{"id":101,"date":"2012-05-17T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T07:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sibha.online\/wprandom\/2012\/05\/17\/what-is-for-touching\/"},"modified":"2019-06-28T08:58:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T08:58:33","slug":"what-is-for-touching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sibha.in\/RR\/2012\/05\/17\/what-is-for-touching\/","title":{"rendered":"what is for ‘touching’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At home, whenever there is a talk of a meal  \/ tiffin there is always the question of ‘ thottukka  enna ?’  (for the benefit of non tamil speaking, thottukka literally means ‘touching’) , but it is one of those untranslatable words associated with the way some people eat.<\/div>\n
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It is best explained in a scene in the tamil movie ‘nala dhamayanti’. A customs official opens a jar of pickles and asks,  ‘ something eatable’ ; the pallakkad brahman is mortified; and he  exclaims in a thickly accented english ‘no no no no, not eating.. only touching.”<\/div>\n
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It is not seasoning, not garnishing or anything like that. Typically, when you have  curd rice with your  fingers that have just touched a dollop of pickle, well that is ‘thottuka’,<\/div>\n
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Some people  call it a side dish. but it is more than just that. it complements the  main dish from taste, texture, nutrition and health point of view.<\/div>\n
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There is strict code for what can go with what . There is virtually not a single preparation that is complete in itself. What is idli without the coconut chutney or curd rice without a dollop of pickle, particularly, lemon or better still, dry sweet lime pickle.<\/div>\n
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How can one have adai with sambhar?  For a Tanjavoor brahmin,  it is sheer blasphemy to have adai with anything other than jaggery or butter.<\/div>\n
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Curd rice being the most important dish for the ‘Tambra’s has a great many items to go with it. Just the sight of makali kizhangu<\/a>  kindles one’s appetite so much that you end up having double the portion of curd rice; after all you cannot have makali kizhangu without curd rice.<\/div>\n
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While ‘touching’ is so important while eating, at times, a simple touch can render a whole meal uneatable.  Here, we come to the concept of echil (avoiding contact with saliva, like while sipping from a tumbler) and pathu (segregating cooked food from uncooked food)<\/span>.<\/div>\n
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most people can never understand the nuances. But a tamil brahmin can never understand as to<\/div>\n
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