Sambar: taste is enough. Does history matter?
Last two decades have seen “eating out” grow manifold in India and restaurants catering to every taste bud, and all possible “global cuisine” opening up. Along with the burgers and pizzas, the idli, vada, sambar have also kept pace. By-product of the booming “eating out” culture has been the number of food writers, researchers and bloggers. They wouldn’t leave the humble idli to the Tamilians, but say, hey trace its origins, it came from, sometimes Arabia, sometimes Indonesia. But, idli’s famous restaurant created accompaniment sambar has a story of its own. The Udupi boys had brought it to Mumbai, and Matunga Gujaratis queue up to slurp them, and many have tried to credit the Marathas for our “saambhar”. I have always been doubtful of the sambar lineage being traced back to the Shahaji Bhonsale’s kitchen in the Thanjavur palace. Though the story by now is very popular, let me recount it here, straight from the social media post that is attributed to historian and writer...