Tamil Nadu provides the visitors with a wide variety of delicacies, both vegetarians as well as non-vegetarians, though most food in Tamil Nadu consists of grains, lentils, rice and vegetables. Spices are added to give a distinctive taste to this cuisine, which uses chili liberally.
STATE
Situated in the southernmost part of India, Tamil Nadu is referred to as the cradle of the Dravidian culture, the ancient Indian culture distinguished for its unique languages, customs and architecture. The cultural icons are everywhere-huge temples with their towering gopurams (gateways), intricate rock carvings, evocative music, classical dances, and, of course, the cuisine.
STAPLES
Tamilians are essentially a rice-eating people and they have preparations made of rice for all the meals of the day. Lentils too are consumed extensively, as accompaniment to the rice preparations. Being on the seacoast means that coconut is also used a lot in Tamil kitchens, as are fish and other seafood.
While tamarind is used for adding that distinctive tang, peppercorns and chili, both green and red, are used to make the food hot. To neutralize the effect of the chili, and soothe the stomach, curd is used in a variety of dishes. Other spices like mustard, cumin, garlic etc. are used for tempering and seasoning.Though several communities in the state are strictly vegetarian, there is a whole range of non-vegetarian dishes-exotic, succulent, and full of fire. Fish and other seafood like crab are also cooked in the traditional Tamil kitchen with spices and traditional seasoning.
Breakfast and the afternoon snack called tiffin include idlis (steamed rice cakes), dosai (a pancake made from a batter of rice) and lentils crisp fried on a pan, vada (deep fried doughnuts made from a batter of lentils), pongal (a mish mash of rice and lentils boiled together and seasoned with ghee, cashew nuts, pepper and cumin seeds), upma (cooked semolina seasoned in oil with mustard, pepper, cumin seeds and dry lentils). There are several variations of the dishes mentioned above which are eaten with coconut chutney, sambhar (seasoned lentil broth) and mulaga podi (a powdered mix of several dried lentils and chili powder eaten with oil).
Lunch and dinner consist of cooked rice served with an array of vegetable dishes, sambhar, chutneys, rasam (a hot broth made with tamarind juice and pepper) and curd (yogurt). For the non-vegetarians, curries cooked with mutton, chicken, or fish are included. And Tamilian meals are incomplete without crisp papads or appalam.
SPECIALITIES
Known for its spicy, hot fare, Chettinad cuisine hails from the deep southern region of Tamil Nadu. Chettinad cuisine is far cry from the bland cuisine of traditional Tamilian Brahmins-it is one of the spiciest, oiliest and most aromatic in India.
Some of the popular dishes in Chettinad menu are varuval -- a dry dish fried with onions and spices (chicken, fish or vegetables sautéed), pepper chicken, poriyal -- a curry, and kuzambu which has the ingredients stewed in a gravy of coconut milk and spices.
In the same range, one can include the numerous pickles, powders, specially roasted and ground spices, dry snacks, papads, appalam and vada. Numerous shops now sell pre-packed snacks like murukkus, small spirals of fried rice dough, chips and other edible 'hand grenades' like thattai, masala vada and so on.
The Tamil variation of Mughlai food can be savored in the biryani and paya. The latter is a kind of spiced trotter broth and is eaten with either parathas or appam.
Tamil Nadu is famous for its filter coffee as most Tamils have a subtle contempt for instant coffee. The making of filter coffee is almost a ritual, for the coffee beans have to be roasted and ground. Then the powder is put into a filter set and boiling hot water is added to prepare the decoction and allowed to set for about 15 minutes. The decoction is then added to milk with sugar to taste. The final drink is poured individually from one container to another in rapid succession to make the ideal frothy cup of filter coffee.
HOW TO EAT WHAT
In Tamil Nadu, food has a ritual purpose that reminds the individual exactly where he or she belongs on the culinary map of community consciousness. This is best seen during those occasions when members of any family or community, get together to celebrate an occasion. The sappad or food that is served on a banana leaf (even the size of the leaf varies from one community to another) is displayed like an identity card. One look and a guest will know the community, the status, the exact wealth of the family, and from which part of Tamil Nadu they originate.
The top half of the leaf is reserved for accessories, the lower half for the rice, and in some communities, the rice will be served only after the guest has been seated. The lower right portion of the leaf may have a scoop of warm sweet, milky rice payasam, which should be lapped up quickly. While the top left includes a pinch of salt, a dash of pickle and a thimbleful of salad, or a smidgen of chutney. In the middle of the leaf there may be an odd number of fried items like small circles of chips, either banana, yam or potato, hard round discs of spiced, ground dal known as vada, thin papads, or frilly wafers, or vada.
The top right hand corner is reserved for the heavy artillery, the curries, hot, sweet, or sour, and the dry items. If it is a vegetarian meal, the vegetables are carefully chosen, between the country ones-gourds, drumsticks, brinjals-and the 'English' ones, which could be carrot, cabbage, and cauliflower. If it is a non-vegetarian meal, in some cases, a separate leaf is provided for the fried meats, chicken, fish, crab, and so on. But again, the variations are presented carefully, one dry one next to a gravied one.
There may be a side attraction such as a puran poli, or sweetened dal stuffed into a pancake, puris, sweet rice or any one of the famed rice preparations such as pulisadam, or bisibela bath particularly if the family comes from Thanjavur, known as the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu.
After having worked through the preliminaries, the long haul starts with the rice, which is generously doused with ghee. Sambhar, the highly spiced dal-based dish containing whatever appropriate vegetable there is in season, follows and this is succeeded by rasam.
After a final round of rice and curds, or buttermilk or both, a traditional meal concludes with a small banana, a few betel leaves and nuts.
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