Eating in Southern India

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A selection of south Indian dishes

South Indian food is quite different from that elsewhere in the country, being mostly rice-based. They also make greater use of pulses. The typical meal is sambhar or koottu (a watery curry) with rice, or avial (mixed vegetables) with rice. There are regional variations too — the coastal regions make greater use of coconut and fish. In the coast, it is common to use grated coconut in everything and use coconut oil for cooking, while someone from the interior could be surprised to learn that coconut oil, can in fact, be used for cooking.

A very incomplete list of typical standalone Southern dishes, all of which are commonly eaten for breakfast:

• idli, a bland steamed cake of lentils and rice
• dosa, a thin, crispy pancake often stuffed with spiced potatoes to make masala dosa
• pongal, a rice dish the consistency of firm porridge
• sevai, rice noodles
• uttapam, fried idli with onions and other vegetables mixed in
• vada, a savoury Indian donut

All of these can be eaten with plain yogurt, and chutney, a condiment that can be made from practically anything. South Indian cuisine is predominantly vegetarian, though Chettinad, Andhra and Kerala cuisines use meat heavily and are a lot more spicier. Coffee (kaapi in Tamil) tends to replace tea in the south.

Lunch on a banana leaf (no rice added yet)

A South Indian speciality is the banana leaf meal, served on, you guessed it, a banana leaf. This consists of steamed rice served with about two to six vegetable dishes like sambhar, dry curry, rasam (a thin, peppery soup), koottu along with curd and buttermilk. For a non-vegetarian meal, curries or dishes cooked with mutton, chicken or fish are included. Meals are often accompanied by crisp appalams. Refills of curry and rice are often free, with men with buckets walking around to serve you more. After a final round of rice and curds or buttermilk or both, a traditional meal is concluded with a small banana and a few betel leaves and nuts. If served on a metal tray instead of a banana leaf, a set meal like this is known as a thali instead.