Saturday, February 12, 2005

Devil's dung

Asafoetida - not the most fragrant of spices in my cupboard. I was never a big fan until I realised that it helps relieve indigestion caused by strong, spicy food. It gets its name from two Latin words 'asa' meaning 'resin' and 'fetid' which means 'bad odour'. Doesn't do the poor spice any favours, does it?
In Tamil, it's called 'perungayam' which means 'big wound'. True, if you have ever had a huge helping of it to relieve a bad case of stomach gas and then doubled over in nausea caused by its foul smell and then hit your head against the sink tap while coming up causing a 'big wound'. Happened?

2 comments:

Houseowner said...

LOL! not me. not yet. just a pinch of the good ol' as in skimmed buttermilk. that's how i do mine! :)

cheers!
ramya

Balakumar said...

Ammani,

I got to your blog thru multiple links and loved everyone of your QTs. I spent quite some time today reading thru them. If I have to stay up late working its thanks to you! But I am not complaining! It was wonderful to read thru these. Extremely touching and striking a chord with each QT. I was disappointed when I got to the first one cause there were no more to read! And so I came onto this post with a sunken heart but crackled up reading thru it. You are a terrific writer. Sensitive and humorous! Hats off Ammani!!

Cheers,
Bala