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Six tastes of Tamil food

In Tamil language we call this as "Arusuvai Unavu".
"Aru" means Six
"Suvai" means Taste
"Unavu" means Food

Tamil people have categorized 6 tastes of food centuries ago. They have also named them to rhyme. All words end in "ppu" as you can see the below table.

Tamil name English name Comments
Inippu Sweet  
Kasappu Bitter  
Kaarppu Spicy  
Pulippu Sour  
Uvarppu Salty  
Thuvarppu No equivalent word in English. Closest could be Astringent This unique taste can be found in betel leaves which we eat after the meal. Equivalent of this taste can be found in Pomegranates, 70% ripe banana, Banana flower (this is edible btw)

In Tamilnadu (and in India in general), people started using a mix of English names and names in native tongue as per their convenience.


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We are passionate about food. In this website we will talk about South Indian food, particularly Tamil food. We have organized the recipes based on veg and non-veg category or You can browse the photos to check out a recipe. Since we are global Indians, we are including few fusion recipes, experimenting different style of food. On each recipe page, you can click on ingredients/spices to learn more about them.

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