The TamBrahm Spunk (3)

If you have just started following this space and don’t know what I am talking about (because the title should have indicated that this is one in a series of posts!) please click here to read the genesis of all of this! Let there be light!!! (wink)

Well….when people talk of TamBrahms and make fun of them…honestly…I don’t mind it at all 😀 After all the TamBrahm ways of life have had me in splits for way too long. But I have to tell you a TamBrahm incident!!!

Last Sunday, I went to meet a friend of mine…another TamBhahm of course! TamBrahm friends are not the normal ones, you know! It can’t be an ‘I know you, you know me. Period!’ kind of friendship. If you have a TamBrahm friend, your parents have to know their parents and we all have to meet socially in all the kalyam-karthigai! So you have to be ‘family friends’! Hilarious…

Anyways, I went to meet this ‘family friend’ of mine…and I had to travel 3 hours just to get there! Phew…but it had to be done!

After having the usual conversation inquiring the well being of everyone, including the extended family that I haven’t really met (but it is our kalacharam – culture – and has to be followed!), mami announced that sapadu (food, but on that day particularly it was lunch) was ready! My stomach jumped with joy..I could almost feel it! Mami asked whether we should sit on the table or on the ground.

If you have a lavish TamBrahm spread, is it even fair to ask that question??? Obviously, we all sat on the floor in a circle with all the ‘items’ neatly laid out in the center so that everything was accessible. All the rotis and sabzis and daals and papads were forgotten as the smell of typical TamBrahm food wafted through the air and aroused my hunger! I couldn’t wait any longer…my excitement built…I looked at my stomach and indicated with a raised eyebrow and a smile that today is going to be remembered for a long time to come!

One by one the lids came off and I saw what my eyes had been waiting to see 😀 There it was…all of it…And here’s what I ate in the order…Now for those of you who are not TamBrahm, it’s really difficult to explain what all of these mean but maybe it would suffice to say everything was yummy?

Paruppu sadam with very good quality pasu nei

Milagu kozhambu sadam (with lots of poondu  – rare for a TamBrahm meal but I love poondu, so who cares!!!) with the same pasu nei

Another round of milagu kozhambu sadam!

Rasam sadam with kootu

And in the end…like all TamBrahm meals end…

Thair sadam with vadu maanga!!!!

It almost brought tears to my eyes….I haven’t eaten an elaborate TamBrahm spread in ages and while I don’t realize how much I am missing it in my everyday life, on the rare occasions that I get to indulge, I don’t stop myself at all!!! I don’t have to mention that my mom is the best TamBrahm cook (just like all your mothers)…but the food I ate that day was a very very close second!!!

I’m sure the spirit of the post reached out to you! If you’d like to taste some of this awesomeness, I’d love to be your host some day 🙂

Go TamBrahm!!!!!

Advertisement