Shaaka Paakam- Vegetarian Culinary Culture Of Telugu (Andhra) Draavida Community Of South India

The purpose of this book is to present the traditional vegetarian recipes of a specific region in the vast Indian subcontinent and thereby illustrate a part of this vast diversity by focusing on the traditional vegetarian cooking practiced in the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India. There are variations even within this region and the presentation here pertains to a specific region in Northern Andhra Pradesh where our ancestors lived for several centuries. Indian food is often identified with curry and the menu is standardized into a set of items and marketed worldwide with minor variations. People are increasingly being forced by circumstances to fit themselves into a lifestyle that is dominated by globally marketed menu. Vegetarian food isregarded worldwide as healthy. In reality, the variety of Indian vegetarian food items alone is as vast as the Subcontinent itself and capturing all its rich diversity in a single book is by no means a simple task. Despite the availability of a gallery of cook books, the absence of a single comprehensive publication on this subject is therefore understandable. One often finds only a broad classification into North- and South-Indian cooking but no further focus on the finer and nicer elements of the vast mosaic of the actual reality. There is no serious attempt in this book to present the nutritional and medicinal values of the various food materials and their use in recipes in this book. The Encyclopedia of life Support Systems (EOLSS) now available online at www.eolss.net may be consulted for such information.