Six tastes

In your book, Our Wondrous World (Chapter 5), the school holds a food festival. Mukesh and his friends visit a stall called 'Mystery Masala'. The food there tastes a little sweet, a little salty and a bit bitter too! Everyone laughs and guesses what is in it.

The children at the stall explain that it is Ugadi Pachadi, a traditional food of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. It is made with six different tastes.

The six tastes, with an example of each, are: sweet (meetha), like jaggery; sour (khatta), like tamarind; salty (namkeen), like salt; pungent (teekha), like green chilli; bitter (karva), like neem; and astringent (kasaila), like raw mango.

In Ayurveda, the six tastes are called 'shad rasa'. Ayurveda says that eating balanced food with all six tastes is good for health.