FOOD HABITS OF TAMILS // PART:27 [end]

                                                                                            ((Compiled by: Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam))

Believe it or not, the food that we eat provides a significant impression of who we are.Take, for example, the increasingly popular Food Network, which broadcasts chefs from around the country who spotlight their “unique perspectives on food” or regional dining preferences.These chefs express their lifestyles and backgrounds through the foods that they prepare.Whether Mediterranean,Indian or ancient Japanese, the kinds of foods we choose to cook,eat,and share with our friends present a picture of our cultural being.

Throughout most of history, bonds and shared cultures have been created when meals are prepared and shared.We need to bring the importance of community back into food.Our heritage is often passed down and intimately bound up in the food we eat. Food availability, climate and cooking techniques,evolved over many generations have united individuals and groups of people into a distinct culture.

If we do not take the time to teach the younger generations how to cook and interact with food they will not be able to engage with their culture and bond with the past.Sharing food and cooking techniques with family and friends gives them a chance to learn about your culture.Giving the cultures a taste,a smell,a feeling can increase respect and understanding between groups of people.The emotional impact that sharing food has on individuals,family or groups of people cannot be underestimated.The intimate first date,family celebration,business meal or a major festive event helps develop relationships and if combined with traditional food reinforces cultural identity.

In essence, traditional foods are those whole and ancient foods that have been eaten

for centuries and even millennia.They are the foods that your great-great-great-great-great grandmother and grandfather would have eaten.They are simple,naturally grown or raised,nutrient-dense, thoughtfully prepared-which nourished our ancestors throughout history and prehistory prior to the advent of the industrialization of food.The industrialization of food largely began in the 19th century and entrenched itself in standard diets of the 20th and 21st centuries.I am now giving below latest Tamil movie songs from"Vaakai sooda vaa",which tells about few present day tamilian foods.

"Šara Šara Šaara Kathu Veesum Pøthum

Šir ah Paarthu Paesum Pøthum

Šara Paambu Pøla Nenju Šaththam Pøduthey..

Why are you waiting for the heat to get cold as if I am ‘Tea’

When the cold wind blows and when I look at him and talk

My heart thumps like a rattle snake 

Do you like our village? Is our water sweet?

Does the liver cooked in the village air, smell good?

Shall I catch a country chicken, shall I cook three measures?

So that you will think of me, when you bite the bones

Come and taste the rice and be enamored by the hand that cooked it,

I have prepared rasam[a tamilian soup] to allure you, 

I have prepared two dosai and am waiting for you

I have kept three-eyed palm fruit[palmyra fruit].

But you fool, want Ganga river ?"[from Tamil move,வாகை சூட வா/Vaakai sooda vaa/2011]

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