Monsoon Specials from a Store in Mangalore

Asha: Ooo, been wanting to find some hog plums for a long time! Is that cassia?

Archana: Yes. Tora or tagache soppu.

Asha: My mother used to make thoran with it. She introduced me to so many wild edibles. I still carry all that information in my head. But I would never eat thakara [wild senna] because I found it too bitter as a child.

Archana: Same here—we make thoran and vada too. The way we connect food and memories is lovely. 

Asha: To get me to try cassia, my mother would narrate old sayings to me in Malayalam with the word “Thakara” and what it meant socio-culturally in her childhood. I carry that information around too!