Mulligatawny

Mulligatawny

Origin
Alternative name(s)	rasam
Place of origin	India
Region or state	Tamilnadu (India)
Details
Type	Soup
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredient(s)	Meat (chicken meat, beef, or lamb), rice, curry

Mulligatawny (from Tamil மிளகு தண்ணீர்)/ˌmʌlɨɡəˈtɔːni/ is a curry-flavoured soup of Anglo-Indian origin.

Translated literally from Tamil, "Mulligatawny" or "Milagu thanni" means "pepper water" ("Millagu" means pepper and "thanni" means water). The dish the Anglo-Indians call "pepper water" is actually closer to Tamil ரசம்-rasam (pronounced russ-um) than "mulligatawny".

There are many variations on the recipe for mulligatawny. In the West, the soup typically has a turmeric-like yellow colour and chicken meat, beef, or lamb meat. Often it is thickened with rice.

Cultural references

• Dr. Seuss used the term to refer to a fanciful creature in his book If I Ran the Zoo. The young zookeeper wannabe says, “I’ll capture them wild and I’ll capture them scrawny, I’ll capture a scraggle-foot mulligatawny.”
• In Tom Stoppard's play Indian Ink, two characters compete to use as many English words of Indian origin, as listed in the Hobson-Jobson glossary, as possible. One line reads: "I was buying chutney in the bazaar when a thug who had escaped from the chokey ran amok and killed a box-wallah for his loot, creating a hullabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny".
• Mulligatawny was featured in the hit American sitcom Seinfeld in episode 116 entitled "The Soup Nazi". Jerry, George and Elaine go out to a new soup stand Kramer has been raving about; its owner is referred to as the "Soup Nazi", due to his temperament and insistence on a strict manner of behavior while ordering. The episode repeatedly describes mulligatawny as one of the Soup Nazi's tastiest soups.

See also

• Dal