One of the Google finds for the word ‘pickle’ claims that this form of food was originally practiced in Mesopotamia 4000 years ago. It also says the word ‘pickle’ is rooted from Dutch ‘pekel’.
You won’t find a lunch plate in South India without a spoonful of pickle. While pickle is generally made with lemon or mango in India, one should not be surprised to taste pickle made of Green Chilly, Ginger, Garlic, Gooseberry or even Dry Fish.
In Tamil, pickle is called as ‘Oorukaai’. Despite googled history, interestingly the word ‘Oorukaai’ is often an example for a Tamil grammatical concept called ‘Vinaiththokai’. 'Vinaiththokai, in simple words, is combination of a noun and a verb but denotes all three tenses. It essentially means as what (verb) a noun does across all three ages of tenses.
In the case of ‘Oorukaai’, it denotes - a vegetable (noun) was soak(verb)ing, is soaking and will be soaking forever.
Now imagine cut mango soaking in salty juice for long time, spiced and you have that in your meal plate. Mouthwatering isn’t it?
PC - Mango Pickles made at Neithal Marabu Angaadi with organic ingredients
Please post in Tamil.