Food is an integral part of Tamil life and culture. Although largely known for its vegetarian dishes, Tamil cuisine has many non-vegetarian dishes to its credit too. Tamil cuisine pays a lot of importance to the flavours and hence you will find an interesting blend of spices, including curry leaves, tamarind, ginger, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, coconut, etc. Apart from its own regional varieties, Tamil cuisine also includes dishes influenced by Maratha and Keralan cuisine. For example, the sweet kozhukattai made from steamed rice batter is comparable to the modak served to Lord Ganesha in Maharashtra. In Tamil Nadu, it is made during Ganesh Chaturthi.
In the past, meals (called Saapadu) would be typically served on banana leaves. People would sit on the floor to eat. A typical Tamil meal would consist of rice, paruppu (pulses), ghee, sambhar, rasam, kuzhambu (curry/stew), curd, poriyal (vegetables), appalam, and pickles, payasam or any other dessert. Non-vegetarians would add a fish or a meat dish to their meals. Often, buttermilk was also served as an accompaniment. Breakfast mostly consisted of idli, dosa, upma served with chutney.
Being a rice growing state, it is one of the staple ingredients used to prepare a large number of dishes, from breakfast to snacks to sweets. While travelling through Tamil Nadu, do sample the different kinds of paniyaram, also known as kuzhi paniyaram. Usually eaten for breakfast, it is made from a fermented batter of rice and lentils. It takes the name from the special paniyaram pan used to cook the batter. The dumplings, crisp on the outside but soft inside, are found in both sweet and savoury versions.
Depending on the seasonal availability of vegetables, Tamil kitchens use them to prepare poriyal, a kind of dish prepared by frying or sautéing the vegetables. However, the unique flavour of poriyal comes from the blend of spices used to prepare the dish. A little water may be added to the dish to soften the vegetables. The preparation is served with a topping of grated coconut.
Another key element of Tamil cuisine is the kozhambu &ndash a preparation which can be likened to a stew. The essentially tamarind based gravy is used to prepare vegetables, fish or meat dishes. You are also likely to find regional variations, such as use of jaggery in the gravy in areas where sugarcane is cultivated. One of the popular non-vegetarian dish is the karuvadu kozhambu (karuvadu meaning dried fish) popular in the coastal region.
While food connoisseurs are acquainted with Chettinad cuisine of Tamil Nadu, especially the spicy Chettinad chicken, you will be surprised to find that each region in the state has its own specialised cuisine.
Located in the central part of the state, Chettinad was home to wealthy merchants who not only built architecturally rich homes but also relished fine dining. In the past, the vegetables and meat used for cooking were sun-dried. Using freshly ground spices is a hallmark of Chettinad. One of the popular sweets made during Diwali, the ukkarai (also okkarai), is a preparation which originated in Chettinad.
The temple town of Thanjavur, which was once ruled by the Marathas, shows conspicuous influences in its cuisine too. The kola urundai can be compared with the Marathi shunti kebab. The Tamil version is prepared by tying the fish in banana leaves shaped like a ball and then fried. You can also try the mutton kola urundai. Thanjavur is also the place to try traditional Iyer Brahmin food.
Vellore is known for its Mudaliar (community of wealthy farmers) cuisine, which essentially consists of dishes prepared using the locally grown vegetables. Do try the Vazhaipoo Thattai (vada made of banana flower and Bengal gram) if you are in the area.
If you are a non-vegetarian, do try the Dindigul Biryani, where small pieces of meat are added to the special variety of rice used for the dish.
Thakkadi or rice flour dumplings cooked in mutton stew is a representative dish of the Tamil Sahibu or Tamil Muslim cuisine, which is found mostly along the Coromandel Coast.
No discussion on Tamil cuisine can be complete without mentioning the temple food. The naivedyam or food served to the gods not only consist of some amazing dishes but are also records of recipes which are often centuries old. It is said that the recipe for preparing the selvar appam (consisting of rice, unrefined sugar, banana, coconut, cumin, and a dash of pepper) served to the gods in many temples, is more than 800 years old. The popular dish called Puliyodharai, essentially a spicy tamarind rice dish, originated as part of divine temple food. Tamil festivals are also marked by a variety of special dishes, especially sweets. Considered as auspicious, payasam (essentially made of sweetened milk and rice or vermicelli) is an integral part of most festive and social occasions.
It is impossible to talk about Tamil cuisine within the constraints of a few pages. Hence the only way is to plan a leisurely trip which will give a chance to explore the diversity of the state&rsquos cuisine as you travel from one destination to another.