Re: Garlic and onions
namaste.
In RamaNAshramam, TiruvaNNAmalai, TamilnADu, onion mixed with thick buttermilk (as raita) is served on many days if not daily, during the morning feel offered free around 11 a.m. to devotees present. The buttermilk served here is excellent too.
• In South India, we use two types of onions. The bigger one used to be known as Bellary onion and the smaller is usually known as sAmbAr onion. We periodically prepare sAmbAr using the smaller ones, which taste delicious when seasoned with powdered coriander seeds, tamarind and chili powder. The bigger variety is used in the preparation of the spicy potato curry using boiled and peeled potato cut in large pieces. These two dishes are served in the meal at the Concerns Hotel, Matunga, Bombay (I think even today), on Thursdays, and is popular with the South Indian residents of and visitors to the area.
• We use garlic on two occasions. Peeled garlic cloves boiled in Rasam are used periodically, say once in a month, to balance the pitta-vAyu-kapha humours in the body, that Ayurveda speaks of. And then when a person is affected by frozen phlem that is not easily expectorated in cough, he/she takes at bedtime three or four cloves of garlic boiled in milk, which often proves to be effective.
"brAhmaNAH bhojana priya"--"brahmins are fond of food", so the saying goes, which is proved by the pot-belly sported by many South Indian brahmins!
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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