the food of the ancients.
Thank you Venkat, yes i have a blog in the works but lack of time..i have tons of material related to food history and definitely want to get it out sometime..Vairam and Vijay , great inspirations and not at all sure how they find time!!
As far as this person's question - receipes from 100 years ago??? Very improbable...cooks did not start writing down recipes in our time till 75 years or so ago max. Our cooking was hugely based on instinct and hand-me-down recipes. Besides cooking evolves continuesly with various forms of ingredients and technology to add to it. If you like read a copy of Meenakshi Ammal's Samaithu Paar, the oldest tamil cookbook available in print. Sambar as she says can be made in half a dozen ways as of now - powders, ready made mixes, masala hand ground, partially hand ground, ground with mixie, or in rare cases by hand...take your choice..Most of the time it is some odd mixture of these things. There is nothing that reflects change in society more accurately than food habits...more on this later :))
Ravi, i searched my collection - there is no reference of sambaram being referred to as ulutham paruppu anywhere (does not mean it does not exist). Sambaram has two meanings - neer mor or diluted buttermilk (sanskrit), and festivity (telugu).
If I find anything more will surely post, till then the Sambaji story might be valid :))
Disclaimer: that info was not mine but was from Sun TV - sanga kaala samayal.
Here again:
Sambaram was related to thuvaram paruppu not ulutham paruppu (please read so)... Mohana kalavai contained ulutham paruppu (which was apparently native to our own chola vala naadu).