Often, we're asked, what does TAARKA mean?

Besides being a quartet made up of mandolin, violin, bass, and percussion, playing music it calls "seismic-gypsy hypno jazz," taarka is a word with many definitions (and we keep finding more):

  • We came up with the name on a spring day in 2002, when Enion, who loves to cook, especially indian food, thought of it: the word which describes roasting spices to create the base for an indian culinary delicacy. There are two kinds of t(a)arkas - wet and dry. A wet t(a)arka is a mix of garlic, ginger and onions sauteed in ghee. A dry t(a)arka is a mixture of whole spices, dry-roasted or fried in oil, til the seeds begin to pop. Yum! Taarka is in fact the sound of the spices roasting...WOW!.
  • In Poland, the device with which one shreds vegetables. This device is known as a Mandolin in English cooking practice.
  • In Tibetan: Walnut
  • T(a)arka is also the daughter of the demon suriya in Hindu mythology - a most evil demoness.
  • In Magyar, the language of Hungary: Colorful
  • A hand-made Flute from Bolivia, which plays a 5 note scale.
  • The last name of a celebrated Estonian folksinger - Haimila Taarka.
  • In the ever-more-popular Grand Unified Theory in modern physics, which states that the smallest states of matter - quarks, leptons, and other subatomic particles - are not particulate, but are composed of strings of energy which vibrate in different ways to create different "particle behaviors," taarka is the term used to describe the vibration of the strings.
  • Tarka (note the single 'a') is a heart medication, which, as a Missoula, Montana rag informed us, causes nausea, diarrhea, constipation (?!), and dizziness. This should explain why we use 2 a's instead of one in the definitions where one is the norm.
  • The residue left on the inside of your skull when you wake up from a really great dream (a chemical fact!)
  • A village in Tunisia.
  • A Croatian Noodle Dish.
  • A town/train station/otter in England.

    • If you find a definition and you want to send it to us (legit definitions only, please) email taarka@taarka.com. We love to hear from you!

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