I can only imagine what those blokes from the newly formed British East India Company must have thought when they first sampled south India’s tamarind-tart, black-pepper-smothered molagha tanni (“pepper water,”). Perhaps it was a shock to their senses, much like India itself—too many disparate flavors commingling in one thin-bodied broth. Over the course of time, the south Indian cooks learned to appease their sahibs by toning down the sl