Even though I filed this recipe from my mother under South Indian, I also tagged it as fusion. Mostly, this is because I often substitute in quinoa in place of the more traditional white rice, as demonstrated by the photos. However I would like to point out that Thakkali Sadam itself, even when using rice, is an old example of fusion cuisine to begin with. Two key ingredients for tomato rice—tomatoes and chili—both originally hail from the New World. This dish didn’t exist in India before the time of Columbus. Which goes to show that the food we call fusion today may be called traditional a century from now. Imagine Italy without tomatoes, Ireland without potatoes, South and Southeast Asia without chili peppers. (I can’t.). Cuisine, and culture, both evolve constantly.
